Social Identity
– is a kind of self-identification in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and the experiences of privilege and oppression. (Gopaldas, 2013).
According to Appiah (2007) ” identities can be a wellspring of restriction and imperative; and that hence we should not commend them wholeheartedly. It is necessary to understand social identities to make our lives better with full freedom.
In this movie, when Phoolen realized her social identity as a woman, then she fought with those people who created problems for her. She also alerts the female gender to use their ability to face any challenge.
Gender
Gender defines as either of two sexes concerning community or cultural differences. In the movie father said that “A daughter is always a burden”. In Indian society, women are facing discrimination in society. In the film, the father of Phoolen said that “A girl child is a curse”. It relates to the stereotype that one gender is superior to another. In the Indian constitution, equal right provides to men and women, but Gender discrimination remains. Not in India, we can see gender discrimination in favor of men in many situations like in the workplace. Therefore, it is essential to recognize diverse gender identities in society.” Gender identity refers to an internal sense of each individual about gender” (Olezeski et al., 2020, p. 294). Gender is composed of multiple interrelated constructs. Therefore, in the present scenario, people should have to know their gender identity so that no one can face gender biases in society, home, and workplace.
In the following two scenes, we can see gender discriminations:
Social Class:
“Social Class is a broad group in society having common economic, cultural, or political status” (Social Class, 2019).
In social class, people divide into categories such as upper, middle, and lower class. Classism promotes discrimination towards a particular class. The first scene in the movie shown a quote:” Animals, drums, illiterates, low castes, and women are worthy of being beaten”. Phoolan faced sexual and exploitative abuses, including the caste system. This movie shows many scenes of rape and sexual humiliation, including a horrifying sequence in which she is raped by most of the upper-caste men of a village and forced to walk naked through its streets.
In the following scene, police forced Phoolen to touch the feet of upper-class people to show her gratitude towards them.
Microaggressions:
Diverse social construct result in microaggressions that create discriminatory issues that are responsible for an imbalance in the society
“implies the oblivious activities that reject or minimize mistreated gathering submitted by the special meeting (Brookfield, 2014).
It depends on our behavior and activities how we live in a society. If people have a negative attitude towards feminism and the lower class, then inequality exists.
-Segregation is how we contemplate others, and bias powers the oppressive conduct by supporting our activities (Johnson, 2017).
This film highlights that upper cast activities created problems for the lower caste and female gender. For example, lower social class people were not allowed to take water from the well with the help of a pulley. The higher social status group raped females for their greed.
Meritocracy
– “A social system that allows people to achieve success proportionate to their talents and abilities, as opposed to one in which social class or wealth is the controlling factor” (Johnson, 2017, p.12). In the movie, she took her revenge with her ability from her husband and upper-class people that sexually and physically abused her. As a bandit, she takes her place beside men in a society that refuses to believe a woman is capable of such a thing.
diversity 