Return to search

We Don't Need Cinderella: Changing Gender Identities on YouTube Comedy in India

This paper analyses the emergent voices of young Indians in YouTube comedy sketches. As a format, YouTube comedy sketches have become popular among Indian youth for their ability to critique cultural norms, albeit with a sense of humor. Through a textual analysis of shows produced by YouTube comedy groups, this paper will survey the emergent voices in YouTube comedy and how they challenge mainstream Indian media. Comedy YouTube channels offer a humorous take on issues related to street harassment, marital rape, religion and politics. The content and design of the shows are aimed to dismantle existing portrayals of youth in Indian media and question tradition. The sketches usually show women and men redefining their identities and offering new perspectives on Indian issues by employing satire and parody. This paper therefore investigates how Indians are using humor to create traction for various issues and using YouTube as a platform to criticize gender norms.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:uoregon.edu/oai:scholarsbank.uoregon.edu:1794/22677
Date06 September 2017
CreatorsChaudhury, Sharmista
ContributorsStabile, Carol
PublisherUniversity of Oregon
Source SetsUniversity of Oregon
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
RightsAll Rights Reserved.

Page generated in 0.0018 seconds