'Bigg Boss' & The Ignorant Decimation of Feminist Politics on National TV

Here's why Bigg Boss is becoming increasingly problematic.

Salman Khan in Bigg Boss.

(Photo Courtesy: Instagram)

In what has become a disgusting pattern on the reality television show Bigg Boss, women who are harassed or made uncomfortable on the show, are inevitably put on trial themselves. Not their harassers. In the latest season, the victim was literally placed inside a makeshift jail while she was asked to explain her actions to the host, Salman Khan.

Yes, the actor who (allegedly) mentally and physically harassed his ex-girlfriend several years ago, sits in judgement of other women. Unfortunately, sensitivity isn’t a trait the actor has picked up in the years since, so you might often hear sagacious advice like “just brush it aside and laugh” doled out to women who complain about an unwelcome touch or word.

Salman Khan is the host of Bigg Boss.

(Photo Courtesy: Instagram)

In a recent episode, Khan donned his feminist hat to lecture a female contestant on how she should have handled the aftermath of her harassment a bit better. The actor had raised an alarm after she was asked repeatedly for a kiss by a fellow contestant, hounded even, though she continuously said no.

After questioning her relentlessly about the when, how, what and where of the entire ordeal he tells her, “Ungli dogi toh haath pakad lega. Yehi dastoor hai. (You cannot lead somebody on, laugh with them, joke with them and encourage them).” Shamita Shetty, a veteran contestant, chirped, “You can’t pick and choose when you are uncomfortable. That’s so unfair to the man!”

Shamita Shetty is a contestant in Bigg Boss 15.

(Photo Courtesy: Instagram)

Interestingly, Khan’s usual sexist diatribe was cut short and challenged by a young contestant Tejasswi Prakash, who was left aghast when he questioned the victim about why she didn’t raise an alarm right when her discomfort began. “Moral of the story girls, source pe react karo.” Though she tried to explain to everyone that there is no correct time to complain nor should one’s timing be held against one, her sensitive and thoughtful remarks fell on deaf ears.

Khan concluded his rant with trademark harasser-friendly remarks which he has learnt to caveat with “This doesn’t mean I am supporting what he did!” — “You love it when a good looking guy pays you a compliment. But when someone unattractive pays you one, you find it disgusting!”

While the show has never exactly been known for its progressive gender politics, its recent few seasons have taken on a rather ugly misogynistic tone where aggressive, vile and uncouth men who routinely make women on the show feel unsafe, are actively encouraged and even defended.

One is advised not to speak ill of the dead — though I can’t imagine why — but the late actor Siddharth Shukla, a contestant on season 13, was extremely disrespectful to women, something that was missing from most weepy eulogies written about him. In several episodes he abused and physically threatened women, even injuring a female contestant in one episode. His language was filthy and he often made sexually charged innuendoes, much to the discomfort of other contestants.

Late Siddharth Shukla, a contestant on Bigg Boss 13, was disrespectful towards women.

(Photo Courtesy: Instagram)

One would think this would earn him a rebuke from the makers of the show but we all know how that ended — with Shukla winning the show and Salman Khan bitterly scolding the one female contestant who spoke up against him. “If you know that only rubbish comes out of his mouth why do you go near him? It is your fault for not staying away,” he told her.

Such a trial of the harassed and defence of the problematic betrays the show-runners’ thinking that paternalistic policing of women's choices, language and boundaries is the real meaning of feminism. Even as #MeToo revelations about the film industry and discussions around sexual misconduct come and go routinely, Endemol Shine and Colors TV appear as though they are two seconds away from setting a curfew for women inside the Bigg Boss house!

Instead of asking strong questions and setting up firm rules against men who don’t know how to respect women, the makers and host of the show can”t seem to stop asking the women, “Why don’t you just avoid him?” or “Why didn’t you complain then and there?”

As a (reluctant) viewer of Bigg Boss, watching this second victimisation is not entertaining, rather it is offensive to see such an ignorant decimation of feminist politics on national television. There must be a limit to how many times irony can really die — perhaps we might draw the line at Salman Khan pretending to be a feminist.

(Tanushree Bhasin is an independent journalist based in Delhi. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)