The Role Of Popular Media On Street Harassment – A Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

Street harassment is the most subtle form of sexual harassment and has become so common that people have started accepting it as a part of the social fabric of our lives. Popular media continues to show behaviours of street harassment like stalking, whistling, or following as flirtatious and a part of courtship. The media plays a very important role in our understanding of acceptable behaviour and provides the audience with a cultural script that entails the norms of society. The study aimed to explore the role of popular media on street harassment through the voices of the women victims of street harassment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among 22 women who had experienced street harassment one or more times in the last year,in the age range of 18-33 years. Thematic analysis was conducted on the transcribed data, and three subthemes emerged -Romanticising the harassment, Media as a socialising agent and Manufacturing female consent; with an overarching theme, “Media as a script for entitlement and vulgarity”. This study seeks to initiate a conversation among policy makers, film makers and the larger media fraternity to acknowledge the effect of media beyond entertainment.