{"id":17348,"date":"2019-06-15T09:30:15","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T04:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak?p=17348"},"modified":"2019-06-14T16:08:02","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T10:38:02","slug":"on-tiktok-the-party-dont-start-till-these-women-walk-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/on-tiktok-the-party-dont-start-till-these-women-walk-in\/","title":{"rendered":"On TikTok, the Party Don\u2019t Start Till These Women Walk In"},"content":{"rendered":"
By ALICE MCCOOL & SOPHIE HEMERY<\/a><\/div>\n
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A safer place for young people to showcase their talents<\/p>\n

One hour before leaving the house every day, I make TikToks,\u201d says\u00a0Sarah Gill<\/a>, a 23-year-old TikTok user in Pakistan. \u201cThen I post them over the next few days.\u201d Gill is a medical student and transgender rights activist who works as a dancer, model, and sex worker. She enjoys TikTok \u2013 which she describes as \u201clike another job\u201d \u2013 and has 30,000 followers.<\/p>\n

Chinese video-sharing app TikTok (previously Musical.ly) has become a craze among teenagers and young people around the world, with its lipsyncing videos spreading fast across social media and giving birth to millions of memes. Globally, 41 per cent of TikTok\u2019s so-called \u201cmusers\u201d are\u00a0between<\/a>\u00a016 and 24.<\/p>\n

In South Asia, musers typically lip sync songs and dialogues from Bollywood and other film industries in the region. In India\u00a0alone<\/a>\u00a0there are 20 million active users – perhaps unsurprising in the home of the world\u2019s largest film industry, which is\u00a0forecasted<\/a>\u00a0to be worth around 229 billion Indian rupees (over three billion US dollars) by 2023. In South Asia, people\u2019s love of film verges on obsession. Popular songs and dialogues are known by heart, and actors are worshipped like gods. Many young people dream of a life of fame and fortune in the region\u2019s film industries, though in reality this is largely reserved for the elite few.<\/p>\n

But TikTok is giving young people \u2013 particularly women \u2013 in South Asia a new avenue to showcase their talents. While for the majority of women using the app their fame is exclusive to TikTok, an increasing number are able to use it to get paid work. And for many, the platform represents a scarce opportunity for bodily autonomy, and a chance to carve out space as a performer in the face of film and fashion industries that shut them out. \u201cIt gives women an opportunity to be visible,\u201d says Gill, explaining that transgender women especially are excluded from the mainstream celebrity realm.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince my childhood, I watched TV stars, models\u2026 I wanted to be like them,\u201d says 27-year-old Pakistani muser\u00a0Jiya Khan<\/a>, also transgender. \u201cBeing on TV is a faraway thing, it\u2019s very difficult for transgender people to get work, but when I make TikToks I feel like a star.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Hollywood, Bollywood and other film industries in South Asia have restrictive beauty standards. In India, for example, class is a major factor: women who are dark-skinned (which can indicate a lower caste) and women who do not speak English are unlikely to be accepted into mainstream cinema. Yet on TikTok, these barriers don\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

Rehana<\/a>\u00a0is a makeup artist and hairdresser in the Keralan film industry in southern India \u2013 and an avid muser of classic Bollywood songs. \u201cThe people who are using TikTok are very ordinary people, maybe they are dark-skinned, who in the privacy of their rooms create these videos\u201d she says in Malayalam. \u201cYou really see people who otherwise don\u2019t get opportunities in cinema or to have a chance in public life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt that it is a big opportunity to express our talent and taste, and what we are capable of. It is a very important thing as a route to get into acting \u2013 maybe \u2013 for people like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The app has given \u201cquite a few people a chance in cinema, to become stars on television, and be invited for shows,\u201d Rehana added, explaining that because musers know others have become famous this way \u201cpeople are building up their portfolios on TikTok\u2026 expecting to break into the film industry using this platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Mirnalini Ravi, 23, graduated as an engineer in Bangalore, she did not expect to end up on screen. She says that at first TikTok was a hobby, but her videos \u2013 often lip syncing romantic comedy dialogues and songs \u2013 soon got noticed by directors and she landed her first acting role, in a big budget Tamil film released last month. She has three more films in the pipeline, playing lead roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge deal for someone to go from nothing, to just make some videos, and get an opportunity in a huge film with hugely experienced actors,\u201d she says. Ravi adds that ordinarily women with no connections in film have to contend with nepotism and\u00a0casting couch<\/a>\u00a0to get a foot in the door \u2013 but she says TikTok \u201coffers a huge platform (for) normal people\u201d to access a safer route into the industry.<\/p>\n

Gill, too, gets approached for acting work as a result of her TikTok content, but as a transgender woman faces additional issues. \u201cI get a lot of offers but the problem is that they offer very degrading roles to the transgender community, they always portray us as some kind of joke,\u201d she says. Gill has no interest in accepting such offers, but says that, conversely, on TikTok she can \u201cpresent myself the way I like, when I want, where I want, and with whom \u2013 it\u2019s all in my hands.\u201d Gill\u2019s TikTok profile ranges from emotionally-charged monologues, to political messages, to a Fifty Shades of Grey-themed performance.<\/p>\n

For some women, including Gill, TikTok is also a space for sexual expression. She sometimes makes erotic videos on the app, and finds the autonomy liberating, explaining: \u201cOnly what I consent to will be there.\u201d She says she \u2013 like other models, dancers and sex workers \u2013 uses TikTok to attract and vet potential clients, too. As your following grows, she says, \u201cdemand increases\u201d, and you can charge a higher fee for your work.<\/p>\n

