With its catchy music and peppy beats, Punjabi music has the power to make everyone groove. However, the Punjabi music industry is infamous for its misogynistic and anti-feminist songs that objectify women. Not only male singers, but female artists also compose Punjabi music with sexist undertones and forward the narrative of patriarchy, being women themselves.
Objectification and comparing women’s bodies to explosives and alcohol
Objectifying women’s bodies and comparing them to bottles of alcohol or firecrackers is not an uncommon trope, and is present in songs sung by women as well. ‘Bamb Aagya’, a song by Jalandhar-born Jasmine Sandlas, compares the woman’s body to a bomb.
Not only male singers, but female artists also compose Punjabi music with sexist undertones and forward the narrative of patriarchy, being women themselves.
‘Main jithe jaawan munde kehnde bamb aagaya‘
This translates to ‘wherever I go, guys say, the bomb has arrived,’ and the bomb connotes an “attractive” woman. Having nearly 200 million views on YouTube, the song gives the impression that women accept objectification and enjoy the un-asked-for comments men make about their bodies.
The analogy of the eyes being two bottles of alcohol finds place in Sandlas’s hit ‘Sip Sip.’ It calls for the man to take sips from the bottles and represents women as a feast for men to enjoy. The chorus of the 2018 song goes-
‘Mere nain ne sharab diyan do botalaan
Enna botalaan chon sip sip pee ve.’
The criminal woman vs the “feminine” woman in Punjabi music
‘Barood Wargi’ is a song written and sung by Simiran Kaur Dhadli, a Punjabi singer often revered as “Female Sidhu Moosewala.”
‘Jatti ae barood wargi
Rakhe raund’an naal yaraane laake‘
In an attempt to present an alternative to the “feminine” woman, Dhadli presents a dangerous alternative who indulges in crime, gun culture, and violence.
These lines mean, ‘The girl is like gunpowder, she maintains a strong friendship with bullet cartridges.‘ The song shows that she is not the ideal daughter-in-law who conforms to patriarchal gender roles or fits into the normative image of a woman. In an attempt to present an alternative to the “feminine” woman, Dhadli presents a dangerous alternative who indulges in crime, gun culture, and violence. This notoriety is glorified in this song having 26 million views on YouTube.
‘Raati bhabhi banda thok gayi phone aun ge‘
This translates to ‘You would get calls saying that I shot a man last night.’ ‘Barood Wargi’ constantly tries to associate women with hypermasculine qualities and has anti-women ideologies playing in the background.
Slut shaming feminists who exercise agency over their bodies
Dhadli’s song ‘Lahu Di Awaaz‘ is problematic on multiple levels and received heavy criticism post its release in 2021. Being explicitly anti-feminist, the song valorises femininity sanctioned by patriarchy and slut shames women who exercise their right of choice. The song’s poster showcases Sikh religious figures and women in traditional Punjabi clothing and contrasts them to screen grabs of women in “revealing” clothing.
‘Mainu lage dimaagi taur te aaj kal kudiyaan ne bimaar…
Jo mashoor hon layi leerein laundiyaan firdiyaan ne‘
This line sums up the “message” Dhadli’s song intends to convey and means that young women are mentally sick today as they “take off” their clothes to become famous. By criticising women who post photographs of themselves wearing certain clothes, the song acts as a moral police. It devalues individual freedom, the right to choose what to wear, and women’s agency over their bodies. The song also forwards the idea that women wear clothes to please men.
‘Mar ja doob ke jism dikha ke paise vatdi aen‘
Feminism is attacked and demonised throughout the song and in this line, the singer calls for feminists to die with shame as they earn money by “revealing” their bodies.
The woman vs woman trope
In her song ‘Sandal’ released in 2021, Punjabi singer Sunanda Sharma compares her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend to her footwear.
‘Teri navi saheli de naalo mere sanal sohne aan‘
With a combination of demeaning and objectifying lyrics, it follows the good woman vs bad woman trope where the good woman is “simple” and the bad wears makeup and dresses up.
This translates to ‘My sandals are prettier than your new girlfriend.’ With a combination of demeaning and objectifying lyrics, it follows the good woman vs bad woman trope where the good woman is “simple” and the bad wears makeup and dresses up. She even goes to the extent of saying that her ex’s new girlfriend does black magic, which is a sharp tool often used to portray women as vamps.
Internalised misogyny: the reason behind sexist music by female Punjabi artists
But why do female artists, being women themselves, compose songs that loathe other women or represent them as objects? The answer is internalised misogyny- a sexist ideology and attitude adopted by women that is against other women and the woman within them. In a patriarchal society, internalised misogyny is a common phenomenon that takes place when women believe the unequal gender notions taught since childhood to be true.
Internalised misogyny manifests itself when women despise girls who are “girly” and judge those who wear “revealing” clothes, as evident from Simiran Kaur Dhadli’s songs. It plays behind the acceptance of objectification in Jasmine Sanadlas’s songs and forms the basis of jealousy between women, as portrayed in Sunanda Sharma’s ‘Sandal.’
When music with sexist connotations is composed by women themselves, it conveys that women accept patriarchy. This further validates the social system and pushes an already patriarchal society deeper into the trenches of male dominance.
