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intimate relationships. This study provides evidence that as the participants reported that the amount of influence Bollywood films had on the participant's ...
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Running head: BOLLYWOOD FILMS AND ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS THE IMPACT OF BOLLYWOOD FILMS ON WOMEN’S ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS By Rishu Suri A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Counselling (MC) City University of Seattle Vancouver BC, Canada Site November 2019 APPROVED BY Bruce Hardy, Ph.D., Thesis Supervisor, Counselling Education Faculty Division of Arts and Sciences
Abstract There is a gap in the literature examining the impact of Bollywood media consumption on its audience. Correlations have been found between the consumption of Hollywood romantic media and romantic television increasing and lowered relationship satisfaction, higher conflict rates, self-objectification and partner-objectification, and overall unrealistic expectations of love and relationships (Dew & Tulane, 2015; Galloway, Engstrom, & Emmers-Sommer, 2015; Lippman, Ward, & Seabrook, 2014; Storey & McDonald, 2014). This study explores whether the exposure to Bollywood media has an impact on romantic relationships. A sample of twenty-six South Asian women, identifying as heterosexual, and living in North American, self-reported measures of the following: relationship and partner satisfaction, expectations of their partners, falling in love, gender roles, partner interaction, relationship ideals, and the participant’s view of love and intimate relationships. This study provides evidence that as the participants reported that the amount of influence Bollywood films had on the participant’s romantic relationships increased, the participants perceived the influence to be more negative. Additionally, there was a positive correlation between the amount of influence Bollywood films had on the participant’s romantic relationships and how strongly the participants agreed with the statement that Bollywood films reflect their relationships. Furthermore, there was also a positive correlation between the participants stating that Bollywood films reflect their romantic lives and participants stating that they believe Bollywood films depict real romance. Further research in this area could allow for the creation of romantic competence programs for youth before they enter into relationships as well as premarital counselling to help create healthy relationships. Keywords : Bollywood, Hollywood, romantic relationships, romantic competence, gender roles, objectification, premarital counselling, cultivation theory, social exchange theory
For Dad, Mom, Kapish, Diya, and Rahul
Chapter One: Introduction and Overview Situating the Researcher A feminist frame of reference will be used to guide portions of the research as well as racialized discourse. The research will be conducted by an Indo-Canadian female living in North America who is raised in a Western society. The researcher has the privilege of being an academic who has been raised watching Bollywood films. Research Thesis Questions The main thesis question explored was: “How do Bollywood films impact the expectations of love and relationships in females?” Sub Sub-question 1: How do women perceive their relationships compared to what they see in the media? Sub-question 2: What impact do Bollywood films have on “falling in love”? Sub-question 3: What impact do Bollywood films have on relationship satisfaction? Sub-question 4: How can Bollywood films impact what women expect from their partners? The Purpose of the Study Social media platforms have been used to discuss jokingly, as well as seriously, how “Bollywood Gave People Unrealistic Expectations about Love” (Daryanani, 2013; Ghura, 2014; Hirji, 2010; Mahtab, 2007; Shah, 2015). However, minimal research has been conducted to determine if Bollywood media can impact one’s expectations and interactions with love and romantic relationships. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between the exposure to Bollywood films and the impact their impact on the expectations of love and relationships among young females.
