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Nayak: The Real Hero, is a movie that follows Shivaji Rao, a reporter who gets challenged to become the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, India for one single day.

Rao had a first-row seat in the injustice CM Chauhan was committing after witnessing how Chauhan did absolutely nothing to control the protest in Maharashtra. While people were killing each other on the street and the police were urging Chauhan to order police control, Chauhan sent orders not to do anything. He claimed that he was afraid of losing his popularity votes. Rao got everything Chauhan had said on camera and confronted him in an interview. Feeling extremely criticized about his performance as the Chief Minister, Balraj Chauhan declared the challenge himself. Rao courageously accepted and showed India all the systemic injustice Chauhan had been committing with his power.

In the first hour of Rao becoming the CM, he got all the data about other government officials also abusing their positions of power. By the end of the 24 hours, he had suspended 46,000 corrupt officials. Rao also traveled all over the city to poorer sections and made incredible developments to help the people living there. Throughout the entire 24 hours, Rao changed everything about Chauhan’s rotten system and the situation in India saw immediate benefits. These incongruities and blatant injustices being committed were taking away the livelihoods of the citizens in India, while those in positions in power were just becoming more powerful. The position of Chief Minister goes to the elected individual with the promise of leading the country to greatness. The first priority of the CM, and all government officials, should be the protect and serve all participants of the country. Clearly, this was not the case as all the institutions working with the CM were plotting against the innocent citizens of India. 

The power dynamics explore the Master-Slave Dialectic and the Subaltern. Chauhan and other government officials are the One, while the citizens of India are the Other. Chauhan forced the citizens to become inferior and made it so they couldn’t speak against the unlawfulness occurring to them. If they did, the citizen’s authenticity came into question. The Master-Slave Dialectic is better seen through Shivaji Rao and CM Chauhan. Both of them acknowledge the threat they are to each other and struggle in a vicious war throughout the movie to establish superiority. Even by the end of the movie the Master, Chauhan, was unable to see the limitedness of his power, eventually leading to his death. On the other hand, Rao, the Slave, was able to achieve self-consciousness and spread it to the country as the newly appointed Chief Minister.

Nayak bravely covered topics revolving around power dynamics and how they go with systemic injustices. The movie shone a light on the same systemic injustice that had and has still been occurring in India, forcing viewers to question those in positions in power and break free from the constant infringements occurring against them as citizens of India. 

Shivaji Rao (LEFT), Balraj Chauhan (RIGHT)

Jane the Virgin is a TV sitcom centering around Jane Vilanueva’s life and family. Season one starts off with Jane telling her co-workers/friends how she intends on saving herself for marriage. She tells the story of how her deeply religious grandmother has bestowed the importance of virginity and Catholicism. Jane’s life quickly changes during a routine gynecological exam, where she is accidentally artificially inseminated. This is the beginning of crossroads that Jane meets where she must battle with the different intersectional identities of her life and her deeply meaningful cultural ideas. Season one introduces you to the Vilanueva women and how their intersectional identities differ. While they all share a bicultural and bilingual family; they all have vastly different views on gender norms, sexuality, and religion. Jane the virgin is driven by having a majority Latina/Latino cast but in a way that does not make their identity the punchline like other Latino shows have.
Jane the Virgin does not just bring forth their Latino characters but brings their cultural identities to the forefront. The show adopts the comedic drama of a telenovela that many Latina/latino viewers can connect to. This style of story telling showcases how race and gender affects Jane and her family’s lives. Jane’s family all represent a different character that is traditionally shown in a telenovela, the religious and endearing opposition, the sassy opposition, and the caretaker opposition. The interesting thing about Jane the Virgin is how the writers work these complexities rather than facing the women against each other.

      The first episode presents problems Jane faces with gender roles/family, sexuality, and tradition. Jane’s pregnancy is a huge hurdle for the family to get through. Their Latina background defines what their actions should be. But her pregnancy doesn’t necessarily break these codes. The whole family must question their beliefs. Jane finds out that her mother considered abortion when she was pregnant and that having a child set her life onto a different track that left her dreams behind. Jane then finds out that her grandmother also suggested that her mother have an abortion rather than having a baby out of wedlock. Janes accidental insemination allows the characters to have their views questioned because Jane’s life will ultimately never be the same. Jane the Virgin manages to show the different aspects of a highly touchy and controversial subject on gender roles and sexuality. This style introduces you the complexity of the problems without an agenda. Instead of ideologies, this show represents the real lives of Latinas and how their cultural identities play a major role.

