Integritus Prime

I watched Fighter yesterday, in what was intended as a light family outing (someone’s favorite actor is Hrithik Roshan). Spoiler alerts start here. What I didn’t expect was a sub-theme about gender equality and feminism. While the movie is about India and Pakistan’s battle over Kashmir, peppered with cool fighter plane stunts and eye candy (objectification of the lead actors), there is a serious theme about patriarchy and the battle women face in achieving gender parity.

Minni (Minal Rathore, played by Deepika Padukone), is a squadron leader and the only female one in a special unit that is being created to deal with Pakistani terrorists. Patty (Shamsher Pathania, played by Hrithik) is in the same unit and more of a hotshot who tends to do lots of maneuvers while airborne.

My main interest in this post is to talk about how Patty helps the feminist cause. In one scene, Minni shares with Patty about her father, a ground operations clerk who works for an airline. Mr. Rathore (played by Ashutosh Rana in a wonderful cameo), disowned Minni the moment she applied to join the airforce. Since then, she hasn’t had any contact with her parents. Clearly, this is a source of deep pain for Minni. But, she bravely says, “In the air, we are all equal,” implying that what matters is skill for airforce pilots and women are just as good as men.

Later on, as events unfold, Patty ends up with no way to get to Jammu, so he goes to see an operations manager at the airport. It turns out to be Mr. Rathore and his wife who is just about to leave him. Patty mentions he would like a ticket and he’s in the air force, at which point Mrs. Rathore gasps. Patty puts two and two together and begins talking in general about how accomplished Minni is, and suggests that Mr. and Mrs. Rathore should be proud of her, because her own parents have disowned her.

Patty ends up getting his boarding pass. Later on in the movie, Minni’s parents pay her a surprise visit at the air force base. In a very moving scene, Mr. Rathore explains to Minni that he always wanted a son, because his father (Minni’s grandfather) told him that boys are an asset, while girls are a responsibility. But now, Mr. Rathore continues, his eyes have been opened and he realizes that his daughter has defeated his own father. He is proud of his daughter. After those powerfully tearjerking moments, as Minni leaves her parents to get back to work, Mr. Rathore calls her name and as she turns around, he salutes her. Minni returns to the base and thanks Patty.

Sitting there in the dark theater, I started to think, oh well, it had to be a man who convinced Mr. Rathore, why not a woman? And that isn’t a bad thing, I realized in the next moment. In the feminist movement, we need feminist men to step up and support healthier norms through shifts in mindset and behavior. Because Patty was a man, and he communicated Minni’s career in terms of love for her country, Mr. Rathore was able to overcome the conditioning from his own father, who influenced him a lot during childhood. In patriarchal societies where men have more influence, feminist men can use that influence to help show that women are just as valuable. If men keep supporting women in this way, we will eventually see the day when women won’t have to fight so hard to prove their worth, because their inherent worth will be recognized without question and without bias.

We need feminist men who can embody divine masculine energy, and be supportive of women. We need these men to fight alongside women for the end of women’s subjugation. In this mainstream Bollywood movie, in the midst of all the usual action, songs, and grieving, there was a clear win for women and a reconciliation of a family, and it was orchestrated by a man. I see this as a win for women everywhere, and a win for men too. It’s a win for all genders, and a win for the feminist movement, which focuses on the empowerment of all who are subjugated.

What might prevent feminist men from speaking up? What might make men hesitate to accept feminist principles and approaches? Share your thoughts and your latest example of a feminist win, and let’s do our bit to change norms until we can truly say we live in a world where gender equality and equity are realities.