User:AdharSherchan/sandbox

Damsel in Distress
Damsel in distress serves as a character in trouble who needs the assistance of a male character to get over her problems. In the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, after being fatally poisoned by her step mother, Snow White’s seven dwarf friends mourn her death, “until a handsome prince restores her to life with a kiss.” Many of Disney’s fairy tale movies, portray the princesses as damsels in distress, whilst enhancing their male protagonists’ masculinity, as they rescue these princesses. They are further cleaved to the stereotype of only yearning to find their true love. Similarly with the story of “The Sleeping Beauty” where a beautiful princess cursed to sleep, can only be woken up by her true love’s kiss. Even though the story gets its name from the princess, she is helpless and needs a “sword-wielding prince, bursting with testosterone, who chops his way through the forest” to kiss and wake her up from her sleep.

The Item Girl
Mostly popular in Bollywood cinema, the Item girl is “the sexist representation of women subjected to the male gaze.” The 1970’s introduced Item numbers to Bollywood, which is still prevalent today. Actresses who dance to item numbers usually make guest appearances, and aren’t crucial to the story. An item girl dances her way “trying to get through the main lead’s heart with their piercing eyes and body movements, trying to hypnotize everyone watching them.”


 * 1) Actress Helen’s unforgettable dance to ‘Mehbooba’ and ‘Ae Mera Dil’ in ‘Sholay’, one of the most iconic, action-packed, male centric movies of the 70’s, can be taken as a timestamp of when Bollywood embraced the item number. Her remarkable presence in the movie as the sexy and seductive item girl was praised and is something that Bollywood still hasn’t forgotten.
 * 2) Actress Malaika Arora rose to fame with her memorable performance in Chaiyya Chaiyya in 1998, Anarkali Disco Chali in 2012, and her iconic performance in Munni Badnam in 2010.
 * 3) Actress Mallika Sherawat in Jalebi Bai in 2011 was considered an iconic sex symbol in Bollywood. The song was later sampled by rapper Tesher in his hit track Jalebi Baby.
 * 4) Nora Fatehi is the recent face for the Bollywood Item Numbers, appearing in almost every Bollywood movie as the item girl. She is the hottest and most in-demand actress at the moment. Some of her most popular item numbers include, Dilbar in 2018, O Saki Saki in 2019, Garmi in 2020, Kusu Kusu in 2021.

These women are looked at as desirable, dancing among a crowd of men at a party, while the male protagonists, antagonists lusts over and dances with them. While the item numbers are for entertainment purposes as the songs or the dances serve no purpose to the story or plot, they sometimes serve as plot drivers. The item numbers is set as a distraction to the audience and the male antagonist, to take their attention away from the plot and focus it on the women dancing. In the song “Aao Raja '' in Gabbar is back with Akshay Kumar and Chitrangada Singh, the item number helps enable the protagonist to continue their plot and seek revenge against the lustfully distracted antagonist.

The representation of an item girl reiterates the cultural image of women as ornamental objects whose principal role is to look good and please men and the male gaze.

Women leads as secondary characters
Bollywood has made many women empowerment movies that fail to portray strong female characters as the main leads and protagonists, and instead provide a male protagonist with a motivation to resolve and fix the issues, when he sees the female characters struggle with such issues. Many of Bollywood's 'feminist' or 'women empowerment' movies assert the Male Savior trope, pushing females to serve as secondary characters, in movies addressing 'their' issues.


 * 1) The 2007 movie, “Chak De India” features a bickering women’s hockey team, that is led by coach Shah Rukh Khan, to rebuild their chemistry and win the World Championship. Something they weren’t capable of until his entry.
 * 2) The 2018 movie “Padman” with Akshay Kumar is about a man who takes it upon himself to build a machine to create low cost sanitary pads, and distribute it among poor and underprivileged women throughout India at low prices. This movie addresses period poverty, and the high prices of female sanitary products. The male protagonist's motivation is his wife, who refuses to buy the expensive pads, and instead wears unsanitary clothes during her menstrual cycle. In many bollywood movies, women’s issues serve as plot points for male characters to be built around.

The Devoted Wife
The “devoted wife” is the trope where a wife is dedicated to her husband, ignoring his poor behavior, absence and infidelity. She stays in the marriage with her cheating and rebellious husband, as her loyalty serves as a redemption arc for the male protagonist. This is a trope that is mostly popular among Bollywood movies, affirming to the societal expectation that divorce is unacceptable as “family is above the individual” and that women must be accepting of their husbands, even in their worst flaws and continue to stay in oppressive marriages.

In the 1997, Raja Ki Aayegi Baarat, a woman is forced to marry her rapist, and the abuse continues on after the marriage. She serves as the devoted wife, turning a blind eye to her husband's abuse, while raising a voice against abuse by her husband's family. This movie portrays this trope the best, reinforcing the negative narrative on divorce.