television teaches individuals what to expect from society as well as what society expects from them. Lippman, Ward, & Seabrook (2014) state that the way the media portrays romantic relationships gives people a certain understanding of romantic norms and expectations. Determining how the media impacts attitudes towards love and relationships is beneficial, as it may reflect various issues and attitudes. Lippman, Ward, & Seabrook (2014) point out that it is important for researchers to explore romantic relationships, given that they are linked to individuals’ overall well-being and life satisfaction. Research has been conducted to explore the impact of romantic comedies, romantic films, and romantic television on the romantic beliefs and relations of the audience. Romantic media has been found to be a source of teachings of love, romance, and relationships (Galloway, Engstrom, & Emmers-Sommer, 2015). Negative outcomes such as lower commitment to marriage (Osborn, 2012), increased conflict, lower commitment to relationship (Dew & Tulane, 2015), unrealistic relationship expectations increasing (Storey & McDonald, 2014) and overall negative ideas about relationships (Lippman, Ward, & Seabrook, 2014) were observed when people were consuming various types of romantic media. Additionally, some qualitative studies have explored the impact of Bollywood films as well and found that people understood love through watching Bollywood films and strived to have Bollywood romantic relationships in reality (Banaji, 2006). Although Bollywood films have been considered to be unrealistic, they still provide a medium for people to explore and learn about love and relationships (Takhar, Maclaran, Parsons, & Broderick, 2010). The audience has responded negatively and positively to some of the messages seen in Bollywood films such as love at first sight, happy ending, finding the one that showers them with love endlessly (Takhar, Maclaran, Parsons, & Broderick, 2010).
As many Bollywood films have a romantic theme (Takhar, Maclaran, Parsons, & Broderick, 2010), it is very important to be aware of some of these common messages seen in the films as well as determining the impact they can have on the audience. Research has been conducted to investigate the impact of television, Hollywood romantic comedies, and other media sources on romantic relationships. However, little research has been conducted to explore how Bollywood films impact beliefs and attitudes with regards to love. This subject thus merits investigation. According to the Statistics Canada Census (2011), there were approximately 210, Indo-Canadians in British Columbia in 2011. Although Asian-Indian immigrants have adapted well to North American environments, they remain quite close to their native culture (Das Dasgupta, 1996). Watching Bollywood films is one way that Indians have remained connected to their native culture, especially since Bollywood films are created in order to be commercially successful and shown worldwide (Das Dasgupta, 1996). A significant number of Indo-Canadians can therefore be impacted by the Bollywood industry. Chapter 2: Literature Review What is Bollywood? Bollywood emerged as a theatrical art form in the 1800s (Ganti, 2012) and has one of the world’s biggest movie industries, producing around 1,000 films annually (Uday, 2004). India had a population of approximately 1.3 billion in 2017 and its population is growing (Frince & Pandya, 2017). About four million Indians watch a movie in a theatre daily, and more movies may be watched on special occasions and during festivals (Krishnan & Sakkthivel, 2010). Bollywood is deeply embedded in Indian culture, and its music and iconic music scenes impact the daily lives of Indians (Bennington, 2013). Bollywood films are thus considered to be the
many of these romantic songs will either be a private love song between the couple, describe the first glimpse song at the initial sighting of the lover, the courtship and meeting song which commonly are duets, a public love song that is sung and danced in front of others, the traditional song that includes folk, religious, or tribal singers that will be performing a love song usually with poetry, and a separation song that is typically a sad song (Sarrazin, 2008). The songs are a way to express “moods, affective state-love, desire, loss, melancholia-or to stage communal and ritual activities such as celebrations, festivals, and victories” (Gopal, 2015, p. 807). The love songs generally tend to express the emotions and thoughts that characters in the films may not have been able to verbalize (Sarrazin, 2008). Therefore, the songs are a method of story-telling method and an important aspect of Bollywood films. Love stories as well as love songs can be very commonly seen in a Bollywood film. Films with a romantic story are also some of the most popularly watched Bollywood films. Therefore, since most Bollywood films have themes of love and romance and given how many people that watch these films it is extremely important to determine what impact these films can have on how people view and interact with love and romance. Unique Characteristics of Bollywood films There are several unique ways in which Bollywood films differ from Hollywood films. Bollywood films are elaborate spectacles of music, dance, and costuming, and fantastical storylines (Nanda, Pattnaik, & Lu, 2018). The themes of commercial Bollywood films are mythological, romantic, historical, patriotic, socially relevant, and fantastical. However, the majority of the Bollywood films are a “mixture of family-drama, romance, and action-violence, with a generous sprinkling of song and dance” – typically referred to as ‘ masala films’ (Das Dasgupta, 1996, p. 174). Films belonging to
