Is Bollywood glorifying toxicity? - Page 6

Originally posted by: naaznin

To an extent yes movies, books n shows do show men as toxic but show them as deeply loving the female lead.

Toxic masculinity is appealing to watch until its not directed towards oneself. Similar case with gun culture.

Girls too like watching that she can tame a man in her love. Though all these r true just in fiction. Also it adds drama n twists to story which is necessary to make ppl watch.

In Pakistani show "Zindagi Gulzar hai " the girl chose Zaroon who was a flirt, patriarchal n toxic n not osama who was a really sweet n better person.

Because there would be no drama if male lead r sweetu types.

Men r quite emotionally paralysed which is a reason for major problems of world- war, riots, rape, abuse etc. If men would be more emotional n sensitive like woman it would have solved major problems of world. Women too r bad but its man who contributes majorly to crimes.

@bold

She wanted to say yes to Osama later but by that time Osama was committed to someone else. So it was clear that osoma was not as dedicated to her as zaroon was. . Zaroon tried a lot to convince her. But she agreed to marriage only when she personally witnessed in that coffee scene how zaroon protects her from hot coffee spilling on her. She liked his protective nature for her. For a person who was deprived of father's love and protection through out her life it was a big thing for her when she saw his protective side for her.

About his patriarchal nature, this flaw of him was known to her only after their marriage. There were lot of conflicts in their marriage cuz both were flawed and strong headed characters. I liked him in the scenes after marriage where he tries to communicate with her about their conflicts while she always used to run away based on her insecurities and assumptions. . Kashaf's flaw was she never opens up or communicate things, she jumps to conclusion based on her insecurities and assumptions but again I understood where she was coming from. For a person who had such a father who never cared for her or family bound to get insecurities. overall I liked the show and their scenes after marriage especially i like the scene post wedding when Kashaf says how important this commitment is for her and she will do her best in keeping this commitment.(something on this line) .. I love her monologue about how love can weaken her etc., it was beautifully written scene. I loved zaroon in that other scene after marriage where he says that she is his responsibility when she says she doesn't need his money, it was heart touching scene when she recollects how her father never took her responsibility and how zaroon feels she is his responsibility.

Omg sorry I blabbered a lot about this show. ZGH is one of my favourite show so I ended up writing a long essay. Both the characters were flawed in their own way.

Overall Bollywood seems to have tried to stay within a healthy window.

Of non-glorification 😃

More than BW I find HW glorifies serial killers and psychos on screen. The recent netflix series on Dahmer made the serial killer so popular that people were dressing up as him on Halloween. Same goes for the charismatic, charming, good looking trope they use to describe Ted Bundy or Charles Mason.

How are you stating it as a fact that women love toxic men?

Do women love such men or are they conditioned to tolerate such men and hope their love will transform him?

I want to add about Zaroon... Zaroon was not really an ideal man. He was a sexist/ mysogynist/ chauvinist and stays as a chavunist until the end without redemption. He was never shown sorry for his chauvinistic views on liberal women but at the same time they showed women in his life like his sister, mother pointing it out to him and they even showed his ex or fiancee Asmara (who was a independent woman who likes to take her own decisions and doesn't like to take his permission for every small thing she does without informing him) pointing it out to him which lead to his breaking up with her after engagement.

In college we see kashaf shuts him down and basically ask him to go screw himself when she realized his intention why he wanted to be friends with her just to boast about impressing yet another woman and to prove that every woman finally bows down to him.

So I feel they didn't glorify his sexist tendencies or other negative traits, they showed women in his life pointing it out and arguing with him about it.

But there was more to it to his character other than him being sexist which kashaf ended up liking.

Overall I liked the show for the flawed characters and chemistry of the leads and how they accommodate each other in their life in spite of having differences. Both kashaf and zaroon were complicated.Only they can tolerate each other.

Originally posted by: atominis

How are you stating it as a fact that women love toxic men?

Do women love such men or are they conditioned to tolerate such men and hope their love will transform him?

Conditioned because the women love the confidence and take-charge attitude of these alpha-men. These men are not aggressive all the time and can in fact be sweet,protective and loving to their partner most of the time. Mani Ratnam's film with Aditi Rao Hydari and Karthi explores one such relationship. Especially why an educated financially independent woman chooses to go back to the abusive man. At least in this film the so-called hero realizes his toxicity which is a change from the usual insensitive boor who feels totally justified in knocking around his partner.

Water is wet. BW makes toxic relationship the crux of their love stories.

Pata hai sabko