Rape culture in Asia cinema

Temps de lecture : 8 minutes

Rape culture in Asia cinema

December 2, 2020

Written by Laura Delcamp

Translated by Jessica Norbert

Rape culture, which is defined by various forms of behavior that promote, minimize and normalize rape, is present in all groups of society and reinforces the idea that the woman is the man’s property^[1]Ryan Broderick, Jessica Testa, Heben Nigatu et Anais Bordages, « La culture du viol, c’est quoi ? », BuzzFeed, 29 avril 2014. Available at: … Continue reading. In cinema, rape culture is often represented through many popular received ideas: the image of the weak but seductive woman, that of the manly man who submits with his charm or money, or the “No” to a sexual relation that turns into “Yes” when the man insists. Those received ideas will enter the public’s collective imagination and contribute to condone violence against women. This series of article aims to demonstrate the place given to rape culture in cinema based on the world regions. In this article, we will focus on the Asian continent, by analyzing movies from some countries, in order to take into consideration the cultural specificities of each subregion. Whether in India, where the cinematographic industry is represented by Bollywood and its successful Musicals, or in China, which movies, often historic, portray the woman above all as victim, each country share a common point in featuring rape culture in one way or another. This article cannot be representative of the entire cinematographic culture of the Asian continent, given the multitude of countries composing it, but aspires to be a first approach to the features of rape culture that can be found in certain movies.

In 2016, Thailand had decided to implement restrictions against the representation of rape and violence against women on television, which were very present and visual in the Soap Opera (Sentimental or dramatic tv-shows) of the country^[2]Ana Salva. « Thailand’s new TV rules to check sexual violence », Aljazeera, 31 mars 2016. Available at: … Continue reading. These shows displayed in particular that sexual violence could be used to seduce a woman or to punish her for her actions. Those restrictions show a great step towards putting an end to the rape culture occurring in Thailand and serve as an example for the neighboring countries. Despite noticeable societal and cultural differences in each country composing the continent, the movies produced there are sometimes representative of the discrimination and violence that women endure.

Soap Operas particularly, widely watched in India or Thailand, have a very outdated vision of the woman: submissive to men, pure and has no desire but to marry. They maintain gender stereotypes that influence the young generation, sometimes torn between the conservatism of the society they live in, and a will for change, especially after the #MeToo movement which also have spread in Asia. Malaysia for example, produces many soap operas in which the women’s image is ambivalent. They often hold a major role, but they are represented in a Manichean way, either pure with laudable qualities, or else totally devious^[3]Faridah Ibrahim, Norzita Yunus, Dil Froz Jan Sayed Halem Shah, Munirah Ilias and Amli Hazlin Ahmad Mokhtar. « Portrayal of women’s images in television dramas : a Maylisian Case », SHS, 2017. … Continue reading. In spite of a willingness to progressism, the women holding the main role in the Malaysian productions are often portrayed in a caricatural way and thus do not contribute to breaking the codes.

On the other hand, the censorship, also very present in some countries of this continent (in China, Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, …), has created many taboos around sexuality, love relationships, and gender issues, and therefore female and male directors didn’t always have the opportunity to show female and male roles that break away from that conservatism (social, religious, moral, …). However, today, male and female professionals of the cinematographic world have at heart to changing the customs through their movies, in order to put an end, gradually, to rape culture.

In India, the featuring of rape and sexual harassment in Bollywood

Regarding cinematography, India is very famous for its film industry, well known as Bollywood, where more than 1700 movies are created per year^[4]Ankita Mukhopadhyay. « Indian Cinema’s Own Brand of Sexism », Fair Observer, 20 avril 2018. Available at: … Continue reading. Bollywood mostly produces Musicals, mainly broadcasted in India, but also exported throughout all Middle East or Southeast Asia. Indian movies are being watched by millions of people each year and are an integral part of the culture in Asia, however they include gender stereotypes similar to those that can be found in the South American telenovelas^[5]Laura Delcamp. « Rape culture in Latin America cinema », Gender in Geopolitics Institute, 23 October 2020, available at: https://igg-geo.org/?p=2859&lang=en. One of the most common stereotypes is that the woman is only used to look good on the screen, while being a good mother and spouse. By watching these soap operas, the women then aspire to be like the actresses they see in the movies, and therefore to be reduced to very defined social roles.

Several researches have been conducted to demonstrate the large place given to sexism in Bollywood movies, including those conducted by IBM, IIIT-Dehli et DTU-Dehli^[6]IBM Research India, IIIT-India et DTU-Delhi. « Analyzing Gender Stereotyping in Bollywood Movies », 2017. Available at: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1710.04117.pdf. The (female and male) researchers have demonstrated that over 80% of the plots of movies between 1970 and 2017 are led by men and that the woman, although largely represented in movies, serves mostly as selling feature^[7]Ana Bebabs. « Bollywood est une industrie sexiste (et on en a la preuve scientifique », France 24, 24 October 2017. Available at: … Continue reading. Movies such as Mera Faisla by Rajendra Singh Babu (1984), show women as victims and do not hesitate to normalize violence through a melodramatic dimension. The movie Gunda by Bashir Babbar (1998) even goes so far as to display rape scenes and violence in a theatrical and caricatural way. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, mostly, number of directors had decided to feature rape, with sometimes a glorification of the rapist^[8]Parul Chugh. « Rape Culture in 80s and 90s Bollywood », Desiblitz, 3 January 2020. Available at: https://www.desiblitz.com/content/rape-culture-in-80s-and-90s-bollywood. Inherent sexism to these cinematographic productions is a reflection of the actual society in India, where inequalities between men and women are very present. India is considered as the fourth most dangerous country for women^[9]Ritimo. « La place des femmes en Inde », 16 January 2017. Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2015/03/07/violences-sexuelles-inde-epidemie_n_6496562.html. And rape is a real societal problem there, even though it is difficult to estimate the number of women victims of rape each year as this crime is taboo in the country^[10]Ritimo. « La place des femmes en Inde », 16 January 2017. Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2015/03/07/violences-sexuelles-inde-epidemie_n_6496562.html.