*Content Warning* Spoilers

The science-fiction thriller movie Dune (2021) by the acclaimed director Denis Villeneuve is an artistic rendition of the series Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert. The books are based around a futuristic world which is governed by a an Empire that holds power over a plethora of groups of people organized into ‘Houses’, each house with their own control over some major aspect of the society financially (business) or military. The make-up of the universe creates many levels of hierarchy, and the politics mixed with mystery, futuristic technology and conflicting interests creates a very complex universe. However, the existence of such forces that determine power and identity is what makes the Dune universe comparable with the current world.

A son of a powerful house Atreides (Paul) finds himself on a new planet (Arrakis) that his House was sent to control and do business, but was a plot by the enemies of the House and the Empire to topple his House. With the largest of powers against him, he finds himself with a group of Arrakis native (the Fremen) who are banished and are actively hunted by the Empire, to protect his House. The Empire can be viewed as the government that has absolute control over the Houses, who also make up the council of the Empire. The Houses can be viewed as various social groups as the house is a significant factor determining identity and status, thus, analogous to racial, socioeconomic, and national groups. The Fremen here resemble the groups who have been oppressed and been stolen off their resources. The plot to topple house Atreides who had gained recent power among the other houses, was carried out by the Empire being scared of a coup and Atriedes’ nemesis Harkkonen, and represent the systematic injustices carried out in terms of various political scams designed to rid oppressed groups from their rights and expression. The other houses’ silence in this case can be related to the silent majority who are scared of the power even while they see the injustice mentioned by Dr. King Jr. in his Letter, while the treatment of Fremen can be related to the treatment of the colonizers of the native populations. The master slave dynamic is observed by control of commodities that the Other wants, thus, creating political, fiscal, and economic powerhouses, that is, houses that control trade of the ‘spice’ (found only on Arrakis), transportation (transportation guild), and the mystical powers (Bene Gessuiuts). The spread of power is directly related to how power is perceived in today’s world, with the country on an international level, a company on a national level, and people with privileged status in a domestic level control commodities, either tangible or intangible that the Others want has more power. The way all these factors converge creates various ways of injustice, be it political as seen by the imperial power of the Empire, or social as seen by the power of Houses over their citizens, and the sub-political powers of other groups such as the mystical Bene Gessuits all creates a dynamic universe that falls for the same shortcomings as the current world does.

The book being set in future also raises questions about the existence of such injustices even when society has progressed as much as inhabiting different galaxies and is space oriented. The absoluteness of the powers also act as criticism of misuse of the newfound powers with technology. Then, the book as a whole is a commentary about futuristic world with similar problems and injustices as today’s world.

P.S. The books were originally published in 1965, thus, were written during the heat of the Civil Rights Movement raising solid queries about the inspiration of the social construct and the conflict depicted in the book.

The hit television show, Shameless, is a classic example of both intersectionality and systemic barriers that contribute to people from the same area having drastically different life experiences. In the first season of Shameless, the dysfunctional Gallagher family is introduced. This family resides in the South side of Chicago. The eldest daughter, Fiona, is the main parental figure, as her father is an alcoholic and addict.

The first season mainly focuses on Fiona’s struggles trying to support her brothers and sisters as a high school dropout, working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Fiona is a cunning and hard working woman, and struggles to deem herself worthy as the show progresses. Being born into a poor family, Fiona was not given the opportunities others her age were, she was focusing on surviving and paying bills, not on setting herself up for future success. Due to their low socioeconomic status and systemic poverty, Fiona did not have a support system from a young age, and had others depending and leaning on her. 

Intersectionality is explored in multiple ways throughout the show through Fiona’s next door neighbor, Veronica. Veronica is a strong black woman who helps the Gallagher’s in a multitude of ways. Fiona and Veronica identify with one another as they are both struggling economically, but Veronica faces racism and has unique struggles herself being in an interracial relationship. 

The Gallaher’s youngest child, Liam, is African American, and he has unique experiences that his siblings did not undergo. Liam eventually attends a private school that offers him free tuition. The Gallagher’s later discovered Liam was offered free tuition in exchange for being on all of the school’s billboards and posters, a blatant act of tokenism. The family decides Liam will continue to attend the school, as the educational opportunities of private education are much greater than that of the Chicago public schools. Seeing as though none of the other family members have experience of being a black person in America, they could not personally relate to Liam in this aspect, and struggled helping him find his identity as a black male in society. Liam reaches out to other black people in the show and learns from their experiences and wisdom. This confusion regarding culture relates back to adoption and how this could be detrimental for the child involved. 

