Daily Times

Representation according to Webster Dictionary means when a person in a book or movie presents the problems, acts or actions of a particular gender, class or caste as a whole. In other words, one’s portrayal of someone else on their behalf.

On the other hand, the third gender is defined as a category of people who do not identify as female/male, or identity as a combination of both genders. In Pakistan, the third gender is known as the unknown and are also called Hijras, eunuchs, Khwaja sira of khusras, which is a belittling term.

Whereas, it should be noted that the term, ‘visual pleasure’ introduced the term ‘male gaze’. These terms together mean the male gaze that objectifies a woman and a male view a woman for his pleasure as stated by Laura Murvey in ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.’

I would be discussing the representations of third gender, the visual pleasure and male gaze in the Pakistani movie, Bol (2011).

Bol (2011) directed by Shoaib Mansoor centers around the struggles of a lower working-class family in Lahore which battles with destitution, conventionality and the stranglehold of a sexual orientation inclination which regards women as the model second sex. The highpoint of the film is the contention between the oldest child, Zainab, played by Humaima Malik and her conventional dad, Molvi sahib, played by Manzar Sehbai who has fathered seven kids, just to satisfy his craving to have a male beneficiary. Inconveniences compound when the last-conceived turns out to be a hermaphrodite and the dad sentences him to a daily existence of imprisonment.

Erving Goffman states in ‘Stigma; Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity’ that a view about a certain thing that is not a standard in a society is judged according to the views of the majority. This explains why the third gender in Pakistan were unpopular and how people treated them which is shown in the movie as well. Due to showing the third gender in Bol (2011) it is showing how and why they live the way they do as well as make the audience understand or accept them.

In one particular scene we see Saifi, the child born a third gender, wears the dupatta and makeup of his sisters which gets him in trouble with them. He thus has to hide his true feelings for his sisters as well in fear of him being scolded and told to act like a man. Furthermore, we see that Saifi’s life revolves around the four walls of his house due to the fact that he must be hidden from his father and the society. This shows how hard the life of a third gender is, where they cannot fully open themselves to society or even their close ones due to the already harsh judgement they face.

We are shown towards the climax of the movie that Saifi starts working at a truck painting workshop where he is mistreated and is eventually raped where he is found by another khwaja sira that takes him home. Towards the end Saifi shows his fear of having to face the problems that this gender faces in Pakistan, however, his fear is put to an end when his own father murders him due to the rape as well as Saifi’s father thinking problems will end as he considered Saifi being a khwaja sira the base of the family’s problems. Bol (2011) highlights the Pakistani mentality towards khwaja sira which is that they are there only for dance, sex or singing and the fact that they cannot have a happy life.

Laura Muvey presented the idea of visual pleasure in the form of a male gaze where a male visually sees a woman for his sexual needs or something to have control over. This is important to know as the women in Bol (2011) are controlled in this movie, for instance Zainab and her sisters were denied jobs. They were not permitted to sit in front of the TV to kill their time and their father always had an eye on them.

Zanaib’s dialogue where she talks about her husband, “Mian Sahab key hath bhi un key control main nahian they” highlights male chauvinism which means when a male thinks that men are a superior gender than female. Male chauvinism is again shown in Zanaib’s father dialogue where he compares her to a prostitute, “Badley mein is harafa ko un k han chor dain to shaid dy dein,” where ‘harafa’ means prostitute. He calls his own daughter a prostitute, on the other hand, he marries Meena, who is a prostitute, and forces her to have his child which turns out to be the 7th daughter.

Furthermore, Meena’s character in Bol (2011) enlightens the fact that a woman dresses up to arouse the men according to the ‘male gaze.’ This character dances in the movie to please the male audience. It is also to be kept in mind that Zaniab’s father is showing the typical ‘male gaze’ as he marries Meena, a woman who is half his age. This shows how men fantasize about marrying a woman that is younger than him.

The movie depicts how hard the life of a third gender is in a country such as Pakistan where they are faced with constant judgement from the people. It is now in 2021 that people are gradually viewing them in a better light and giving them rights. The third gender now are able to work and do certain activities that they could not have done in 2011 when the movie Bol came out. Furthermore, the fact that the visual pleasure is due to the ‘male gaze’ in this movie where the father likes to control women and use them for his sexual needs.