In Female Issues - Irony in Today’s Advertisements! By Bandana Mitra, Patna, India
Every evening when I come back from Office I feel like a Zombie, living dead.
10 to 12 hours of rigorous imprisonment at office drains out all energy, all sensitivity, all human feeling. I am not even interested to know about the day of my 7 years old daughter (she has become clever, does not run to me immediately and gets shoved off roughly as she used to do two years back).
I take a bath. Make a strong hot coffee and dump myself on a sofa with the Remote in my hand. I just start surfing the channels without paying much attention to what they are showing. By law of probability usually it is an Advertisement that I look at without grasping the message and after sometimes it becomes a collage. This process goes on for an hour or so before I regain my strength to start my second shift i.e. takes up the job of a House wife – sorry, Home Maker. The advertisements, like collage only leave a dim effect on my memory; awaken by some passing thought once in a while.
I remember the ad – it is of a Life Insurance Policy. A perfect set up of a happy family, father is playing chess with his son - wife and daughter emerged from kitchen with a plate of tasty snacks and everyone is happy. Message is loud and clear. Boys will be learning chess from father and girls to prepare snacks under guidance of mother. Thank you, point is noted.
The other one, the retired husband is asking the wife whether she can manage to do without a domestic help as the earning will come down drastically. All the time an out of focus woman figure is sweeping the floor in the background and the wife looking at her, obviously projecting herself at her place. And once the good lady came to know that her husband already made a retirement plan and after all she does not have to exchange the place with the domestic help, she showed proper gratitude and love as expected. So again message is loud and clear. If hubby has money you can hire a woman to do dirty jobs otherwise you have to soil your pretty hands. Do not expect the hubby to share household chores – not his cup of tea!
Another bizarre advertisement, the bride is too eager to leave with her groom and does not find any reason to shed tear while parting, whereas others do not think so. So the groom just pressed a switch on her body and the bride started crying with proper tears of a parting daughter. The moment the car started, switch was off and the bride back to jovial state. This was repeated several times. What does it imply? After marriage, laugh or tears will be supplied as per switch pressed by hubby? I never knew, now-a-days brides fake their tears to respect the old tradition!
Take any commodity ad, almost always it is the job of the wives/mothers/girlfriends to appreciate and show proper gratitude towards the Men and it is the privilege of Men to get appreciated. Be it a diamond ring, Car, House, education anything.
Yes, Yes I know – all above incidents as depicted in the advertisements are very small issues, really insignificant. Yes, I am reading too much in between the lines. But the thorns, however small they are, hurt the skin, that also when one is already bruised.
I'd suggest you keep the TV off and spend some time finding out about your seven year old daughter's day. I have one too and I find it relaxing to be with her at the end of a tough day.
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Dear Bandana,
a good read on the portrayal of women in advertisements. Though I have been away from the television from a long time, I feel the gender sensitization aspect has made some impact on the media and society, however minimal it may seem. I do often secretly admire the guts and vigor of our touchy and fiery feminists who have somehow hammered the idea of gender sensitization into the male-biased Indian society. If you have a chore-sharing husband at home, the wife is already more than fortunate... considering the fact that the boys are never taught to do chores within homes all their lives!Any transformation within society takes time and happens gradually. We can only expect our next generation of males to be more considerate and sensitive if we rear our boys that way. Maybe you can consider adopting a baby boy for that purpose!!! That way, your daughter will have company too!
All the best!
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That was really a thought-provoking article, Bandana! Another thing that I've noticed is that in any insurance/investment policy ad, they always show a boy child, as if the happy family can't be complete with a girl child!
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Bandana,
I work from home, and except for the dressing up and travelling part, the day is just the same...of course you dont have to worry about the boss sanctioning your leave, you can never take one from this home office...
Nothing is ideal, and we need to look at the lesser lucky group, I know that is what the rules say...but today I nearly lost my temper when I saw my neighbour driving off to lunch out with her hubby. I felt really jealous of her, cant tell you how much...it's very small minded of me, but here i was, the maid not turned up for the fourth day in succession, it was Vishu festival today and getting the paraphernalia ready for those 'memory creating " sessions for the kids, cooking specials, and all the time chewing out which quote to use to round off that article which had to be sent today...then the phone rang, it was my old colleague calling to wish Happy Vishu, she was in office although it was a holiday, and said " Ah! you are enjoying yourself at home, while we are slogging away here"..
I didnt reply, I was multi-tasking on how to serve a vegetarian lunch w/o seeing bored faces and how to finish that article...The ads may be speaking the truth, maybe we should drink complan or horlicks and revive our energy levels.
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Suneetha the answer to your probs-No complan or boost needed- just delegate, my dear delegate..and you'll see how everyone 'll pitch in.Also sack the maid!
sm
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Sorry , I could not reply earlier. Please do not feel so depressed. Hire an expensive maid on hourly basis, call off the festival, go out for lunch with your hubby ( best thing to be done if maid is absent)- do anything but self pity. It is not worth. Nobody will give a damn as long as you will do your chores without complain or disturbing the day to day life of people surrounding you. Keep disturbing their routine, let your hubby be late for his office for a change or children to skip movie at multiplex . And, spend on gadgets to reduce your work load. Otherwise what is the point of earning ?
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No Bandana,
they aren't insignificant.I have also repeatedly felt annoyed whenever I have chanced upon these ads-specially the retirement ad! In fact I was livid.I wish someone would take it up with the company or ad agency. As for the switch one I couldn't make head or tail of it till I read your piece!
A very nicely written piece that is bang on indeed !SM
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Good write up ! However, we should also consider and debate the negative role of ethnic stereotyping in ads.
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