Queer Hindi Cinema: A Study On Understanding Lgbt Identities.
1852 Words8 Pages
Queer Hindi Cinema: A Study on Understanding LGBT Identities Pushpinder Kaur
PhD Research Scholar
Department of Journalism and Mass Communication
Punjabi University, Patiala
Email: pushpinder_21@yahoo.co.in
Abstract
Cinema is undoubtedly the greatest thing to have happened to the queer movement in India. Sexual minority comprises of all those people who fall under the categories of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender. India is one of the many countries where homosexuality is still considered a taboo. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises homosexuality was introduced by the British in colonial India in 1861 and it still stands in the country’s books. Invisibility of statutory laws makes the LGBT community victims of…show more content… Their role in relation to each other is further conditioned by the status they occupy. The basic criterion of defining status and role for any individual in the society has been sex and gender. Hence, LGBT (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgenders) people are forced to lead a secluded life of their own and live in isolation. They never pose any threat to the society but always lead a threatened life on account of the derogatory attitude of the people towards them.
In the given socio-cultural gestalt of Indian society homosexuality is considered as an abnormal activity. With spoiled identity and engagement in the non-normal activities these people are assumed to be a deviant and their activities as deviant behaviour. This ‘exclusion’ has given them different gender roles based on their perceived unusual sexual and gender identity . The politics of ‘exclusion’ has been very well described by Foucault in his ‘The Order of Discourse (1981)’. LGBT people lack the ‘structural support’ which heterosexuals possess. The battle of the LGBT people is a battle against the entire cultural system.
While there are various issues that are becoming the basis of film making in India, the issue of LGBT community has not occupied much space in Hindi Cinema especially in commercial films. The commercial Hindi films have showed LGBT community very often as part of a film to introduce humor content in the films. Films have failed to