Women are now working equally and have maintained the same status as that of the men. Despite that, stereotyped projection leaves women helpless. The best example are the advertisements of FMCG products and even while advertising masculine products, females are a must-to-show. This is “objectification of women”.
Women on screen are projected with fair skin tone, perfectly shaped curves, and long-silky hair as an ideal sex icon; which helps promote brands and attracts more customers. This objectification is really absurd and disturbing.
This is the ideal woman as per our society, impacting the former in unprecedented ways. Furthermore, this is what the society readily accepts, the ideal beauty commodities and despises the women who don’t fit into this bracket.
It is noteworthy that not only are the women objectified by society, but by themselves too. This further degrades of the dignity of women. They just perceive that if a woman has to succeed in her life, she has to let herself be sexually objectified which is actually not the case and this fact has to be understood by women themselves.
Because of this many women accept themselves as an object and start comparing themselves with one another or with the “woman on screen”. They find themselves trapped in the callousness, thereby having lower self-esteem, depression, feeling of discontentment with self and other psychological insecurities .
It is frightening how deep objectification of women really goes. We must certainly combat sexual objectification. However, women are objectified in more profound ways than we realize, and we must tear down every entangled shred of patriarchy, in order to achieve our goal of being recognized as “women” and not mere “objects”.
People claim that it is the media and advertisements who are to be blamed. But, I believe, that both the media and the society are to be equally blamed for this stereotypical portrayal. It is us who are to be blamed, because, we have readily accepted and appreciated what media has been offering. Had we not accepted it and voiced our dissent, they would not have continued to do so. We call ourselves a modern society but we still are way behind when we see such practices being appreciated.
In order to avoid this, few measures can be taken by the media and society. As media plays a decisive role, it should portray women in roles that are positive and constructive. The society sub-consciously follows what the media conveys. Motion pictures in the form of videos have a great impact on the minds of the people at large. Besides this, we must collectively promote women’s integrity and empower them to stand for themselves. Ultimately, the society should promote a holistic development of women by creating an environment conducive to change.
Families need to change their patriarchal mindset. Women should have the ability to work and move freely. It has always been said that if the woman of a family is educated, the whole family is educated.
Finally, the call lies with us. We need to be aware of the misogynistic ideals that we breed – whether it’s in daily life or through mass media. If we witness it, we can choose to call it out. We also need to start detaching ourselves from deep-rooted patriarchal values that have resulted in a society that we cannot call safe for women.
Let’s work together towards a country that is free of misogyny, that has values and respects women and their freedom, instead of stifling them. Only then can we have a country where women will not be reduced to objects.