Sunday, July 21, 2013
Fort Kochi&Chinese Fishing Nets
Hey, guys! So, this is the latest video I posted on my youtube channel. I believe I spoke about the channel in a previous post but due to nearly all my technology giving up since coming to India. This video was actually taken with my phone camera so it is not the best quality, but I didn't want to waste good footage and memory so here it is! Enjoy and don't hesitate to comment.
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Silk Smitha & Marilyn Monroe: Two Women, Two Cultures, Two Times, Same Life.
Hey, guys! So, I believe I have said this before on the blog, but through differences people realize their similarities. I think a professor my freshman year in college first said this to me and at the time I really did not know what he meant. Actually, I thought the statement made no sense at all. It was similar to Buddha quotes that leave you mystified but still confused. However, after living in a foreign country for close to two months, I finally get it. At first, I only saw the differences between India and the US. The difference in food, dress, body language, etc, but now that that cloud has passed and my vision is a bit more clear I can see more. I still see the differences but every time I think, "We don't do that in America..." I immediately think, "But we do do that!" (I know "do do" hahaha ) The food here may be different but like in every country food is the center of every gathering. Students hate homework just as much in India as they do in the states. Professors and parents lectures students and we pretend to listen. Everyone complains about the economy just like in the states and of course women are the prime targets for crime (particularly sexual assault in India). This last similarity (which sadly India is known for) drew me to learn about Silk Smitha.
The Indian magazine titled "The Week" had wrote an article about what it takes for a Hindi film to be a success. There is one necessary factor to guarantee a Hindi movie will bring in money: the movie must have a good rape scene. When I read this I was shocked. A rape scene determines the success of a movie? What? My shock eventually led to disgust and then anger. I later spoke to my friends about this topic who (with what I would call shame and embarrassment) admitted that rape scenes are the money maker in any Hindi film. They then told me about Silk Smitha, an Indian actress who was ahead of her time that became type-casted into the role of a sex symbol. She was not afraid of her body nor was she afraid to proudly display its beauty. She was bold and demanded the same respect as male actors, but because of her bold personality and attractiveness it was believed she could only play one role. When Silk Smitha would try to break from her type caste she was immediately put back in her place by the industry. They only wanted to hire her for one type of role.
Silk Smitha came from a humble back ground born in a poor village. However, she was always attractive and thanks to her looks her family had her married early. However, she received abusive treatment under her husband's family and so she ran away to stay with an aunt. This was of course a disappointment to her family. According to my friend, Silk Smitha actually used acting ti help her family financially. The sad thing is that when both she and her career started to fall apart due to several factors (such as the prison of typecaste) they denied her. Apparently, they were ashamed of her having played the sexual roles she played despite the fact that it filled their pockets. Silk Smitha was found dead in her Chennai apartment on September 23, 1996 from poisoning. Her death is believed to have been a suicide.
Marilyn Monroe's beginning was not glamorous. She never knew who her real father was and her mother was mentally unfit to raise her. Through out her life she was moved from foster home to foster home constantly having to bear the burden of sexual advances by the men she was living with. She had no family and there was an attempt to abandon her by one of her foster families. Eventually, she became a model which led into her acting career, but in order to advance she had to go through some plastic surgery and had to lighten her hair, advised by the industry. Soon her career blew up. She was young, attractive and teasingly scandalous. The people loved her, but the industry really loved her in the role of "sexy dumb blonde." A role, in my personal opinion, she grew to hate. Marilyn would try to break from her prison, as well, but found it difficult. As her personal life declined so did her performance in movies and her career. Marilyn Monroe was found dead on August 5th, 1962 in her Brentwood, LA apartment from a drug overdose. Her death was labeled a suicide.
These are just summaries of the two women's lives and I would recommend you all to do some research for more details. However, even looking at these brief summaries the similarities are obvious. They lived in different time periods, came from different cultures but their lives had the same plot as if written by the same author. I personally would have liked the two to meet. I can't say what would happen, but I believe they would talk both about the glamours of "Hollywood" and the loneliness/abandonment they felt. Their success brought them a lot, but also took much away from them, including their lives.
Perhaps, you're having a hard time connecting Silk Smitha to sexual assault like I stated above. So, as far as documentation goes, Silk Smitha was not a crime of sexual assault. Not directly at least, but the industry pressure placed on her could be looked at as a form of sexual assault. That's just my opinion, but of course you all are entitled to your own. :) If anyone has anything they would like to add or a comment/ correcton they would like to make, don't hesitate. The similarities between these two women honestly amazes me. It's actually like they were the same person!
