Most progressive nations in the world are embracing DEI, specifically gender diversity. Despite being the home to most diverse cultures coexisting happily since centuries, India is not just lagging, but is far from acceptance of non-binary genders. A large part of Indian society is still trying to come to terms with equality among men and women.
Fortunately or unfortunately, movies have played a significant role in shaping and influencing the social norms for majority of Indians. Thanks to the hypocrisy, expression of love is forbidden whereas hatred sells like hot cakes through most Indian movies, be it Bollywood or any other regional film industries. I came across a classic example of this last week while crossing a movie hall. Here's the capture I could manage -
Interestingly, the movie revolves around a love relationship between a straight man and a trans-woman. The writer and director will surely do a facepalm if they see this 'cultural' censor on the poster. This would seem like a kiss between two straight individuals to anyone who does not know the premise of the movie. Very few Indian movies have handled the topic of diversity in the right spirit. Most of the lot have used non-binary characters to add comic element to the story-line, which is sheer disappointing. This is a reflection of how much ground we, as a country and as a culture, have to cover on the DEI front. On the contrary, violent posters are prevalent and accepted with open arms. Here's a glimpse -
Indian society and culture have been resilient and aggressor since ages in moving away from a lot of orthodox traditions and towards a more progressive lifestyle. We can be hopeful that we make progress on adapting to DEI soon. But at this point, we are lagging most of the world, and hence, we need to start a conversation around these in our social circles. We have a long road to cover from denial to acceptance on this front to be true to our ethos of vasudhaiva kutumbakam.
Very nice,,
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