Vibhuti Ubbott
Another day, I was watching television when a commercial promoting some milk powder brand popped up. In the particular ad, a woman enters the house and finds the man making tea.
The woman promises the man that she will put clothes in washing machine today if the tea will come out to be masala tea. Whether the tea turned up masala or plain was not important, what fascinated me more was the fact that washing clothes was depicted as a man’s daily chore. In another ad, after showing a number of things, the final product, some brand of 2T oil which is used as an additive to petrol in two wheelers, is shown in a woman’s hand that puts it in her vehicle and rides away. Both the commercials, though understand the pulse of the time and have been made very smartly showing the real world realities, are significant in breaking the stereotyped images associated with males and females.
To promote products and services, advertisements are heavily relied upon and for that, television is considered the best avenue. Advertisements on television exert tremendous impact on psyche of humans by showing them in different roles and relations. Sociological construction of men and women and to associate peculiar norms of behavior, dressing, working and role playing constitutes Gender and is a potent force to construct identities of men and women in definite manner. Men represent power quotient (physical, financial and social) while women represent devotion and glamour quotient (at home, market and society in general). Showing men and women in specific relations, stereotypical images and with peculiar features in advertisements is termed gender advertising and has some convincing role to play in molding the people’s thinking and social behavior as well, because of the simple reason that they are intended to do the same. Repeated exposure of human mind to some images and situations, how so ever improbable they look, make it to internalize them and influence the way humans behave.
Ads or commercials running on Indian television sets have come a long way so far as depicting the men and women are concerned. Now a days, men are seen promoting different brands of washing machines, washing powders, varieties of cleaning items used for utensils, floors, toilets, etc. moving further, men are equally competing with women in vying for varied beauty products like fairness creams, powders, deodorants, hair colour, etc. such ads are prompting men to pay attention to their looks as also to the grooming part of their personality. Indian television commercials seems literally smashing the gender norms in some respects. Men cleaning utensils, washing clothes, cooking food and endorsing beauty products is completely a new scene and promising change too. Both the promoters and clientele of products have changed in ads so far as their gender is concerned.
But, there are few more observations that need to supplement the final verdict on commercials in Indian televisions. Wherever men are shown indulging into works traditionally ascribed to women, they enter in a much mechanized way. Washing of clothes takes place only in washing machines. If the clothes are washed using hands, women are there to do the job. Similarly, cooking using pop-up toasts, kettles or light cooking are seen prescribed for men. Whenever, ‘Chapatis’ are to be made, women take over the field. As a matter of fact, chefs, mainly men, are profoundly into the promotion of numerous household items but, largely as an extension of their job. If men are anywhere portrayed as engaged in such activities, it is shown as their profession, that is, as domestic workers or professional cleaners or simply as promoters of some particular brand of household item. Likewise ‘Jharu-Pocha’ using hands, is still shown as a woman’s forte.
Another peculiar feature regarding Indian advertisements is the class factor. A particular class is being depicted emancipated in these commercials. It seems that women in paid jobs and/or belonging to upper middle class are the chosen few who deserve all the help, support and appreciation from their hubbies and modern emancipated families. Women from lower middle and lower get attention when they are sick and ailing. It appears to me that they will remain as largely the unsung heroes of our society. One more constant at play in TV ads is the form and shape of women who appear in these ads. Barring one or two ads in which real life women are to be depicted, all the lovely ladies of the advertisements on Indian television sets are painted as fittest of species. I sometimes wonder that in what mental state, these ads must be driving their audience into? The real life moms are left most perplexed as they have bigger bellies and not in any measure better appearances, to look at.
It is beyond doubt that ads have been creating some very positive images of women by portraying capable, well-informed women contributing immensely to the society which is a really good scenario, not to be found few years back. At the same time these women are competent enough to nurture their children very sensibly and affectionately. But the positive effect of the ad is accompanied by something which has the capacity of putting women into a dreadful scenario and that is expectations. Now, women are expected to be super humans, doing everything, engaging every element of society and relatively never getting tired.
The TV commercials are understood to be turning smarter as they are identifying real world realities where more and more women are getting into paid jobs and becoming independent and infact, exercising freedom like never before in terms of mobility also. But I still fail to understand why with so many women in jobs and looking for options to save their tax and invest wise, ads for investments and insurance, etc. are still mainly directed to target men or is it that financial decisions, in real world also, are still made by men only. So, is it the gender stereotyping in TV ads which is influencing real world or the other way round is happening? Basically, Indian society is a traditional society in which gender roles try to conform to traditional norms. That is why portrayal of men and women in TV commercials reinforce the traditional norms. At the same time, television and its contents, with so much accessibility to common people, have a predominant influence on the society and hence, have a much bigger responsibility towards the same. Ads that are smashing the gender stereotypes are actually paying a great service by trying to reverse the process of socio-cultural formation of gender and so, are more than welcome in the project of gender sensitization that has been taken over worldwide. There is subtle shaping of human ideas, perceptions and hence, society by advertisements running on televisions. So, through the medium of TV ads, very positive and constructive mindsets can be built by portraying and inspiring people to take steps in conscientious manner in their individual lives. Therefore, gender sensitization and social emancipation are the things that need to be taken care of, by ad agencies, so that changes can be witnessed in real world too.
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