Fifty-six summers ago, with a melodious Bahut Shukria, Badi Meherbani, an Indian silver-screen dandy was thanking his lady love profusely for being in his life. Meanwhile, a tall, tan, young and lovely girl made heads turn, got whistled at, and sighed for, in an uppity seaside neighbourhood in Rio De Janeiro.
Brazil -0, India- 1 in the tally of gender sensitivity and safety for women, we take a mental note.
But let’s hold our horses for we know better. The said incident of street harassment in Rio has been immortalised in the history of world music as everyone’s beloved The Girl from Ipanema was inspired by the same.
The Indian chivalry, on the other hand, has long been forgotten and the male leads take pride in being wilfully blind to the concept of consent, turning street harassment into a kind of national sport.
The Girl from Ipanema, a Bossa Nova number, is perhaps the second most covered song in the world, after Beatles’ Yesterday. Studying this one song opens floodgates for debates on gender inequality that go far beyond Brazil and are particularly relevant to us in India. Sample the exceptional journey of this song:
This song was the ‘Record of the Year’ at the 7th Annual Grammy Awards in 1965. Brazilian edition of Rolling Stone names it as the 27th greatest Brazilian song ever in 2009.
Not just that, the mascots for the 2016 Rio Olympics and Paralympics were named after Vinicius de Moraes and Tom Jobim — co-writers of the song.
Born Out of Street Harassment
As happens with most things inspired, not created, by women, the song has become a cultural icon obfuscating the unpleasant truths around its composition. The truth of Ipanema is as universal as its popularity. According to an ActionAid poll conducted in 2016,
75 percent of women in the UK, 79 percent of women in India, 86 percent of women in Brazil, and 86 percent of women in Thailand reported experiencing street harassment or public violence.
What Vinicius and Tom sublimated in their number was indeed street harassment that the 17-year-old Heloísa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto, the girl who inspired the song, faced on a daily basis.
When the Brazilian super model Gisele Bundchen ramp-walked to the tune of Ipanema during the Olympics opening ceremony last year, catcalling turned into national pride.
New Study Says Young, Educated Men Catcall
The latest study on street harassment conducted by UN Women, in collaboration with a research group called Promundo, has revealed that men, who are younger and more education, are likelier to harass women than older and less educated men. Many such men that Promundo reached out to,
...have high aspirations for themselves and aren’t able to meet them... So they [harass women] to put them in their place. They feel like the world owes them.Gary Barker, CEO, Promundo
When men feel powerless in a society that doesn’t hold much promise in terms of individual growth, women become easy targets. The study dismantles the class-based determination on the subject of street harassment. The dandy men of Ipanema catcalled and the composers witnessed the same.
Nattily attired, fancy degree-holding men of South Delhi, SoBo and Bandra, catcall too.
Sound of Harassment In India
In India, the menace of street harassment is raging unchecked. Despite the Anti-Romeo squads, dedicated helpline numbers, and an assurance of swift action against complaints, women continue to face harassment and violence.
Like ‘The Girl from Ipanema’, our cultural products obfuscate this reality. Beginning from the Krishna-Gopi teasing trope, a disturbing trend of normalising street harassment pervades our imagination.
From the innocuous and utterly melodious classic Ek Ladki Bheegi Bhagi Si, to the latest chartbuster Main Tera Boyfriend, the history of popular music in India is a case study of ways in which women can be harassed. Men assuming consent; men forcing women to consent. It is no surprise that each decade has its harassment anthem.
The 90s were rife with such songs. Men crooning to Khambe Jaisi Khadi Hai, Ladki Hai ya Chhadi Hai or Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast and sometimes women internalising this objectification with Sexy Sexy Sexy Mujhe Log Bolein... Hi Sexy, Hello Sexy Kyun Bolein?
Our Share of the Blame
Much has been written about sexism in popular culture across countries. What still merits some deliberation, however, is our music consumption. To surmise that songs cause street harassment is as ludicrous as saying that chowmein causes rapes.
In India, a cursory glance at the yearly list of chartbusters reveals that songs reveling in immense popularity have a strong catcalling quotient, either onscreen or offscreen. Songs that work the best are those that cater to the male gaze and, needless to say, can be used at ease to catcall.
Coming back to The Girl from Ipanema, there is a feminist version of the song which turns the male gaze on its head. Here, a “Boy from Ipanema” becomes the object of desire inspiring many a sigh. It is anybody’s guess that this version wasn’t half as successful. Originally sung by Nancy Wilson, and later by Ella Fitzgerald, and Diana Krall, the “Boy” loses badly to the “Girl” of Ipanema.
One of the most popular renditions of The Girl from Ipanema is by Frank Sinatra. Performing live, Sinatra recreates the scene at Ipanema’s Veloso bar from the 1960s, with a cigarette in his hand. The YouTube video published in 2010 already has close to 10 million views, second only to the Astrud Gilberto version – the original English one.
Unlike the songwriters, some of us have understood the sexism conundrum very well. It is important for us to call out inherent sexism, in not just the world of music but wherever it exists.
Last year Akshara Centre, an NGO in Mumbai, sought to flag this issue by conceptualising a song rewriting competition. “Pen uthao aur gaana ghumao! Change the sexist lyrics, send it to us.”
Till we have more initiatives like this, ‘Jumma’ will always be asked to give a ‘chumma’, and ‘Munni’ will get ‘badnaam’ if she gives that ‘chumma’.
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