She says she uses the app for \u201cfeminist messages; I say, \u2018Why should I hide my body, or not eat this? We are women and we have rights.\u201d. She believes the app is also helping to reduce transphobia. Whilst society stereotypes transgender women, she says the varied content on TikTok by performers of many identities challenges people to \u201cchange their views\u201d.<\/p>\n

Muslim women donning modest fashion are also expressing themselves and their talents on TikTok. In Pakistan, Ayesha, 24, publishes videos under the the username\u00a0@niqabiqueen786<\/a>. In her videos she wears a niqab and acts with her eyes and hands only, as well as sometimes doing hijab tying and eye makeup tutorials. \u201cI like the concept that we have to act\u2026 a whole story in just a minute,\u201d she told Dazed, adding that she is interested in acting but believes the mainstream film industry isn\u2019t accessible to her. \u201cI know it is very difficult to wear a niqab and perform something. I know no-one can have the opportunity to wear a niqab and act in movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the popular app is facing government backlashes in the region. Earlier this month the Madras High Court in Tamil Nadu passed an order\u00a0prohibiting\u00a0<\/a>its download and use, following privacy concerns and earlier\u00a0claims<\/a>\u00a0the app is causing \u2018cultural degradation\u2019 of teenagers. And last month, India\u2019s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology asked Google and Apple to\u00a0remove<\/a>\u00a0TikTok from their app stores \u2013 preventing any new downloads.\u00a0Recently<\/a>, Google and Apple complied with the request.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile in Bangladesh, the app has become the latest target of the country\u2019s \u2018war against\u00a0pornograph<\/a>y\u2019, and one muser \u2013 emerging actor\u00a0Sanayee Mahbob\u00a0<\/a>\u2013 was told by police to remove \u2018provocative images<\/a>\u2019 from her TikTok and other social media pages.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want content which goes against our social norms,\u201d a police official\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0AFP. In response, Mahbob\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0the videos \u201cpart of my modelling career and part of my freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n

While many of TikTok\u2019s critics are motivated by patriarchal policing of women\u2019s bodies, there are also legitimate concerns around privacy and safety \u201cFor people like me\u2026 they have honour killings, and sometimes I get scared if my family or a dangerous ex can trace me,\u201d Gill told Dazed.<\/p>\n

And in February 2019, TikTok was\u00a0fined<\/a>\u00a0$5.7 million in Bangladesh for illegally collecting personal information from children, and exposure to \u2018sexual predators\u2019 is\u00a0cited<\/a>\u00a0in Tamil Nadu\u2019s recent decision to ban the app.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s true to an extent that musers are free to post a version of themselves they are comfortable with on TikTok, they may also face backlash from other users and censorship from the app itself. As with other platforms, women wanting to share \u2018suggestive\u2019 or sexual content often face repercussions. \u201cInitially they weren\u2019t blocking any videos\u201d says Gill, \u201cbut now they block a lot, and also people report and post negative comments.\u201d One one occasion, Gill performed a Bollywood dialogue on TikTok, in which she flirts: \u201cWhen people want to see heaven, they come to me.\u201d In response, a man launched a police complaint against her for blasphemy. \u201cThe guy filed the complaint as I didn\u2019t want to meet him,\u201d she says, \u201cbut it\u2019s my body, and I decide who I sleep with\u201d.<\/p>\n

One tragic case in Tamil Nadu saw a 23-year-old commit suicide following cyberbullying on TikTok and abuse from family members for wearing women\u2019s clothing in his videos. In the last video he posted he\u00a0said<\/a>: \u201cI will do things which I prefer. Although I have uploaded many videos in a male role, why do the haters continue to hurt me when I am posing as a woman?\u201d<\/p>\n

But despite the potentially dangerous drawbacks, TikTok is \u201ca very interesting space\u201d of relative freedom for women otherwise restricted by the pressures of tradition and family, says Nighat Dad, founder of the Digital Rights Foundation in Pakistan. \u201cThey can showcase their talent, their sexuality\u2026 and also get work through it,\u201d she says.As more and more women gain smartphone and internet access, TikTok in South Asia has arisen as a defining space for many young aspirants who are otherwise excluded not only from the entertainment industry, but society at large. And whilst the app shares the many problems of other social media platforms – privacy, safety, abuse, censorship – the musers we spoke to were clear: TikTok is a unique space for self-expression and liberation.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstagram is used by smart and educated people,\u201d says Kajol Suborno, a 26-year old emerging actor in Bangladesh, \u201cbut when TikTok came, everybody downloaded it: educated, uneducated, poor, village girls \u2013 if they have a smartphone, they have TikTok.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTikTok puts everything in my hands: I am the director, I am the make-up artist, I am the writer. I do what I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story is part of\u00a0Bolly Lolly Dhal<\/a>ly,<\/a>\u00a0a collaborative European Journalism Centre project platforming stories of women and feminism in the film industries of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cover photo: Sarah Gill using TikTok (Alice McCool)<\/p>\n

This article was republished by The Citizen. It was originally published here.<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But TikTok is giving young people \u2013 particularly women \u2013 in South Asia a new avenue to showcase their talents. While for the majority of women using the app their fame is exclusive to TikTok, an increasing number are able to use it to get paid work. And for many, the platform represents a scarce opportunity for bodily autonomy, and a chance to carve out space as a performer in the face of film and fashion industries that shut them out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":17349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,1,1989],"tags":[2020,686,440,25,921,2019,617],"class_list":{"0":"post-17348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog-roll","8":"category-categories","9":"category-class-and-sexuality","10":"tag-bodily-autonomy","11":"tag-class","12":"tag-internet","13":"tag-sexualities","14":"tag-south-asian-women","15":"tag-tiktok","16":"tag-work"},"menu_order":544,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17348"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17362,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17348\/revisions\/17362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}