Fetishisation and Stereotyping of Lesbians in the movie “Girlfriend”
Stereotypes are a set of socially constructed beliefs and assumptions surrounding a particular group of people. Stereotypes are mostly negative and offensive and it generalizes social groups which form prejudices and it always leads to inequality, unfairness, and discrimination.
In a society where heterosexuality is deemed normal, the LGBTQ+ community becomes a victim of various stereotypes attached to them. Lesbians are not only burdened because of their sexuality but because of their gender as well and are at higher risk of being assaulted, and harassed. Media and popular culture plays a great deal in perpetuating such negative stereotypes thus inducing the idea that every lesbian is similar in nature. These stereotypes harm lesbians in real life in various aspects because an average person fails to differentiate fiction from reality. Lesbians are set apart from heterosexual women based on the assumptions of wearing androgynous and mannish outfits, having a career, having hairy bodies and underarms, having aggressive natures, having short hairstyles, and other ‘mannish characteristics’. Since they do not conform to the socially constructed roles of the female gender lesbians are deemed abnormal and are at risk of
facing harm.
Image Source : HERblog
This article will talk about the movie “Girlfriend” released in 2004 which has depicted every type of negative and regressive connotation related to lesbians. Girlfriend (2004), directed and written by Karan Razdan, is a story of two friends Tanya (Isha Koppikar) and Sapna (Amrita Arora). Everything goes well between the two friends until Sapna meets Rahul Chaudhary (Ashish Chaudhary) and the two start dating.
Image: Poster of the movie “Girlfriend” showing how the visuals are made to fetishize and sexualize lesbians. Image Source: Bollywood Film Trailer, Review, Song
“Girlfriend” is a highly criticized movie within the LGBTQ+ community for portraying Tanya, as a lesbian with every existing negative stereotype. The characters Tanya and Sapna have been depicted through the lens of the dichotomy of sexuality. Sapna is portrayed as a feminine, soft, vulnerable woman while Tanya is aggressive, rough, and mannish and even goes as far as resorting to violence and trying to murder Rahul, Sapna’s boyfriend. It is the portrayal of the typical model of ‘butch femme’ lesbians. In such a model, society perceives one woman as mannish aka the ‘man’ in the relationship while the other woman performs as the ‘woman’ conforming to the model of the heterosexual relationship of man and woman. Several scenes from Girlfriend are typically made for the satisfaction of the male gaze, highly sexualizing both the women. Girlfriend is an example of a negative media representation of lesbians which can further antagonize society towards the LGBTQ+ community.
“Lesbians Seduce Heterosexual Women”
In the movie ‘Girlfriend’, one of the scenes shows Tanya developing the idea that Sapna is physically attracted to her by saying “ Sapna always stares at me like that at home especially when I am wearing a swimsuit”. This was to induce the idea to Sapna’s boyfriend, Rahul to make him believe that Sapna liked Tanya more than friends and was sexually attracted to her. Tanya’s motive might have been out of jealousy of wanting Sapna all to herself but the message it sent is very dangerous.
Young women are generally repulsed by the idea of male seduction and when the media portrays such ideas through lesbians it initiates a fear and generalization of lesbians as well. Since assertiveness is generally considered a male trait and patriarchal society does not deem it appropriate for women to show the same regardless of their sexualities. Since lesbians are not attracted to men and do not conform to the typical roles society has set up for women, lesbians are seen as the ‘other’. Society is habituated to only male and female sexuality so when a woman starts showing assertiveness in sexuality which is typically shown by males; society starts assuming the woman is representing the male sexuality. This causes harm to lesbians because anything deviant from the normal is deemed unnatural to the society and the need to abolish it becomes important.
“Lesbians just want to imitate Men”
The notion that women who basically have short hairstyles, wear masculine dresses, and have masculine behaviorism are identified as lesbians is typically another harmful stereotype that affects not only lesbians but any women. The stereotype is based on the fact that lesbians are more likely to have masculine traits thus disregarding lesbians who are feminine. Either way to consider dress and mannerisms and dressing style basis for someone’s sexuality is harmful. This equation generally comes from the majority of lesbians having a likeness for male attire and interests like sports, independence, and career which are characteristics allocated to males. All these contribute to the idea that lesbians want to be men thus disregarding their self-identity and feminine lesbians having to hear “you are too pretty and girly to be a lesbian”.
Image: Tanya’s makeover in the last part of the movie is a last attempt to win Sapna’s heart. Source: BBC Home
At the end of the movie Girlfriend, Tanya cuts her hair short and starts dressing up as a ‘man’ deviating from the way she usually dresses throughout the movie. It was one of her last desperate attempts to win Sapna. Her approach was based on the idea that if she starts dressing up and behaving like a man maybe Sapna would give in and start liking her because Sapna was dating a man at that moment. Rahul even mocks Tanya calling her Sapna’s “male friend” and “husband”.
Such notions do a great damage to lesbians overall because it puts lesbians in a higher chance of being physically assaulted and also erase the existence and visibility of lesbians who are feminine and do not necessarily contribute to the stereotype.
“You have just not found the right Man yet”
The most common statement a lesbian gets to hear when they show their dislike for men is that some man must have broken their heart or they probably had some horrible experience with men. Such statements disregard not only a woman’s trauma but also enforce the idea that a woman not liking a man romantically is unnatural. Lesbians are major victims of corrective rape where they are forcefully made to have intercourse with men because lesbianism is seen as a disease and therefore having sex with a man is seen as the appropriate way of curing it. It is triggering, inhumane and highly traumatizing and shows the ability of society to attempt the most barbaric of ways because of their inability to accept a person’s sexuality. This fear has made many lesbians stay in the closet forever and have panic attacks even at the thought of coming out to the society and closed ones.
In the movie, it is shown that when Tanya, Sapna, and Rahul go to the beach for vacation, Rahul tries setting up Tanya with one of his friends. This induces the stereotypical idea that if a lesbian meets a man who desires her sexually her lesbianism would be cured. Rahul did the setup with the expectation that Tanya would finally get away from Sapna if she spent time with his friend who is a male.
Image: Snap from the movie “Girlfriend” as an obvious example of a media made exclusively to satisfy the male gaze. Source: Indiancelebblog
Girlfriend is an overly sexualized movie and several studies have indicated that sexualized images of women lead to women being taken as objects of pleasure thereby leading to dehumanization. Films like Girlfriend, which are trying to show lesbian characters with two women involved at one time, lead to the dehumanization of lesbians more. Such presentation of lesbians in popular media through the lens of hypersexualization leads to a greater risk of dehumanization and, to an extent, severe negative mental health effects.
Sources:
https://globalnews.ca/news/8888474/labelling-lesbian-stereotypes-harm-help-community/ Lesbian stereotypes: Health Care for Women International: Vol 13, No 2 (tandfonline.com)
https://www.metroweekly.com/2015/06/indian-families-are-using-corrective-rape-to-cure-gay-chil dren/
Image Sources:
https://indiancelebblog.com/isha-kopikar-amrita-arora-bollywood-hot-lesbian-scenes-girlfriend/ https://globalfreeonlineads.com/ The views expressed are personal*
