It has been ages since I watched an Indian Drama, if and ever I get some time, I watch the old DD Serials like Dekh Bhai Dekh or earlier serials, which were telecast on star one.
The first Korean Series that I saw was Legend of the Blue Sea and then from that day onwards, there was no turning back. One after the other, I would only watch K Dramas, and slowly I extended watching other Asian Dramas.
One of the best features that I liked in those dramas, was the way the lead female characters were portrayed. In almost the majority of the dramas, the lead characters are independent working professionals, who go to work and have problems at work, depending on their respective fields of work. The effect of their work challenges on their relationships, living away from their parents and taking responsibility of both their house and their career along with their family.
In some dramas like True Beauty or My Id is Gangnam Beauty, they have openly spoken about bullying due to looks. These two dramas basically deal with teenage romance and are quite popular amongst teenagers and talking about such a sensitive topic helps a lot. In both the dramas, the female leads have changed their appearances due to constant fear of bullying either with the help of makeup or with the help of plastic surgery.
Dramas such as 1 % of Something, Love is Sweet, Her Private Life, have nice sweet girls as the lead characters, but even they are determined not to give up their career even after they meet their Mr. Perfect. I like, how the girls are honest and committed towards their careers and are not willing to give up the same, just because they have met their Mr. Right. They openly speak about the same.
Watching such characters on screen helps us feel so relatable. The challenges, faced by them whether it is bullying at the workplace or working late at night despite being a single mother while taking care of her son. This has been beautifully explained in the series The Love You Give Me. The way the women are portrayed are strong independent women, who have their own careers
Unfortunately, if we show strong women in Indian television or on social media, they are often called names. Even despite having a progressive society, we are very reluctant to portray them on our media handles. We barely represent women the way they need to be represented. We are publicly forced for being bold, for having choices, for taking the support of our family members or outsiders.
It is high time, that we normalize, showing the real life and day-to-day challenges faced by women and stop representing them as someone who is only responsible for the smooth functioning of the house. It is high time that we stop pleasing only certain sets of audiences, and normalize the challenges faced by working women.
Yes, we do watch dramas only for our entertainment but still, it would be great to see, women, wherein who are not made fun of for our physical features like in the Kapil Sharma Show, or we are shown in a very regressive manner like in our K dramas or sexualized like in Bollywood movies.
Women can have dreams and have to make some commitment towards their dreams, but that does not mean that they are selfish women. Having dreams is not a crime but stealing someone’s dreams in the name of tradition and family is a crime. A better representation of women in media will help us having a better society.
Do let me know your thoughts on the same.