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Do They Really Need To Show Sex Crazed Women To Sell Soap?

By Youth Ki Awaaz in Media
19th November, 2013

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By Abha Gosavi:

I don’t know how many of you have seen the recent soap advertisement where a gang of ‘hot chicks’ bribe a group of kids with chocolate to get a handsome guy play football with them. The lusty girls watch as the guy rolls around in the mud taking off his clothes. At the end of the game, the girls run at him all equipped with hosepipes and a soap. Really? That’s the best you can do to sell a soap?

AD

I was disgusted to see that advertisement. I was indeed outraged and infuriated. There was this another advertisement where a guy cuts trees while a couple of girls steal his shirt. The macho man then takes off on his bike, overtakes the girls, shows them some of his macho attitude, and off again on his bike – topless! Again! The whole idea makes no sense! The connection between topless men and the endless competition to sell men products is one I’ll never fathom. The portrayal of women in all recent advertisements as forever desperate about men has deeper consequences than what we perceive. Its not just the sheer disgust these gimmicks cause, its a lot more.

Its really ironic that such advertisements are increasing against the background of rising crime against women in India. A great number of factors are responsible for these crimes. But this one I can clearly see. These advertisements could really be one of the smaller forces in driving an increasing number of men to molest girls, women, and most unfortunately, even minors. I can almost see it in my minds eye, a guy from the shanties in Delhi or Mumbai views the advertisement on a television set with all his gully-mohalle friends. They say, ‘What a great way to get the items to notice us!’. With little or no education, this section of our society is most prone to believe such stupid advertisements. So, off they go to the kirana store and get the magic soaps and perfumes and what-nots. Having applied all the said materials in copious amounts they set off in gangs to get the girls. ‘So where to go?’, they say. The slightly more sagacious of the group suggests a girls’ college campus. If they don’t have ‘babes’ there, they are not going to have them anywhere! Oh my God! What a sight! Girls all around; dressed in jeans, skirts and even ones in salwar kameez to suit the tastes of the more conservative ones. When the objects of their fantasy pass them without even the slightest notice, oh their masculinity is challenged! How dare that weak little thing ignore my intoxicating perfume? Why isn’t she running at me with hosepipes and soap even though I am all covered in muck? Lets show this girl her place! And then they go, in gangs, to make her pay a price for her impudence. What happens further, I need not even mention.

Is it not so obvious that such small things as advertisements could cause the staggering crimes that have been gripping our nation? Is it so important for the manufacturing industry to sell its products in a way that can let off a chain reaction that can shake the nation? Or maybe the sales people are so blinded by a worn out advertising gimmick that they just can’t foresee the social repercussions of their actions. The national authorities set up a censor board for smoking scenes and explicit content in movies, but why not for these advertisements? Those two or three minutes of effective publicity can be imprinted quite permanently on the minds of the youth. One small step to avoid crime against women, let’s censor our advertisements and find an alternative to explicit content for sale of mundane objects.

You must be to comment.

  1. Geetika Agarwal

    And you have never appreciated a fine body playing football in the grounds? Really? Try taking things in a less serious and outraged manner. Oh and the urge to rape doesn’t come from the psychological nitpicking from ads, it comes from the assumption that a woman is nothing but a possession without a mind or say. Something that this particular ad kind of disproves by all the scheming the gals do. So yea, chill out and go start sex education classes in the places you mentioned rather than making ridiculous breast-beating articles.

  2. Atanu Chatterjee

    This is the last possible stupid thing that can happen. I am really amazed and amused: censor the ads also from now on…

  3. Abhyuday Gupta

    Don’t you think you are making mountain out of mole-hill here. Don’t tell me these ideas about sex-crazed women gives the idea of rape to the perverted mind. Women appreciate hot bods and to use that fact isn’t blasphemous. Rather, not acknowledging it is more ridiculous, don’t you think? However, what’s wrong with being sex-crazed, everybody wants it, so why hide it?

  4. Ankit

    Dumbest article I have ever read on this site.Telling that women should not show their desires towards men in advertisement or popular media, is no better than moral policing. “Wear proper clothes, don’t talk to strangers, don’t go out at night ….or you will entice someone”.. our society already has too much of this. This is what happens when people are too fixated in their own prudish culture and do not see what is happening in the rest of the world. Many developed nations have far less assaults/crimes and women over their are far more open about their sexuality.
    Lack of quality education, bad parenting and some hindi films are far more guilty in this regards and need to be taken care of first, rather than focusing your attention on such trivial nonsense.

