a step to crush?
First they ban dancebars in Maharashtra. They they ban them in Mumbai because such a bias from a legal perspective isn't allowed. And the reasons for doing are vague.
Protect the youth (as if!) from corrupt influence, or on a higher moralist plane of women being exploited.
An interesting observation is this. While the same state that seems to produce sleaze in unending quantities doesn't seem to have an issue with Bollywood's skinfest, it has issues with dance bars.
Let's face it. The dance bars' girls are probably doing the same job as actors in cinema. Except there is no camera rolling, and no Simi Garewal to interview them to know about their innermost feelings while they were sipping Coconut water after the shoot.
So is the next logical step of this to ban music videos and item numbers? And perhaps ban all Discotheques and Dance Clubs. (Only Lounge Clubs please, the Mumbaikers have two left feet!?) This is not the same as censorship incidentally. That would be if the government set some standards for the work that these women do.
This is a typical aerial view isn't it. Entertainment for one class, is moral debasement for another.
The issue is that such a step doesn't hurt barowners as much as it hurts bardancers. I know bar dancers are exploited. During my fieldwork with Saathi, an organisation that works with runaway girls in Bombay, we used to come across girls who found it a safer option to dance in a bar, as opposed to be completely at the mercy of pimps.
What this move does is.. not close down dance bars, but remove the *Dance* element, hence the barowners will run their bars and make sure the cheap whisky flows, and leaving the women, suddenly out of their jobs, and loosing their livelihood literally jobless and on the streets.
The idea is to understand that these women do get exploited, and think of a rehablitaiton plan for these women where they are provided alternate sources of income and livelihood, and where their safety in the city is not compromised. Not ban, but understand that there are fundamental flaws in our system that force women, especially those who are not educated to turn to jobs that do not offer much dignity in return. That people from a lower socio-economic class do not need moral policing, any more than the upper or middle. And that the middle class are not keepers of morality.
Because if these women lose their jobs overnight, they can only turn to selling their bodies to make sure they and their families eat. Because you really can't join a BPO if you cannot speak in English. And no, jobs are not that easily available.
But do you really see anyone protesting?
One Pakistani actress kisses some vague actor, and there is a press bitchfest, and this ... absolutely nothing.
Protect the youth (as if!) from corrupt influence, or on a higher moralist plane of women being exploited.
An interesting observation is this. While the same state that seems to produce sleaze in unending quantities doesn't seem to have an issue with Bollywood's skinfest, it has issues with dance bars.
Let's face it. The dance bars' girls are probably doing the same job as actors in cinema. Except there is no camera rolling, and no Simi Garewal to interview them to know about their innermost feelings while they were sipping Coconut water after the shoot.
So is the next logical step of this to ban music videos and item numbers? And perhaps ban all Discotheques and Dance Clubs. (Only Lounge Clubs please, the Mumbaikers have two left feet!?) This is not the same as censorship incidentally. That would be if the government set some standards for the work that these women do.
This is a typical aerial view isn't it. Entertainment for one class, is moral debasement for another.
The issue is that such a step doesn't hurt barowners as much as it hurts bardancers. I know bar dancers are exploited. During my fieldwork with Saathi, an organisation that works with runaway girls in Bombay, we used to come across girls who found it a safer option to dance in a bar, as opposed to be completely at the mercy of pimps.
What this move does is.. not close down dance bars, but remove the *Dance* element, hence the barowners will run their bars and make sure the cheap whisky flows, and leaving the women, suddenly out of their jobs, and loosing their livelihood literally jobless and on the streets.
The idea is to understand that these women do get exploited, and think of a rehablitaiton plan for these women where they are provided alternate sources of income and livelihood, and where their safety in the city is not compromised. Not ban, but understand that there are fundamental flaws in our system that force women, especially those who are not educated to turn to jobs that do not offer much dignity in return. That people from a lower socio-economic class do not need moral policing, any more than the upper or middle. And that the middle class are not keepers of morality.
Because if these women lose their jobs overnight, they can only turn to selling their bodies to make sure they and their families eat. Because you really can't join a BPO if you cannot speak in English. And no, jobs are not that easily available.
But do you really see anyone protesting?
One Pakistani actress kisses some vague actor, and there is a press bitchfest, and this ... absolutely nothing.
posted by neha vish at 13:42
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
This post is linked here:
Create a Link
<< Home