Working Women and Their Symbolic Denigration in Pakistani Media across Two Eras: A Feminist Analysis of Dhoop Kinare and Zindagi Gulzar Hai
Keywords:
Symbolic Denigration, Symbolic Annihilation, Working Women, Pakistani TV serials, Feminist Analysis, Media studiesAbstract
Television dramas play a significant role in shaping gender identities of masses by portraying male and female characters in specific ways. By portraying women in socially acceptable manner many TV serials have symbolically annihilated women. This study aims to expose symbolic annihilation of Pakistani working women in Pakistani TV serials. The concept of symbolic annihilation was proposed by Gaye Tuchman; she claimed that women are trivialized, omitted, condemned and eventually annihilated by exhibiting them in a patriarchally acceptable manner in terms of their appearance, roles, aims, professions, self-perceptions etc. The current study has taken the most popular Pakistani drama from the 1980s, Dhoop Kinare, and one of the top-rated dramas from 2010 onwards, Zindagy Gulzar Hae, and has analyzed working women characters, through feminist textual analysis, in the light of Gaye Tuchman’s symbolic annihilation concept. The study concludes that both in the 80s and later in 2010s working women are symbolically annihilated, especially through trivialization. Working women are reflected as subordinates, people pleasers, unsure of their abilities, lacking strong perception of themselves. A slight variation that has happened from 80s to current times is in occupational choice. Now women are portrayed in previously male-dominated professions like in administrative jobs and females can also be seen in top positions. Though female portrayal, in the top positions, is also from their domestic life perspective, in terms of how working females are managing their families with their jobs.