The Western Gaze

I have finally managed to pinpoint my problem that the producers of the reality TV show Indian matchmaking were American. Arranged marriages come in many colours and shapes but the show chose the most regressive forms and featured the most obnoxious people one could imagine. These were not just normalized and glamorized and presented to Western audiences as the norm in India. The modern equivalent of the stereotype of India being the land of elephants and snake-charmers. The implicit message was that if Western audiences recoiled at these regressive practices they were being racist. This is just the way things are done in India--don't judge, just be entertained.
Ho Western audiences perceive films made in the Global South is an interesting subject. My mind goes back to when I watched a film set in small-town India with a Dutch friend in Holland. The friend was appalled by the scene in which the police interrupt a young couple in a hotel room and accuse them of indecency. After the movie, this Dutch friend did not hide her shock at the scene and put herself in the position of the couple. I squirmed. The scene in the film was not an exaggeration, but it was not from the India that I come from. I had nothing to say, in this instance. But, that was a feature film, not a carefully curated reality TV show which glamorized the worst aspects of the institution of arranged marriage and perpetuated the worst stereotypes about India.