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Out of focus : Different adverts, same packaging?

by Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham

It seems every six months you watch TV and see certain kinds of new adverts that make your blood boil. It seems that critiques formulated by numerous feminists and concerned parties have no effect on the way in which women are portrayed in the media. The results of some of the portrayals can be harmful for women in Sri Lanka.

There seem to be certain stereotypical ways in which women are depicted in some of the adverts here. For, often, women are seen as the good wives, mothers or the vamp figures. There seems to be very little interest regarding women's other multiple roles such as career women, academics, professionals, athletes etc. While I do not suggest that women are not portrayed sometimes in these multiple roles, these are too few and far between.

In one of the early issues of the journal 'Voice of Women', it critiqued the view of a certain packaging company having placed a woman in a box, looking content in that role. Here, the writers argued, was a very demeaning way of portraying women for women are not a kind of goods to be packaged. This image also posited women as subservient and happy to be in such a position.

That was in the '80s, and it seems there has not been a shift from then to now in some ways. Today, you see an advert on TV where a young woman hounds the man trying to get at him. She is dressed ideally for this seductive role as vamp in a strapless red and gold outfit. At some point to escape, his ploy to stop her from following him is to drop a door, and trap her inside a cage like fenced apparatus.

The visual is strikingly similar to the one I described just above. She is in a caged or boxed space, unable to escape. She is compared to an animal (wild, exotic, uncontrolled) who can only be stopped through forceful encapturing. As the man leaves her caged, he looks back at the camera and grins, happy with his conquest.

This disturbing advert attempts to sell gold. Gold itself is a valuable commodity that has a history of oppression linked to it. For example, women need gold to enhance their beauty and make them feel special. While often it is seen to be in good taste for men to wear simple forms or jewellery such as a tie pin or cuff-links, for a woman the more seems the merrier. Often in South Asia, when a woman is given in marriage a family is expected to provide her with a great deal of jewellery even if it is unaffordable.This adds to a woman being seen someway as only worthwhile if she has numerous accoutrements.

It is not simply that finery makes her better, but she also needs to look a certain kind of way. For example, a woman must also be slim, fair and have long hair. It is difficult to find many adverts in Sri Lanka in which women look other than as described above.

Today, there are numerous commercials that promote the acceptability and beauty of women according to their skin colour. If she is dark skinned, she is not appealing. This portrayal disregards that fact that most Sri Lankan women are brown-skinned due to the sub-tropical climate here.

I would like in this instance to look at an advert that equates women's skin colour to their happiness. In one such advert a young woman is on an elevator, and is complimented by a young girl on her good dress sense. Then the young child comments on the dark circles under her eyes that mar her otherwise fair skin and beauty. The young woman upset by this comment immediately consults a beautician who asks her to use a 'fairness cream' that will solve the problem.

The advert comments on this cream containing cucumber and some mysterious quantity of 'fairness vitamins.' What exactly this may be is not explained. After applying this cream we see that she glows as she walks, has an added bounce to her step, and seems happier. As she gets on the elevator in this shot, then the young girl comments on how she looks better. A young man who had ignored her on previous occasions suddenly notices her, because she looks much happier, and more beautiful.

The message in this instance seems to suggest that her attractiveness to the opposite sex depends on her external skin colour and her appearance. A simple 'defect' such as dark circles under her eyes, is enough to make her unhappy and ruin her sense of self. The danger of this advert is that even a young school girl seems already in training to spot those small spoilers of a woman's external beauty.

The dangers of such depictions are acute. For the television is one of the most important means of communicating with a society today. It is one of the ways in which we form a consensus on certain ideas and messages. If a nation, or a section of society, are bombarded with certain visuals constantly, then those visuals may become means through which we understand society. So, if we see women fashioned in certain ways or being concerned about certain things only, we may come to believe these are the components most important for women.

Hence, if women are seen as mothers making tea, mothers feeding the family, wives cooking and being concerned over housekeeping in numerous commercials, then we tend to naturalize these depictions and see women as instinctively belonging to these roles.

 

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