To Fight or To Promote Gender Stereotypes: A study of 3 AVs produced during Pandemic

Abstract

Stereotype emerges stronger with its excessive presence in the content over different platforms generation after generation. Some creative minds try their best to fight against stereotypes and some can’t do away with it. There are a few who do not realise what a stereotype is and how they have surrendered to it unknowingly. While the content generated during pandemic may be perceived as ‘funny and easy to laugh about’, the same has been perceived as having a tinge of various stereotypes prevailing in the society. There is a certain growth in the creators of content over various apps and other platforms which are easy to access and circulate without a thought. Some content has been celebrated and publicized widely to promote certain ideas and messages during the pandemic. The audio visual content produced jointly or separately during the latest pandemic times has raised a few questions primarily on the picturisation of women and men, jointly or separately. The 'message' oriented content made during COVID times ignore the undercurrent of gender bias largely. This paper studies three such audio visual contents packaged, presented as short films and analyse the presence of deeper gender bias in such films.