Publications
Publications
- Fall 2021
- Business History Review
Emboldening and Contesting Gender and Skin Color Stereotypes in the Film Industry in India, 1947–1991
By: Sudev Sheth, Geoffrey Jones and Morgan Spencer
Abstract
This article examines how the film industry influenced prevailing gender and skin color stereotypes in India during the first four decades after Independence in 1947. It shows that Bollywood, the mainstream cinema in India, shared Hollywood's privileging of paler skin over darker skin, and its preference for presenting women in stereotypical ways lacking agency. The influence of film content was especially significant in India as audiences often lacked alternative sources of entertainment and information. It was left to parallel, and often regional, cinemas in India to contest skin color and gender stereotypes entrenched in mainstream media. As conventional archival sources for this history are lacking, the article employs new evidence from oral histories of producers and actors.
Keywords
Bollywood; Film Industry; Hollywood; Tamil Cinema; Male Gaze; Stereotypes; Social Impact; Gender; Race; Ethnicity; Film Entertainment; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; India; United States
Citation
Sheth, Sudev, Geoffrey Jones, and Morgan Spencer. "Emboldening and Contesting Gender and Skin Color Stereotypes in the Film Industry in India, 1947–1991." Business History Review 95, no. 3 (Fall 2021): 483–515.
About The Author
