How Objectification of Women has been celebrated in Indian Movie Songs or  “Item Numbers”

Vivek Tyagi

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i04.53171

How Objectification of Women has been celebrated in Indian Movie Songs or “Item Numbers”

Author(s)	Mr. Vivek Tyagi
Country	India
Abstract	As we raise a toast to the 100 years of Indian cinema, there are significant alterations that this industry has gone through. In earlier Indian Cinema, post-independence, the filmmakers got an opportunity to portray issues such as poverty, illiteracy, and gender inequality for the awareness of the common masses. One such issue was the "Representation of women" through the lens of Indian cinema (Kamble and Santosh). With time, the industry flourished with women-centric roles, where the women broke the patriarch bondages and gained a whole new perspective from the audience. However, this independence came at the cost of women commodifying their bodies to gain attention in the patriarch-dominated society and money-making. One such aspect of these roles came as "Item numbers" which are defined as the movie songs to present colorful dancing women through revealing and exposing clothes. For some, while the item songs are an expression of freedom, others believe that they objectify women in general. This paper will focus on the objective of how Indian songs have changed with time in terms of women and their diffusion with music, clothing, and fashion for objectification. This report will also examine the upcoming trend of increasing demand for the item songs in Indian movies and how such forms objectify the female gender
Keywords	Women Objectification, Women Representation in Songs, Indian cinema, Objectification through Item songs, Item Numbers in Indian Film Songs
Field	Arts > Movies / Music / TV
Published In	Volume 7, Issue 4, July-August 2025
Published On	2025-08-10
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i04.53171
Short DOI	https://doi.org/g9w5g8

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How Objectification of Women has been celebrated in Indian Movie Songs or “Item Numbers”

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