A conservative vision of women in Chinese films

“Nan zun nu bei”, Chinese mantra of Confucianism, means “the honorable man, the inferior woman^[11]Carolynn Rafman. « Imagining a Woman’s World : Roles for Women in Chinese Films », Cinéma, 1993, pp. 126-140.”. In Chinese cu
lture, the great philosophical school, Confucianism, thus demonstrates an idea that can be found in many other countries, which is that the woman is inferior to the man, without one really knowing the reason why this discrimination is accepted by all women and men. In China, rape culture has been widely featured in historical cinematographic productions, by showing the woman as a victim or a martyr of the society. A rather traditionalistic vision of the idea of the femininity and the woman has been illustrated in movies over the years, as it is the case in The Peach Girl (1931) by Bu Wancang or in Terre jaune (1984) by Chen Kaige^[12]Carolynn Rafman. « Imagining a Woman’s World : Roles for Women in Chinese Films », Cinéma, 1993, pp. 126-140..

The Chinese government has participated in the generalizing of men and women inequalities, particularly by conditioning women to marriage (especially in the 20th century), the directors have therefore encouraged the role of the virtuous woman who is fulfilled in marriage^[13]Carolynn Rafman. « Imagining a Woman’s World : Roles for Women in Chinese Films », Cinéma, 1993, pp. 126-140.. Depending on the societal development and the place given to women, their image and role also changed, women’s rights is at the discretion of progress too. A lot of movies have participated in demonstrating that women are “second-class citizens” and that they are submitted to men, thus reinforcing the inequalities between men and women.

For a long time, women in China were not able work in cinematographic world and therefore they couldn’t provide another vision of women in movies. However, female directors had managed to break free from these patriarchal points of view such as in Song of exile (1990) by Ann Hui, a Hong-Kong director. The movie tells the story of Hyeuin, a young journalist living in London who returns to Hong-Kong and displays an alternative feminine role to those that can be seen in other cinematographic productions, that is an independent and freed young woman^[14]Carolynn Rafman. « Imagining a Woman’s World : Roles for Women in Chinese Films », Cinéma, 1993, pp. 126-140.. Movies made by women often had less visibility than those made by their male colleagues, showing once more that the women’s place was not in movie theaters neither. In order to improve that, Chinese festivals have been created with the aim of revealing to the Chinese, but also international, society cinematographic arts that they are not used to seeing. For example, the China Women’s Film Festival, which took place since 2013, aims to promote women’s rights and to create the debate around gender inequalities^[15]Harriet Constable. « The taboo-busting women in Chinese film », BBC, 16 April 2019. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20190410-the-taboo-busting-women-of-chinese-film.

In South-Korea, a limited representation of women in Cinema

In 2016, the front page of the Korean magazine Maxim had stirred up controversy in South Korea, and for good reason: it shows the actor Kim Byeong-Ok smoking a cigarette next to what appears to be a woman tied and locked in the trunk of a car, of which only the feet protrude^[16]Alix Fieux. « En Corée du Sud aussi, la guerre des sexes aura bien lieu », Slate, 24 October 2016. Available at: http://www.slate.fr/story/126848/coree-du-sud-misogynie-guerre-des-sexes. This front page was denounced for glorifying violence against women and for participating in the promotion of rape culture. Afterwards, the magazine hurried to present its apologies, and thousands of people had even signed a petition to remove Maxim from sale. It reveals in image a film genre widely appreciated in Korea, the thriller, starring a violent and tormented men, of which certain films sometimes lean towards rape culture (as in the recent Park Hoon-Jeon ‘s film V.I.P, released in 2017).

In order to improve women’s representativity on the screen, one of the tracks would be first of all to make them a full character, if not the main character, since female roles are ultimately very poorly represented on the screen. A study conducted in 2017 by the Korean Film Commission showed that in movies produced during the same year, only 25,8% had a woman as main character. Nevertheless, featuring female characters is not sufficient, they also have to be complex and break out of the stereotypes that we are used to finding. Young female directors, such as Lee-Wan Min with her movie Jamsil (released in 2016), are trying today to find a place in the cinematographic world with movies closer to reality, especially women’s^[17]Gwenaël Germain, « Cinéma coréen : ces femmes trentenaires contre la « hiérarchie des sexes » sur les tournages », Asialyst, 23 November 2017. Available at: … Continue reading.

Conclusion

Asian cinema, although complex and multifaceted, has sometimes taken inspiration from stories and roles that can be found in Hollywood, and the movies can therefore be influenced by the very criticized toxic masculinity and sexism on the American continent. Within the countries, traditions and social norms sometimes very sexists (the issue of purity and honor for the woman for example) have created societies where, once more, the dominant position is assigned to the man, who can submit the woman by any means. However, male and female directors have also tried to emancipate themselves from the conservatism of their country by suggesting a renewal in the cinema in Korea (Hong Sang-Soo). These young (female and male) professionals have expressed this duality between conservatism and “progressivism” in their movies and have tried to put an end to years of cinema promoting rape culture. Thus, the continent is no exception to gender stereotypes in its cinematographic productions, but recent movies offer more complex female and male roles and aim also to show that they are suffering the harmful consequences of patriarchal societies.

To quote this article: Laura DELCAMP, “Rape culture in Asia cinema”, 12/02/2020, Gender in Geopolitics Institute.