Overall, Shameless does an excellent job of letting their audience examine complex issues through a funny lens. The show also displays gruesome and real aspects of being poor. I believe the creators of the show were trying to showcase how detrimental poverty is to communities. I also believe the writers wanted us to question how lack of opportunity contributes to addiction and failure,  as many of the characters on this show are sharp witted and cunning, but end up with drug and alcohol problems.  Shameless leads us to question our own morality, and how far we would go if we were to be in a situation where we are simply trying to survive.

*Content warning* suicide and death

The show 13 Reasons Why is about a girl named Hannah Baker who had committed suicide and her reasoning behind it. The show moves through every detail that she had given in the tapes she left behind. In season three there is a new character introduced who is throw into the middle of what is happening at Liberty High School. Ani, the new character, brings a new identity into the mix since she is from Britain and a transfer student. She is accepted at Liberty High School yet is judged with who she hangs out with. This is because the school has been divided every since Hannah Baker’s death and the truth that came from her tapes. There are many different characters within the show, many of them believing to hold power over others. Throughout the whole show many of the characters struggle at finding who they truly are. This idea can allow may of the viewers to sympathize with the characters since the general audience of 13 Reasons Why is teenagers. Another idea that is depicted in the show is power. The high school was shown to be run by the jocks who also had power against Hannah. The jocks held many secrets against the whole school, including the administration, which gave them power. This power was used in the wrong ways against many of the students including Hannah Baker. The power that was held against Hannah Baker continued on even after court trials in season 2 since the person did not get the right punishment. Power is depicted in 13 Reasons Why by the secrets held by the students. The secrets they all hold carry power to ruin each others futures. The main reason why so many characters have these secrets is because there mostly likely is a secret about them that could ruin their future. So, for their own good and own future, they hold other peoples secrets and expects others to keep theirs. I believe that the creators of 13 Reasons Why wants viewers to understand that rumors and secrets can hurt others more than someone may think. The creators also wanted to start a conversation about how having power can ruin your future if you use it against other people. I think the 3rd season of 13 Reasons Why inspires a conversation around identity, power, and injustice because these ideas are shown many times throughout the show. Each episode has many points that contribute to all of these ideas that can spark a conversation. Overall I think there are many different parts of the show that can inspire a conversation about identity, power, or injustice to occur.

Orange is the New Black is a Netflix Original series containing seven seasons, with filming starting in 2013. The show depicts the life of Piper Chapman, based on a real person, Piper Kerman, and her experience serving time in a prison. The show explores compex themes of race, identity, sexuality, and the American prison system.

Each episode is structured in a way that tackles a different issue. Some episodes focus on the prison culture involving group identity with people of the same race, while others explore topics like mental health issues and power structures, all while following the characters’ journeys through their time institutionalized.

There is a strong presence of power structures and Othering within the show. Those at the top include the prison warden, then the correctional officers, then prisoners like Red (the prison chef) who have earned respect throughout their sentence. Below this is the general prison population, then new inmates, followed by those in “the shoe” (solitary confinement), and finally, those that are sent to “max,” or the maximum security section of the prison. There is a clear hierarchy with those in the levels above controlling the actions and decisions of the groups below them. Each layer down become less powerful until reaching those at the bottom two levels, solitary confinement and max, whose lack of power is reminiscent of Spivak’s “subaltern.” These people have no voice, no power, and are often removed from the narrative as soon as they are removed from the general population. They are often unjustly isolated for minor infractions or “for their own protection,” but these are usually a cover up for racism or transphobia.

Within the prisoners shown, you are able to see the high number of Black and Latina individuals. Their predominant numbers in the prison population represent the disproportionate incarceration of people of color. These people are targeted because since the beginning of America’s history, anybody who is not white is automatically seen as less-than. The issues of racism have persisted in all our systems: legislation, government, criminal justice, etc. Though the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, it included a clause that protected imprisonment and slavery if it is serving as the punishment for a crime. This has led to over a century of wrongful incarceration, targeting by law enforcement, and implicit bias. Within the show, several of the guards show favoritism to white inmates, giving them more privileges and punishing them less.

The use of the prison dynamic allows for careful dissection of some of America’s most pressing issues of discrimination. Told through women’s’ eyes, the narrative is that much more significant, as themes of female pleasure and empowerment are only beginning to become acceptable in media. It demands viewers question the ethics of the American criminal justice system as well as question their own thoughts about what it means to be imprisoned. Orange is the New Black humanizes those that our society puts at the bottom.

Photos

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