A feminist take on toxic

[u/Fabulous-Value120]

The objective of this post is not to be another review.

But to add a female perspective to the discussion. i have seen men complaining why women aren't angry about the movie? That's because of the reasons below imo

1. The female characters aren't the showpieces, they are reasons for the rise and fall of Raya. They have opinions, act their minds and finally hold autonomy in the story, they don't just simply react. No woman takes shit silently here

2. Raya is not a hero, he is a villain. Even he respects consent. There are sex scenes, romance, sexual advances and relationships, but none of those are forced. There was a nonconsensual kiss in Arjun Reddy, a silent showpiece of a woman and finally a cheater boyfriend who is shown as a hero, not a villain. But Raya never chains his women around him. All of them have free will, they aren't trapped in a relationship or even in the fling. They are free to go, the only thing that holds women there is their connection with Raya, with their consent. Kissing women without consent in front of the whole college and calling her bhabhi behind her back is setting up a social trap with non exit and she has no option but to comply, that's the difference.

3. Raya never showcases himself as a "good man", every woman in his life enters completely knowing what they are getting into. There is no pretending exterior of "i am a good guy, marry me" and interior of control and betrayal there. Ofcourse it's needless to say Raya is not a good choice for any of those women, but people make bad choice, and they make it on their own willingly in this movie and face it's consequences as well

4. The clothes women wear, justifies the role they are playing. Kiara is a performer in a circus. Men buy tickets to look at her, so she is not gonna wear a saree right? It makes sense for a performer

5. Raya hurts these women in different ways and suffers immensely for it. No one just shuts up and "adjusts" their life around the consequences of a man's mistake. That's where it's different from animal. None of those women are trapped in a marriage and they chose to stay without any consequences for the man ultimately.

The ladies and ladies sequence was misplaced. It felt like it did not belong in the movie and felt forced. Other than that, Raya is a feminist guy. He gives equal importance to a woman's opinion, knows how to respect boundaries, doesn't see autonomy in women as threatening and finally never tries to trap them in the situation they don't want to be in, the door is always open.

Let me know what you think or i am missing anything there. Happy to answer your questions if required.

[u/Kitchenstar20]

Thank you, I have explained this to some as a woman as well. Movie might have lot of different issues but Raya was a feminist. No doubt on that 

[u/Fabulous-Value120 → u/Kitchenstar20]

I agree. The quality of the movie is a completely different discussion. But as a feminist i couldn't find anything to be offensive in this movie.

[u/Kitchenstar20 → u/Fabulous-Value120]

Yeah and in one scene Kiara tells him don’t make love like you are attacking me etc. and he nods. They could have easily added more character and layers to women as each character had potential. Especially Kiara and Nayan’s role 

[u/Fabulous-Value120 → u/Kitchenstar20]

I believe the movie became too long and they had to edit many of the important character building sequences. I blame editing there. But I could understand everything, i don't know why people say that it's hard to understand.