    1. ila

      true bro!

  5. Nitin

    I bet writer is a fat chick, or from a feminist group. I mean whats wrong with this ahole.

  6. ila

    Why can’t women display their sexuality? What is the problem with that? We would like to see some more topless men on the television screen as opposed to mostly topless women! Also videos and advertisements are not really the chief cause of crimes against women. It is largely about opportunity, and establishing their male dominance and social conditioning. A small advertisement cannot really make a big difference especially when there are pornography video parlour being run in those chawls, and shanties. At least this advert is one step ahead from depicting an Indian woman as a shy, coy girl who is forced to subdue her sexuality.

  7. aby

    No, Abha you are NOT over reacting, or need to lighten up. You said the right thing. There;s too much negativity in the comment section. So, I’ll just say keep posting such articles. As for me, I can’t sit through TV at all these days.

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An ambassador and trained facilitator under Eco Femme (a social enterprise working towards menstrual health in south India), Sanjina is also an active member of the MHM Collective- India and Menstrual Health Alliance- India. She has conducted Menstrual Health sessions in multiple government schools adopted by Rotary District 3240 as part of their WinS project in rural Bengal. She has also delivered training of trainers on SRHR, gender, sexuality and Menstruation for Tomorrow’s Foundation, Vikramshila Education Resource Society, Nirdhan trust and Micro Finance, Tollygunj Women In Need, Paint It Red in Kolkata.

Now as an MH Fellow with YKA, she’s expanding her impressive scope of work further by launching a campaign to facilitate the process of ensuring better menstrual health and SRH services for women residing in correctional homes in West Bengal. The campaign will entail an independent study to take stalk of the present conditions of MHM in correctional homes across the state and use its findings to build public support and political will to take the necessary action.

Saurabh has been associated with YKA as a user and has consistently been writing on the issue MHM and its intersectionality with other issues in the society. Now as an MHM Fellow with YKA, he’s launched the Right to Period campaign, which aims to ensure proper execution of MHM guidelines in Delhi’s schools.

The long-term aim of the campaign is to develop an open culture where menstruation is not treated as a taboo. The campaign also seeks to hold the schools accountable for their responsibilities as an important component in the implementation of MHM policies by making adequate sanitation infrastructure and knowledge of MHM available in school premises.

Read more about his campaign.

Harshita is a psychologist and works to support people with mental health issues, particularly adolescents who are survivors of violence. Associated with the Azadi Foundation in UP, Harshita became an MHM Fellow with YKA, with the aim of promoting better menstrual health.

Her campaign #MeriMarzi aims to promote menstrual health and wellness, hygiene and facilities for female sex workers in UP. She says, “Knowledge about natural body processes is a very basic human right. And for individuals whose occupation is providing sexual services, it becomes even more important.”

Meri Marzi aims to ensure sensitised, non-discriminatory health workers for the needs of female sex workers in the Suraksha Clinics under the UPSACS (Uttar Pradesh State AIDS Control Society) program by creating more dialogues and garnering public support for the cause of sex workers’ menstrual rights. The campaign will also ensure interventions with sex workers to clear misconceptions around overall hygiene management to ensure that results flow both ways.

Read more about her campaign.

MH Fellow Sabna comes with significant experience working with a range of development issues. A co-founder of Project Sakhi Saheli, which aims to combat period poverty and break menstrual taboos, Sabna has, in the past, worked on the issue of menstruation in urban slums of Delhi with women and adolescent girls. She and her team also released MenstraBook, with menstrastories and organised Menstra Tlk in the Delhi School of Social Work to create more conversations on menstruation.

With YKA MHM Fellow Vineet, Sabna launched Menstratalk, a campaign that aims to put an end to period poverty and smash menstrual taboos in society. As a start, the campaign aims to begin conversations on menstrual health with five hundred adolescents and youth in Delhi through offline platforms, and through this community mobilise support to create Period Friendly Institutions out of educational institutes in the city.

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A student from Delhi School of Social work, Vineet is a part of Project Sakhi Saheli, an initiative by the students of Delhi school of Social Work to create awareness on Menstrual Health and combat Period Poverty. Along with MHM Action Fellow Sabna, Vineet launched Menstratalk, a campaign that aims to put an end to period poverty and smash menstrual taboos in society.

