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Men in India are attracted to Hindi films partly because of their attraction to depictions of modern lifestyles. Dern^D'e argues that films help men handle their ambivalence about modernity by rooting their sense of Indianness in women's acceptance of traditional food habits, clothing, and gender subordination. The book is one of the first ethnographic studies of filmgoing and one of the first to focus on mainstream male audiences.
Dern^D'e considers the effects of films' eroticization of domination and submission on men's sexuality. The study provides ethnographic support for Mulvey's argument that filmgoing prompts men to make women the object of a controlling look. The book shows how films invent new ideologies of male dominance by associating Indianness with limitations on women's movements, and by portraying men as rational and modern, and women as emotional and traditional. One of the first ethnographic studies of filmgoing and one of the first to focus on mainstream male audiences, the book contributes to a rethinking of some key arguments in media studies. While media studies have rightly focused on how films prompt men to gaze at women, this study shows that films simultaneously encourage men to see themselves as the object of controlling looks. Dern^D'e exposes as one-sided the scholarly emphasis on how Indians value hierarchy and group guidance, asserting that Indian films instead celebrate individualism and love.
List of contents
Introduction
Approaching Modernity: Filmgoers and Filmgoing in Two Cities
Mas=al=a: Filmmakers Create a Crazy Salad with Broad Appeal
Liminal Escape, Sober Return to Reality: Audiences at Play with Hindi Film Reversals
Men Embrace Individualism and Love
Handling Ambivalences About "Western" Ways: Strong Male Bodies, Modest Women, and New Ideologies of Male Privilege
Constructing Sexuality and Male Dominance
Contributions to the Sociology of Audience Reception
Appendices
Bibliography
Index
About the author
STEVE DERNÉ is Associate Professor of Sociology at SUNY-Geneseo. He received the Society for Psychological Anthropology's 1991 Stirling Award for his work linking family structure and self conceptions in India.
