Screen Pedagogy and the Construction of Gender Identities

                                                   by Shekh Moinuddin

We all watch TV serials at least to some extent or are familiar about its plots from discussions all around us whether at home, with friends or in social media. My question how does this ‘omnipresent’ T.V serials help to construct gender? How does gender make a difference? I particularly look at our children and how they are identifying themselves and zeroing in particular gender roles even in odd situations.  The roles of children’s are highly visible across the TV serials in myriad forms as children are an integral part of the family structure. So it is natural and inevitable that they occupy a centre stage in the family as well as in the storylines of TV serials. Nowadays reality shows are also running parallel programmes based on children and more often than not they inspire our family structures, and the gender roles played within it.  

I look into ten-child actors/actresses who are essaying different roles in various capacities in these TV serials.  These child actors/actresses are extremely popular and figure in TRPs by various media marketing organization. My attempt here is to critically understand how these little child actors/actresses occupy space in our world via the small screen and leave behind a footprint. How do their screen presence shape, reshape and influence our attitudes in understanding gender. The two key qualities that seem to define gender are ‘selfishness’ and ‘dignity’. They have become the mantra through which gender difference is being constructed and gender identity is being fixed.      

1.            Darsheel Safary                                                                 

We all know this figure when he first appeared along with Bollywood actor Amir Khan in the film Tare Zameen Par and thereafter in many films and subsequently in TV serials like Jhalak Dikhla Jaa, Season 5.  He leaves behind an imprint of hidden potentials in us despite the odds and our struggles to achieve it.  

2.            Jannat Zubair Rahmani

She is popularly known among viewers as Phulwa where she is playing a role of a dacoit. She plays with guns and bullets as easily with dolls in order to regain her dignity. She is fighting to retrieve her and her tribe’s lost dignity.

3.            Arish Bhiwandiwala

He plays a magnificent role in ‘Agneepath’ in character of Vijay (Hirtik Roshan). He is shown as the  son of a school teacher, known for being morally upright but circumstances pushes him to learn, unlearn the values his father taught him. He is portrayed on screen as a young teenager who learns to survive in the dark urban jungle and in Mumbai’s underbelly. Yet flashes of kindness and desire for the normal is visible yet well hidden behind the veil of his self-centric life.

4.            Raj Mange

Popular among viewers as Jai Bajrangbali portraying the childhood of little Hanuman who grows into a strong male protagonist, whose power has limits yet more powerful than the rest of the characters. 

5.            Sparsh Khanchandani

She played a number of different roles but is most popular among viewers from the serial Uttaran where she is innocent little Iccha. While she known among viewers by Sweety, Sherya, Talli and, Rashi at various serials where she played so far.

6.            Avinash Mukherjee

He is popular as Jagya in ‘Balika Vadhu’ where he is shown to be a child bridegroom and over a period of time is depicted as selfish, self- centric person.

7.            Saloni Daini

She known as Gangubai (a fictious character she often plays in her acts) and quite popular through the reality show Chotte Miyan and Badee Miyan and was declared its winner. She also appeared in comedy circus Maha-sangram and continued attracting audiences through her acting. Her roles bring out at one level class differences and on the other the rural-urban dichotomy through which she creates a space, a dignified space for the under-privileged.                                    

8.            Dhriti Bhatia

She is known as little Krishna who is naughty and intelligent and how his many acts of playfulness is seen as acts of innocence that is inherent quality of children and their childhoods. The child-like innocence of children in real life is compared to the reel life of Krishna and where innocence is seen as a ‘god-like’ quality.

9.            Avika Gor

She is popular among viewers as Anandi from the serial ‘Balika Vadhu’ where she is playing a stereotypical character and running pillar to post to fight for her dignity and her family’s. She won national awards for giving a new interpretation of gender empowerment.

10.          Bhavya Gandhi

He is known as Tappu from ‘Tarrak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chasmah’ where he is playing as the son of Jethalal and Daya’s. He is quite intelligent and leads other children in the locality for their own selfish benefits. 

The children no matter in what serials, films, reality shows  they may be playing in or the different characters they may be acting in define how gender is constructed and reconstructed. My argument is gender is not about biological sex alone but includes certain ‘qualities’ and how these are contextualised in our social worlds, particularly within our families and produces our social relations. Apart from traditional stereotypes, these child actor/actress poses new socio-psychological traits like ‘selfishness’ and ‘dignity’. A woman, even a female child is often depicted as struggling and fighting for her and her family’s dignity while the man, even a male child is only interested in him’self’ and his selfish needs. In other words, gender differences are constructed through these binaries where man is seen as selfish and outward bound whereas the woman world is centred around her family, home and hearth and its selfless protection.

Author's Bio- Note:

Shekh Moinuddin is pursuing his Ph.D in Media studies from Department of Geography, University of Delhi.