Gender, Value, and Signification: Women and television in Kerala

Abstract

The television, or TV, as it is popularly known in India, is the medium of mass communication that is of extreme interest and consequence to the society to women, in particular. The area of its influence and reach is of course not only wide, not only in the spatial sense but in the sense of the family circle as well. This source of mass communication occupies the private and the personal space of the home, conventionally regarded as the domain of women. As schooling or specialised understanding of the visual discourse is not a prerequisite for viewership, TV is easily accessible to the woman subscriber, irrespective of whether she is a house-holder, student or a person working outside home. Here economic compulsions, social norms, communal considerations or gender bias do not hinder her TV viewership in any way. As a form of entertainment and education, this medium provides a high degree of access to women.