Now I'm not saying I believe in reincarnation (which is impossible in this case since Silk Smitha was born two years before Marilyn Monroe died), but some times I have to wonder if souls get a chance to do it all over again. Playing out the same events, subconsciously hoping that this time they'll get it right. The idea mesmerizes me, but I'll have to go on dreaming another time. Until the next post! :)
The Indian magazine titled "The Week" had wrote an article about what it takes for a Hindi film to be a success. There is one necessary factor to guarantee a Hindi movie will bring in money: the movie must have a good rape scene. When I read this I was shocked. A rape scene determines the success of a movie? What? My shock eventually led to disgust and then anger. I later spoke to my friends about this topic who (with what I would call shame and embarrassment) admitted that rape scenes are the money maker in any Hindi film. They then told me about Silk Smitha, an Indian actress who was ahead of her time that became type-casted into the role of a sex symbol. She was not afraid of her body nor was she afraid to proudly display its beauty. She was bold and demanded the same respect as male actors, but because of her bold personality and attractiveness it was believed she could only play one role. When Silk Smitha would try to break from her type caste she was immediately put back in her place by the industry. They only wanted to hire her for one type of role.
Silk Smitha came from a humble back ground born in a poor village. However, she was always attractive and thanks to her looks her family had her married early. However, she received abusive treatment under her husband's family and so she ran away to stay with an aunt. This was of course a disappointment to her family. According to my friend, Silk Smitha actually used acting ti help her family financially. The sad thing is that when both she and her career started to fall apart due to several factors (such as the prison of typecaste) they denied her. Apparently, they were ashamed of her having played the sexual roles she played despite the fact that it filled their pockets. Silk Smitha was found dead in her Chennai apartment on September 23, 1996 from poisoning. Her death is believed to have been a suicide.
Marilyn Monroe's beginning was not glamorous. She never knew who her real father was and her mother was mentally unfit to raise her. Through out her life she was moved from foster home to foster home constantly having to bear the burden of sexual advances by the men she was living with. She had no family and there was an attempt to abandon her by one of her foster families. Eventually, she became a model which led into her acting career, but in order to advance she had to go through some plastic surgery and had to lighten her hair, advised by the industry. Soon her career blew up. She was young, attractive and teasingly scandalous. The people loved her, but the industry really loved her in the role of "sexy dumb blonde." A role, in my personal opinion, she grew to hate. Marilyn would try to break from her prison, as well, but found it difficult. As her personal life declined so did her performance in movies and her career. Marilyn Monroe was found dead on August 5th, 1962 in her Brentwood, LA apartment from a drug overdose. Her death was labeled a suicide.
These are just summaries of the two women's lives and I would recommend you all to do some research for more details. However, even looking at these brief summaries the similarities are obvious. They lived in different time periods, came from different cultures but their lives had the same plot as if written by the same author. I personally would have liked the two to meet. I can't say what would happen, but I believe they would talk both about the glamours of "Hollywood" and the loneliness/abandonment they felt. Their success brought them a lot, but also took much away from them, including their lives.
Perhaps, you're having a hard time connecting Silk Smitha to sexual assault like I stated above. So, as far as documentation goes, Silk Smitha was not a crime of sexual assault. Not directly at least, but the industry pressure placed on her could be looked at as a form of sexual assault. That's just my opinion, but of course you all are entitled to your own. :) If anyone has anything they would like to add or a comment/ correcton they would like to make, don't hesitate. The similarities between these two women honestly amazes me. It's actually like they were the same person!
Now I'm not saying I believe in reincarnation (which is impossible in this case since Silk Smitha was born two years before Marilyn Monroe died), but some times I have to wonder if souls get a chance to do it all over again. Playing out the same events, subconsciously hoping that this time they'll get it right. The idea mesmerizes me, but I'll have to go on dreaming another time. Until the next post! :)
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Behind the Laughs: Indian Media Tells It All
Hey, everyone! So, first let me update you on the whole youtube thing. I'm sure I mentioned it in my last blog. Basically, I don't know when I will be able to make another video. Since coming to India my electronics have gradually failed me and now both my cameras are down. "We have the technology." No, we don't. I'll try to figure a way around this but I don't know if I'll be able to keep the channel running sadly. :( However, I have several juicy issues that I would like to talk about in this post so get ready!
