‘Is feminism just another tool for social media biggies to create an image for themselves?’ That’s the argument that stand up comedian Aayushi Jagad has raised, and the way she talked about the issue got us thinking.
Aayushi, who has worked with AIB in the past, posted a video on Facebook where she talks about how AIB is using feminism as a tool, a prop that they whip out whenever something remotely relevant to ‘women’s rights’ takes place. Following the Kangana-Hrithik controversy, they gave us the ‘OMG-Bollywood-is-so-sexist’ ballad. The Kalki Koechlin starrer ‘It’s Your Fault’ video came out when heinous crimes against women were hitting an all-time high. While all this is appreciated, she pointed out something we can’t help but agree with: The non-feminist/woman centric/ women-are-powerful AIB videos have almost zero female characters, and the ones who are present, barely get any screen time.
Check out what she posted:
It is one of those now that I think about it videos where with each pragmatic, carefully worded and substantiated argument that Aayushi and Sumedh put forward, you can’t help but think- Is AIB doing this consciously?
Aayushi accepts that more than 80% of AIB’s audience is male, but is that really a legit reason why most of there sketches has zero to very little female character involvement? AIB recently replied to Aayushi’s video:
We will actively work to fix this across our content, not just for the sake of social currency or likes, but because representation matters. We’d like to think we try hard to be inclusive, but we recognise that we fall short in some ways, and also that our own privilege stops us from seeing it. So thank you Aayushi and Sumedh for calling us out about this and forcing us to confront it. Creating more inclusive content is a constant process of evolution, and we’ll work much harder to tell stories that are representative of more.
Aaannnnd presenting the reason AIB’s as big as it is *drumroll*:
Sad to see how when AIB themselves have understood and accepted what they’re being called out for, and have promised to do better, BUT the comments section is going ‘oh but it is boys channel where boys making videos about their boy experiences’. Is this a hint at why AIB makes such videos in the first place?
Props to AIB for accepting where they went wrong. No props for the boys for being butthurt for no reason.
