“Strong Woman Is Always Considered a Threat”: Gender Injustice and Epistemic Exclusion in Hindi Drama Series Scoop (2023)

Abstract

This article examines structures of gender injustice and epistemic exclusion in professional spaces by referring to Jigna Vora's arbitrary detention and its representation in the Hindi-language drama series Scoop (2023). Vora, once a reputed female journalist, was framed in a nexus of media, police, and politics. The analysis reveals how the subversive presence of a “strong woman” in scooping and crime reporting generates a disciplinary response against her. Using feminist discourse analysis and the theory of epistemic injustice, the article conceptualizes epistemic exclusion and examines layers of discrimination that are instrumentalized to exclude, marginalize, and victimise subversive gender role in a particular social and organizational context. The analysis also explores residual subtlety within the discourse of epistemic injustice by drawing on primary and secondary resistance that come into play while situating Vora's subversive role as a female reporter. Primary resistance comes through actions performed by those who intrude into the hegemonic social system, trying to dismantle its power structure and legitimacy. It is an action or counter-episteme working against that of a larger existing one. Secondary resistance is what obstructs the primary resistance and comes from those in dominant positions who try to victimize, exclude, and silence the intruding subjects so that the hegemonic epistemic hierarchy remains intact.