I’m (not) sorry if I am not your ideal ‘Punjabi Kudi’. I am not a gold digger, don’t dress up like a doll for boys, and am not dependent on them for anything either. But that’s exactly what Punjabi songs make women look like, downright ‘objects’ begging for money and expensive things from boys, or dressing up in body-fitting tight clothes to please the ‘male gaze’.
One of the several examples is the song ‘Naah’ sung by Harrdy Sandhu. In brief, the girl repeatedly demands luxurious items but the boy keeps denying buying them for her. “Kudi mainu kehndi, mehnu jutti lede sohneya, maikeya naa goriye” (The girl asks me to buy her a pair of shoes, and I say no). The guy thinks that she should not demand materialistic things and love him unconditionally, and if she cannot love him then she can go die drowning. This message has been articulated by the line, “Mainu pyar ni je de sakdi, ja doob ke mar jaani.” If labeling women as gold diggers weren’t good enough, the girl in the video also says that if the guy cannot give her the things she wants, she is okay with it as 36 more men are trying to ‘woo’ her. This is a very damaging representation of how women are viewed in society.
Then, there’s Honey Singh. In his song, “Lak 28 Kudi Da”, there is this mind-blowingly creative lyric, “Lak twenty eight kudi da, forty-seven weight kudi da” (The waist of the girl is 28, and her weight is 47). In the same song, they say that even the motti (fat girl) got married but she’s still single. Now, if this isn’t outright body shaming then, what is?
This is wrong on so many levels, especially for Punjabi music, which is carving its way into the mainstream. With so many people listening to such music, it is conveying the message that women exist to please men and love them for the sake of the fulfillment of their worldly pleasures, being coy and smiling.
If these songs are how people get entertained, I am truly left to wonder!
Author: Pranavee Singhal
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