the masala genre (Larouche & Brunet, 2015, p.66) are melodramas that are two to four hours long, incorporate elements of comedy, action, adventure, and romance, and feature song, dance, special effects and flamboyant costumes (Jones, Arora, Mishra, & Lefort, 2005). These films also tend to be the most popularly viewed Bollywood films. Bollywood films focus on emotional melodrama and narrative rupture such as include branching off into side plots, abrupt scene changes, and interrupting scenes with song-and-dance sequences (Srinivas, 1998). Bollywood films will include side plots with multiple characters that also have their storylines being portrayed that generally follow the overall theme of the film. On average, Bollywood films average a length of two-and-a-half hours, incorporate storylines of epic proportions, and contain six to eight songs with complex dance choreography (Kao & Do Rozario, 2008). Another unique characteristic of Bollywood is that the films are judged as either a “hit” or a “flop” before the film is actually released, according to how the audience rates the film’s music (Srinivas, 2002). The music rights of a film are quite profitable and can also produce profits for the film before it is released (Kaur & Sinha, 2005). Bollywood films are very distinctive due to their unique characteristics. Romantic Competence Davila et al. (2017) argue that it is important to promote healthy relationships at a young age, especially before one begins to date or make the choice to be in a relationship. Early adulthood is a period of development in which individuals are faced with decisions that will shape their future lives in important areas such as education, job opportunities and romantic relationships (Nelson & Luster, 2015). Davila et al. (2017) find that romantic competence (RC) skills should be taught to young adults before they begin to form relationships in order to allow
and career aspirations among women. However, it was also found that people who strongly endorse a “One and Only” belief and only weakly endorse a “work-it-out” theory of relationships are more likely to stay with an abusive long-term partner (Lippman, Ward, & Seabrook, 2014). Similarly, it has been found that people with a stronger belief in romantic destiny - similar to the “One and Only” belief - are more likely to act aggressively when they are rejected by a romantic partner (Lippman, Ward, & Seabrook, 2014). Due to the important impact on personality and the overall impact on people’s relationships, it was explained that it is important to examine how media use, romantic belief endorsement, and relationship health and dysfunction are related (Lippman, Ward, & Seabrook, 2014). Thus, given the important impact on the media on people’s beliefs and attitudes regarding relationships, it is important to further examine how the media’s construction of romantic beliefs and relationship health and dysfunction are related. Relevant Current Research The current research explores the impact of various genres of media on romantic beliefs and relationships. Television, romantic films, romantic comedy films, social networking sites, and gaming have all been researched to determine their influence on individuals and their attitudes towards love and relationships. There has been very limited research conducted to determine the impact of Bollywood films. There have been a few qualitative studies that utilized interviews to analyze some of the ways people believe the themes of love in popular films influence how they perceive love in real life. However, there has been some research conducted on how Hollywood films impact people’s intimate relationships. Lippman, Ward, & Seabrook (2014) explained how past studies have found that 94% of youth looked to media to learn what romantic love looks like, therefore, showing how romantic
beliefs can be influenced by media. The romantic comedy genre is the sixth highest-grossing category (Nash, 2014). The common themes of a happily-ever after and love conquers all are visible in romantic comedies (Nash, 2014). Hefner (2018) points out that in the film He’s Just Not That Into You (2009), “actress Ginnifer Goodwin complains that movies teach us to look for happy endings, in our romantic relationships and country-pop sensation Taylor Swift bemoans the loss of a lover in her song, If This Was a Movie (Swift, 2011) claiming that if her life was a movie, he would have already returned to sweep her off her feet” (Hefner, 2018, p. 1). Common messages in romantic films and music are that we are searching for our happy ending in relationships and expect our partners to sweep up off of our