Suchergebnisse

Apart from offering a platform to express opinions, social networking sites also enable people to maintain anonymity and express hatred. Women, particularly strong and opinionated ones, often fall prey to such revulsion. This investigation explores why and how women's self-expression is curtailed in the virtual domain. To answer this question, thematic analysis has been carried out of Facebook comments and messages received by an Indian woman over a period of two years. Findings indicate that men responding to women's online self-expression can fall into any of three emergent categories: self-proclaimed well-wishers, admirers turned abusers and the toxically masculine. While the first group silences women discreetly and typically by moral policing or invading women's personal space, the latter two groups do so more blatantly. However, the three groups share a common patriarchal bias, believing that self-expression is a masculine privilege and women who try to democratise this privilege are cultural deviants.

Music is a core constituent of human civilization which reflects the socio-cultural configuration of a society at a given point of time. With proven effects of music on mental and physical health, researchers have now started studying it as a therapeutic technique. While listening to songs can cure stress and many other psychological infirmities, inappropriate lyrical content can impact listeners' attitudes and behaviors negatively. Studies have so far focused on the content structure and implicit elements of lyrics while the probable individual and societal consequences of the same remain less explored and understood. Guided by this objective, the present study is an attempt to explore how sexist lyrics can be instrumental in propagating regressive patriarchal values and sexism. The investigation involves Thematic Analysis of nine Bollywood songs, with explicitly sexist lyrics, chosen through purposive sampling technique. Results reveal that sexist lyrics may be contributory in increasing audience's tolerance for sexism by creating a power imbalance between the two sexes, normalizing objectification, misogyny and stalking and fostering gender stereotypes. Implications of the study are duly discussed.