Before watching Sita Sings the Blues in class, I had heard of the movie but not for all good reasons. I knew that it was a very popular depiction of the Ramayana, but I also knew that it caused controversy. Many Hindu people were offended by the way a text that they hold so sacred was shown. Media plays a huge role in how we perceive our world. We live in the world where perfection is defined by what we see or hear on TV, in the movies, or read in magazines/books. This portrayal of Hinduism and other religions in the media is falsely construed. For example, most people now associated Islam with violence and completely ignore the religious values they hold true. The controversy pertaining to Sita Sings the Blues is similar to the example of Islam. In the eyes of practicing Hindu's, this movie puts a false idea in people's heads about Hinduism.
Because I was aware of this controversy, I cautiously watched for aspects of the movie that could be seen as offensive. Because of my slight background in Women and Gender Studies, I immediately noticed the intense hypersexualization of Sita. She is depicted with large breasts, a very tiny waist, large hips, and big eyes with batting eyelashes. She is given a completely unrealistic, unattainable image.
She has no sense of independence and her life depends completely on Rama. Depending on how one chooses to interpret this, women as submissive, sexual objects can be wrongly applied to all Hindu women. This reinforces the constant battle for women in media.
While you are definitely right to note the impact of hypersexualized female forms, the depiction of Sita in Sita Sings the Blues is actually very closely modeled on long-standing depictions of idealized women, both goddesses and human, in Hindu art and architecture. Here's one example of a sculpture of Lakshmi (the goddess of whom Sita is an incarnation) at an 11th century temple in South India:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.indiamike.com/india-images/pictures/gangaikondacholapuram-lakshmi-sculpture
(Sorry, I can't seem to directly paste pictures into a comment). This kind of depiction is ubiquitous. It's also echoed in Sanskrit epics and dramas.
One interesting thing about Sita Sings the Blues is the fact that she's actually depicted according to two different traditional images. The other style comes from medieval Mughal art, and she's portrayed there as quite chaste. So, while it's very good that you're bringing up issues surrounding Sita's visual representation, I'd ask you to consider how 1) the depiction's roots in traditional Indian standards of aesthetics; and 2) the multiplicity of images of Sita might complicate simply stating that this is an offensive depiction.