By Avanija Katiyar:
Women have always been a very important part of the society. This is so because a woman plays various roles in her life, that of a daughter, sister, mother and so on and this helps in framing of a society in which we live. That is why she has been respected from earlier times till date. But in today’s fast changing world it has been noticed that women are mostly being treated as mere pleasure objects by men.
It is said that visuals leave a greater impact on a person’s mind compared to being bombarded only by words of mouth or written text. This is in fact true as one can recall things easily that one has witnessed or seen rather than what has been read; and if the visuals are with text then it leaves all the more impact on a person as a whole. For example: Films, advertisements, magazines etc.
Today the advertising industry is one among the fastest growing industries not only in our country but across the world. Almost every company, institution and services take the help of advertisements or ads to make people aware of their products and services. Advertisements not only inform people about the new brands available in the market or about the upcoming ones but also help in creating a need for the product in the mind of the viewers. They also help in building a brand’s image and creating a niche for the same in the market.
Due to the availability of similar products from different companies in the market, the consumers get a wide variety to choose from. In this scenario every company wants to publicize its product in such a way that it can attract more and more customers to get hold of the same. Thus, they make use of advertisements to popularize their product.
Advertisements can be of various forms and sizes, depending upon the budget provided by a company/client to an ad agency. These agencies make the ads for their client keeping in mind the target audience for the product. They decide as to what kind of ad would be suitable for the product and where. For example: whether the ad should be a commercial one or a print ad and so on.
On one hand where these ads/advertisements help in the sale of products on the other hand the same ads are hampering the image of a woman. Most of the advertisements shown on television today make use of women in order to enhance/increase the sale of the products.
Women are being portrayed as mere sex objects in most of the ads. They have been shown as a weaker section of the society who can be easily get carried away by men. In ads like that of perfumes and bikes the products are compared with that of a woman’s body. For example the AXE effect (perfumes/deodorant’s) advertisement, wherein after the usage of the perfume all young girls try to jump on the man, who has applied it. Moreover, the girls/women used for the different kinds of ads are shown to be fair and exceptionally thin. This has created a negative image of women in society, and high expectations amongst families and peers.
These advertisements leave an impression on a common man’s mind that a woman is just an object, which can exploited easily as she is weak by nature and always needs a man for her protection. This type of projection of women is termed as stereotyping.
Well, not only men but even women who come in contact with such ads start feeling inferior of themselves as they are not as pretty or thin as compared to the actors or models shown in advertisements. Though there are certain guidelines provided to the ad agencies by ASCI (Advertising Standards Council of India) with regards to the making of advertisements, these guidelines are not kept in mind most of the times while framing an advertisement.
Now the biggest question to think about is that whether making money is more important than the dignity of a woman. Who has the answer? Do comment in the section below.
Grow up, Avanija. I’m not against the sentiments of women community as a whole. I felt your argument to rather childish. The reason being that it is entirely the choice of the artists, the company and director to choose such a theme.
Going by your argument, then there should no adult movies, intimate scenes or any such creation which is male dominant. To a certain extend Indian film making is dominated by male chauvinistic themes, I agree. But the blame should be equally shared by the female artists also. It is only because they are willing (take item songs) and in pursuit of easy money and fame.
As far as the advertisements are concerned, the film makers only job is create an ad which touches the pulse of the public. He does what exactly the aam-admi wants -Masala. It’s a vicious circle with a demand-supply element just like poverty in India.
The unfortunate part if the story is that most women don’t realise that they are being exploited and they are more than willing and eager to let themselves get objectified.These ads prevail because there are women who are willing to make them.So, it is the women who should realise that all these ads are actually demeaning them to the level of objects to be enjoyed by men in the pretext of empowering them.
I do not agree with some of the points stated in this article. You have talked about how women are shown running behind a man in the Axe perfume ad. In what way does that demean women? Some other ads show random guys ogling at a lady just because she has used X soap/cream/perfume! Now, does that demean men? I don’t think so. Ad-makers are there to produce ads and sell their products. If attention from the opposite sex initiates people to consume a certain product, they are certain to make such ads. Such perfume/soap/cream ads do not give an upper edge to any of the sex. Yes, they are nuisance. But your point doesn’t seem to be valid much. Morover, if ‘fair and slim’ females in ads give inferiority complex to other ladies. Should we ban movies, tv serials and every other thing running on Tv too?
i completely agree with sanika’s point..very well said..
Women are himself enemy of theirs. Why I am saying so because I saw in many occasions that women are very jealous of each other. If they wants real freedom then they should be cooperative with each other and they have to leave the cheep fashioning of their body for the sake of money. yes, by nature they are weak but they have gift of the nature like motherhood, pettiness, softness to make a family more happy. But some of them are so ambitious that they can do anything some are the victim of their conditions. So I think that if they wants to break the shekel of men governing society they should have to come forward and bring a movement in every aspect of life whether in family, work field or in elsewhere. Nobody wants to leave his power it have to be grabbed through a long struggle. They have to fight unitedly forgetting all the dissimilarities among them.
i think that what your stating is partially true but not totally..there have been several debates about this topic in the past..true its probably a way over exaggeration for women to run towards a man when he uses a particular deodrant…but thats just a way of presenting an ad…and there are ads that show women as supereior to men in so many ways….
its just that for the AXE ad the audience is MEN…and the only thing that would probably connect with that target audience is WOMEN…so i dnt find it any way insulting the stature of women…its probably jus spelling out facts clearly…There are ads that show men begging and at the mercy of hands of women too…but i don’t see men complaining about it….
and yes sanika seems to be right i agree with her too…
Yes we should and we will.