Vogue has started a campaign VogueEmpower aimed at changing the life of women by highlighting the issues they face. The campaign has enough known faces and voices to give it a boost.
I appreciate the idea, the concept and am grateful for the efforts the Vogue team is putting in to push the case of an empowered woman.
Here is what I don’t understand… I watched a couple of videos, embedded below, and both of them made me wonder if the message they are trying to put across is being lost in its presentation.
The first video: Going Home by Vikas Bahl feat. Alia Bhatt
My issues with this video:
It is NOT IMPOSSIBLE in the real world. What is shown in the video may not be the rule but it is not the exception either. While raising awareness, stop painting all men with the same dirty brush.
The expressions of the men in the video. If they are going to help her, why on earth do they have those leering expressions. They all appear to be lecherous. I understand that the makers probably wanted to build up the ‘What’s gonna happen to the poor girl’ angle. But, honestly… those expressions on the men’s faces undermined the final message.
This world is not non-existent… but we women would ALWAYS want to be sure.
The second video: Start With The Boys / Boys Don’t Cry by Vinil Mathew starring Madhuri Dixit
Ok… what does this film really convey? It did not make any sense to me.
Yes, boys are taught to not cry, to hide their emotions. That is definitely not the cause for domestic violence. The whole film is vague. Cute kids though.
Is the husband / boyfriend being violent because he was told not to cry? Him being stopped from crying or letting out his emotions because he is a boy is not why he aims violence at the opposite sex. In fact, in a lot of cases of domestic violence, it is just directed at the spouse and not at all woman. Misogyny and domestic violence might overlap, but the latter is not a subset of the former.
By all means teach the boys not to be violent, not to hurt others… girls or boys. Teach them the right way. This is just confusing.