Pausing Stereotypes: A Neo Menopausal Rendering through Select Movies Streamed Online

Abstract

Discussions of menopause are often considered taboo in India which continues to be a silent experience that happens in every menstruating woman who reaches middle age. The available narratives on menopause always stressed its biological importance and forgot its psychological and cultural aspects. Menopause is an issue that has been largely forgotten or ignored, even in films produced in India. It would not be inaccurate to say that the popular movie industry had forgotten the seriousness of menopause as an essential transition in women's life. With the advent of multiple online streaming platforms and their various episodes, the experiences of menopause are getting depicted in movies. Alankrita Srivastava’s  Bombay Begums (2021), a drama series released on Netflix and Saumitra Singh’s Painful Pride (2019), a short film streamed on Vimeo, are selected for analysing of the representations of menopause. These selected Bollywood movies will be analysed by giving close attention to the experiences of menopause by their female protagonists. The representation of menopausal experiences is studied within the contexts of social stigmatisation and the construction of feminine ethos. The biological changes in the female body won't be focused on here in detail.