Open Collections

Salh, Erin

University of British Columbia

This thesis investigates how TikTok serves as an imaginative space for South Asian women in diaspora to deepen their self-identity, through the consumption of Indian cinema on the platform. I argue that through community spaces that are created on TikTok, South Asian women are able to produce a sense of self, and combat white feminist influences they may have encountered in Western colonial environments. This project centers three films in Indian cinema: Diwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (2001), and Devdas (2003), and focuses on nine TikToks that were inspired by content curated on my own TikTok feed. I chose these pieces as they are indicative of the films’ fandom and illustrate the role Indian cinema has played for South Asian women in identity formation. This project situates itself in feminist, race, and diasporic studies, and is greatly inspired by the work of Arjun Appadurai, Avtar Brah, bell hooks, and Rafia Zakaria. I employ multimodal discourse analysis throughout this thesis to showcase the layers of media involved when examining a TikTok post, I delve into the meaning behind social media interactions, including the implications of liking, saving, posting, commenting, and sharing. In addition, I utilize this method when investigating the significance of scenes, characters, plot lines, cinematography, and songs in the films being studied. I provide an examination of why the messages in Indian cinema, such as women being complex and dynamic, are significant and differ from representations of South Asian women in Western media. As well, I concentrate on depictions of South Asian men and how Indian cinema allows South Asian women to understand themselves and their sexual desires. I then consider how Indian cinema fandom and content creators develop communities of care, and how user communication on TikTok is indicative of feminist acts themselves.

Text

2025-04-14

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/90640

Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/