First, let go directly to the title. One thing I noticed about India was all the movie advertisements plastered on buildings, walls, lamp poles, etc. Several move advertisements depicted a man with his hand raised to a female. Sometimes there would be a child in between the two adults. When I questioned my friend about this she, to my surprise, laughed. "It's a comedy," she said. "Very funny." However, to me there is nothing funny about a man beating a woman. The fact is media is a part of every culture and a reflection of said culture. It's common knowledge that women in India are not on the same level as their men. So, could this movie be an example of this knowledge? Also, by showing such acts in a movie, could Indian media be, perhaps unknowingly, further imprisoning women in their society to be victims? Could young men watch this movie and think, "This is how I should treat women."? My answer to these questions is a strong yes, but before I can be a judge, I have to first look at my own culture. The wheels in my mind began to turn...
I thought about movies I had seen in the past and movies that were being advertised now in the US. Honestly, I couldn't think of many movies where a woman's pain or possibility of pain was a comedy. However, one movie series did come to mind. Ever heard of Tyler Perry? I'm sure you have. His movies feature aspects of the stereotypical African American lifestyle that bring laughter ( and sometimes tears) . Now in all his movies that I have seen a woman getting beat on is never portrayed as funny. Actually, many times at the end of the movie, this woman comes back stronger than ever. The reason his movie came to mind was because there is still domestic/family violence that is portrayed in a comedic fashion. Countless times the main character, Madea", is ready to break her foot off in someone's ass (remember she is a master of the martial art " whoop that ass"). She doesn't discriminate in choosing her victims; from her own brother to orphan children to married men who have done wrong. However, why did I consider this funny and the Indian advertisement not so much? Could it be simply because India has a bad reputation for the treatment of women and so I am assuming that their movies must encourage this treatment? (to an extent probably yes)
As I thought about this, what I kept telling myself was that there was a difference. Typler Perry was trying to be funny. It's a joke when I tell my family members I'm going to beat their tails and they say the same back to me. I knew this because it is what I am accustomed and I have actually seen the Tyler Perry movies. I haven't seen the India movies so, therefore, can I be so quick to judge? Perhaps, if I watched the movie I would see that the man was only joking with woman. That it was all playful fun and not some sadistic (is that too strong a word?) film. I didn't even give the film a chance. I judged it by its' cover and not by its content. That was wrong of me. However, the role of women in India is still significantly different than in America. Perhaps, I was wrong about this movie, but in terms of the reality of women in this society, I am confident in my belief.
Wow, this post is getting longer than u thought, On to the next topic! I believe I mentioned this in a previous post. Here, like in China, the ideal of beauty is light skin. You would like to think that educated people wouldn't fall pray to this ignorant belief but yes, even my best friend( who initially tried to deny this part of her culture) admitted to me that she doesn't want to get any darker. The thing is she's already dark, darker than me even( not that I put value on something so shallow). As I walk around India I see women holding umbrellas trying to escape the sun rays, all in the hope that their skin will lighten. They even sell the skin lightner here like they do in China. This saddens me. It seems like every country ( especially Asian countries) has this obsession with light skin, people with darker skin being seen as less and unattractive. With such mentality how does a black woman or man ever find a date? I don't know the answer to that question. My best guess would be that some people can look beyond society's idea of beauty. Thank goodness for those people.
My best friend is smart, beautiful, funny, honest caring and yet just because she's not as "light as milk" some how she isn't at the top with other girls who are lighter than her. I don't get it. I really don't. I remember a few months ago I was doing research on this topic. Like a fool I thought, "Perhaps, in Africa, the mind set will be different. Most people there have brown or darker skin, surely they have not fallen subject to this idiotic sign of beauty." Why am I always so hopeful? Skin lightening cream is sold in Africa as well. There too people want to be light skin. So, much for the Motherland, huh?
If you ask me I blame it on European colonization. Societies were built where the light skin people (Europeans) were on top and everyone else (the colored people) were in the gutter. What hurt even worst was when I tried to explain this to my best friend. To soothe her insecurities she simply said, "You know Indian women are much more attractive than American women. The only thing American women have is light skin and nothing else. And the Chinese are not attractive Here in India we don't like the facial structure." She forgot the fact that I am an American woman. Here people associate America with only white people. She also was blatantly racist. China and India have had issues for years which is the only reason I could think for her to make such a comment. When will people realize that putting down another will not make you feel better and that beauty transcends beyond things such as skin and race. I hope this revelation comes soon but I am a hopeful fool.
Sorry if it was too long guys! Please don't hesitate to comment or give feedback. If there are any grammatical errors please, I apologize in advance. Until next time!