feet, although these may not be realistic expectations. Studies done by Baran (1976a, 1976b), Holmes (2007), Signorelli (1991), and Shapiro & Kroeger (1991) have examined the correlations between media consumption of idealized love and relationships and have found a link between a partiality toward romantic media, perception accuracy of mediated portrayals, and participants endorsement of unrealistic beliefs about intimate relationships leading to frustration and dissatisfaction with one’s sex life and one’s romantic relationship (Galloway, Engstrom, & Emmers-Sommer, 2015). A correlation was found between the consumption of media creating a fantasy and unrealistic views about relationships leading to a negative impact on their relationship expectations (Galloway, Engstrom, & Emmers-Sommer, 2015). Galloway, Engstrom, & Emmers-Sommer (2015) conducted a study of undergraduate students’ romantic beliefs and movie-viewing patterns and found that women significantly “expected intimate romantic relationships, imagined being married and daydreamed about their weddings, and anticipated getting married and staying married more than men” (p.701). They also found that watching romantic films tends to promote romantic mythologies and gendered
lower commitment to the relationship and viewing of programming focusing on romantic relationships predicted lower satisfaction and a stronger tendency to engage in conflicts. Reizer & Hetsroni (2014) explained these results using the cultivation theory. The cultivation theory believes that media serves as “modes of communication and central arenas for emotional stories” (Reizer & Hetsroni, 2014, p. 232) and thus watching a great amount of television can be linked to believing that what is shown in the media is a realistic representation of reality. Therefore, one internalizes the norms, beliefs, and evaluations of social interactions that are seen on television (Reizer, & Hetsroni, 2014). Viewing television that seems to represent reality can be linked-to the viewers following that what they view on television is how they should approach their relationships. It can also allow one to determine how people can approach love in their own life based on what television portrays as love. Influence of romantic films. A study by Storey & McDonald (2014), participants reported that some romantic films provide relationship stages, thus when someone is in a real relationship, they may not let the relationship progress naturally. One may become disappointed when the relationship does not progress the way that has been seen in romantic films (Storey & McDonald, 2014). Therefore, it was found that people base their relationship on what they have seen in romantic media, and when their relationship doesn’t follow what has been illustrated in the films as “normal,” they become disappointed (Storey & McDonald, 2014). Storey & McDonald (2014) also found that the participants compare what they see in the films to what is happening in their relationships. This can include different aspects such as looking a certain way, having a certain profession, expectations of their partner, even though they may be happy in their relationship (Storey & McDonald, 2014). Storey & McDonald (2014) found that the participants tend to use romantic
media as a language that is used to “articulate the meaning of their own experience of romantic live” (p.117). Romantic comedies. Lippman, Ward, & Seabrook (2014) states that majority of the romantic comedy films focus on newly developed relationships, falling in love phase, and also promoting the partner’s well-being. George Gerbner developed the cultivation theory that argues that mass message systems such as movies, T.V., and magazines are vessels by which communities can cultivate shared and public notions about values about people (Gerbner, 1969). Osborn (2012) explained using the cultivation theory , that researchers in the past have found that viewing romantic media cultivates negative ideas about relationships. Lippman, Ward, & Seabrook (2014) also used the cultivation theory to explain how exposure to media leads to people adopting the values and beliefs that the media displays, and this can explain how romantic media could impact the way relationships are viewed in the real world. It was also found that people that have a higher affinity to romantic media could lead to a stronger endorsement of romantic ideals and people also have to view the films as being realistic (Lippman, Ward, & Seabrook, 2014). Lippman, Ward, & Seabrook (2014) explored how different romantic media genres such as romantic- themed movies, sitcoms, and marriage-themed reality shows can be linked to romantic belief endorsement specifically relating to the Romantic Beliefs Scale (Lippman, Ward, & Seabrook, 2014). It was suggested by Lippman, Ward, & Seabrook (2014) that romantic media exposure can be linked to relationship satisfaction because endorsement of romantic beliefs has been demonstrated to positively relate to relationship functioning. Johnson and Holmes (2009) analyzed 40 top-grossing romantic comedies and found that romantic comedies often portrayed relationships as novel, exciting, and emotionally meaningful.
