Role, portrayal and perception of women in selected Hausa movies

Abstract

The issue of role and portrayal of women in media and videos has been an issue and constantly advocated for change by feminist film theorist. The stereotype of women by the kind of role they play and how they are portrayed tends to be negative and demeaning, this problem is global, from Hollywood, to Bollywood, Nollywood and Kannywood. The situation in Nollywood is characterized by gender disparity in the portrayal of women. The study employed the Qualitative survey research design. Design is generally based on a social constructivism perspective. Which may not be align to set statistical calculations, as well as the use of interviews, focus group discussions, observation or qualitative content analysis. The sample of the study is 3 movies popularly selected based on informal opinion research on popularly selected based on informal opinion research on population. The study sampled 12 persons who had recently watched the select videos. They are composed of teenager, Muslim women and Christian women. Since the data are qualitative, the study used the thematic narrative approach to analyse data. The study finds that the general agreement on the portrayal of Muslim women in Hausa movies is that of negativity and bad example, domestication and subjection. The conclusion is that the portrayals of Muslim women in Hausa movies are not encouraging and inspiring to women, this implies that there is need for changes in the portrayals and role-played by women in Hausa movies.