First, let go directly to the title. One thing I noticed about India was all the movie advertisements plastered on buildings, walls, lamp poles, etc. Several move advertisements depicted a man with his hand raised to a female. Sometimes there would be a child in between the two adults. When I questioned my friend about this she, to my surprise, laughed. "It's a comedy," she said. "Very funny." However, to me there is nothing funny about a man beating a woman. The fact is media is a part of every culture and a reflection of said culture. It's common knowledge that women in India are not on the same level as their men. So, could this movie be an example of this knowledge? Also, by showing such acts in a movie, could Indian media be, perhaps unknowingly, further imprisoning women in their society to be victims? Could young men watch this movie and think, "This is how I should treat women."? My answer to these questions is a strong yes, but before I can be a judge, I have to first look at my own culture. The wheels in my mind began to turn...
I thought about movies I had seen in the past and movies that were being advertised now in the US. Honestly, I couldn't think of many movies where a woman's pain or possibility of pain was a comedy. However, one movie series did come to mind. Ever heard of Tyler Perry? I'm sure you have. His movies feature aspects of the stereotypical African American lifestyle that bring laughter ( and sometimes tears) . Now in all his movies that I have seen a woman getting beat on is never portrayed as funny. Actually, many times at the end of the movie, this woman comes back stronger than ever. The reason his movie came to mind was because there is still domestic/family violence that is portrayed in a comedic fashion. Countless times the main character, Madea", is ready to break her foot off in someone's ass (remember she is a master of the martial art " whoop that ass"). She doesn't discriminate in choosing her victims; from her own brother to orphan children to married men who have done wrong. However, why did I consider this funny and the Indian advertisement not so much? Could it be simply because India has a bad reputation for the treatment of women and so I am assuming that their movies must encourage this treatment? (to an extent probably yes)
As I thought about this, what I kept telling myself was that there was a difference. Typler Perry was trying to be funny. It's a joke when I tell my family members I'm going to beat their tails and they say the same back to me. I knew this because it is what I am accustomed and I have actually seen the Tyler Perry movies. I haven't seen the India movies so, therefore, can I be so quick to judge? Perhaps, if I watched the movie I would see that the man was only joking with woman. That it was all playful fun and not some sadistic (is that too strong a word?) film. I didn't even give the film a chance. I judged it by its' cover and not by its content. That was wrong of me. However, the role of women in India is still significantly different than in America. Perhaps, I was wrong about this movie, but in terms of the reality of women in this society, I am confident in my belief.
Wow, this post is getting longer than u thought, On to the next topic! I believe I mentioned this in a previous post. Here, like in China, the ideal of beauty is light skin. You would like to think that educated people wouldn't fall pray to this ignorant belief but yes, even my best friend( who initially tried to deny this part of her culture) admitted to me that she doesn't want to get any darker. The thing is she's already dark, darker than me even( not that I put value on something so shallow). As I walk around India I see women holding umbrellas trying to escape the sun rays, all in the hope that their skin will lighten. They even sell the skin lightner here like they do in China. This saddens me. It seems like every country ( especially Asian countries) has this obsession with light skin, people with darker skin being seen as less and unattractive. With such mentality how does a black woman or man ever find a date? I don't know the answer to that question. My best guess would be that some people can look beyond society's idea of beauty. Thank goodness for those people.
My best friend is smart, beautiful, funny, honest caring and yet just because she's not as "light as milk" some how she isn't at the top with other girls who are lighter than her. I don't get it. I really don't. I remember a few months ago I was doing research on this topic. Like a fool I thought, "Perhaps, in Africa, the mind set will be different. Most people there have brown or darker skin, surely they have not fallen subject to this idiotic sign of beauty." Why am I always so hopeful? Skin lightening cream is sold in Africa as well. There too people want to be light skin. So, much for the Motherland, huh?
If you ask me I blame it on European colonization. Societies were built where the light skin people (Europeans) were on top and everyone else (the colored people) were in the gutter. What hurt even worst was when I tried to explain this to my best friend. To soothe her insecurities she simply said, "You know Indian women are much more attractive than American women. The only thing American women have is light skin and nothing else. And the Chinese are not attractive Here in India we don't like the facial structure." She forgot the fact that I am an American woman. Here people associate America with only white people. She also was blatantly racist. China and India have had issues for years which is the only reason I could think for her to make such a comment. When will people realize that putting down another will not make you feel better and that beauty transcends beyond things such as skin and race. I hope this revelation comes soon but I am a hopeful fool.
Sorry if it was too long guys! Please don't hesitate to comment or give feedback. If there are any grammatical errors please, I apologize in advance. Until next time!
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