As a start, the campaign aims to begin conversations on menstrual health with five hundred adolescents and youth in Delhi through offline platforms, and through this community mobilise support to create Period Friendly Institutions out of educational institutes in the city.

Find out more about the campaign here.

A native of Bhagalpur district – Bihar, Shalini Jha believes in equal rights for all genders and wants to work for a gender-equal and just society. In the past she’s had a year-long association as a community leader with Haiyya: Organise for Action’s Health Over Stigma campaign. She’s pursuing a Master’s in Literature with Ambedkar University, Delhi and as an MHM Fellow with YKA, recently launched ‘Project अल्हड़ (Alharh)’.

She says, “Bihar is ranked the lowest in India’s SDG Index 2019 for India. Hygienic and comfortable menstruation is a basic human right and sustainable development cannot be ensured if menstruators are deprived of their basic rights.” Project अल्हड़ (Alharh) aims to create a robust sensitised community in Bhagalpur to collectively spread awareness, break the taboo, debunk myths and initiate fearless conversations around menstruation. The campaign aims to reach at least 6000 adolescent girls from government and private schools in Baghalpur district in 2020.

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A psychologist and co-founder of a mental health NGO called Customize Cognition, Ritika forayed into the space of menstrual health and hygiene, sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights and gender equality as an MHM Fellow with YKA. She says, “The experience of working on MHM/SRHR and gender equality has been an enriching and eye-opening experience. I have learned what’s beneath the surface of the issue, be it awareness, lack of resources or disregard for trans men, who also menstruate.”

The Transmen-ses campaign aims to tackle the issue of silence and disregard for trans men’s menstruation needs, by mobilising gender sensitive health professionals and gender neutral restrooms in Lucknow.

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A Computer Science engineer by education, Nitisha started her career in the corporate sector, before realising she wanted to work in the development and social justice space. Since then, she has worked with Teach For India and Care India and is from the founding batch of Indian School of Development Management (ISDM), a one of its kind organisation creating leaders for the development sector through its experiential learning post graduate program.

As a Youth Ki Awaaz Menstrual Health Fellow, Nitisha has started Let’s Talk Period, a campaign to mobilise young people to switch to sustainable period products. She says, “80 lakh women in Delhi use non-biodegradable sanitary products, generate 3000 tonnes of menstrual waste, that takes 500-800 years to decompose; which in turn contributes to the health issues of all menstruators, increased burden of waste management on the city and harmful living environment for all citizens.

Let’s Talk Period aims to change this by

Find out more about her campaign here.

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A former Assistant Secretary with the Ministry of Women and Child Development in West Bengal for three months, Lakshmi Bhavya has been championing the cause of menstrual hygiene in her district. By associating herself with the Lalana Campaign, a holistic menstrual hygiene awareness campaign which is conducted by the Anahat NGO, Lakshmi has been slowly breaking taboos when it comes to periods and menstrual hygiene.

A Gender Rights Activist working with the tribal and marginalized communities in india, Srilekha is a PhD scholar working on understanding body and sexuality among tribal girls, to fill the gaps in research around indigenous women and their stories. Srilekha has worked extensively at the grassroots level with community based organisations, through several advocacy initiatives around Gender, Mental Health, Menstrual Hygiene and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) for the indigenous in Jharkhand, over the last 6 years.

Srilekha has also contributed to sustainable livelihood projects and legal aid programs for survivors of sex trafficking. She has been conducting research based programs on maternal health, mental health, gender based violence, sex and sexuality. Her interest lies in conducting workshops for young people on life skills, feminism, gender and sexuality, trauma, resilience and interpersonal relationships.

A Guwahati-based college student pursuing her Masters in Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bidisha started the #BleedwithDignity campaign on the technology platform Change.org, demanding that the Government of Assam install
biodegradable sanitary pad vending machines in all government schools across the state. Her petition on Change.org has already gathered support from over 90000 people and continues to grow.

Bidisha was selected in Change.org’s flagship program ‘She Creates Change’ having run successful online advocacy
campaigns, which were widely recognised. Through the #BleedwithDignity campaign; she organised and celebrated World Menstrual Hygiene Day, 2019 in Guwahati, Assam by hosting a wall mural by collaborating with local organisations. The initiative was widely covered by national and local media, and the mural was later inaugurated by the event’s chief guest Commissioner of Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) Debeswar Malakar, IAS.

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