justified by the family. Her family gives her the
identity and is the world for her.
equal representation of men and women have taken
place.
For the advertising world, the sari clad, large bindi,
mangalsutra and sindoor sporting women has
become the Indian symbol of marriage. Women are
mostly shown in the household set-up specifically
kitchen and washroom. She is portrayed with a
husband, two small kids and a nice home. She is
interested in kitchen electronic devices(refrigerator,
microwave) and healthy food products(soups,
cholesterol lowering oils, fat free products) to meet
her family’s needs, but keep them fit and healthy at
the same time. Her need for an attractive body
(calorie less diet, beauty products, anti-aging
creams) is her need to maintain her husband’s
interest and maintain her family’s unity and security.
And surprisingly there is not much difference in this
depiction between the east and west. In U.S.
television commercials men and women appeared
equally more often as central figures in prime time
commercials. Women still predominantly appear in
domestic settings advertising products used in the
house and men are still preferred as narrators in the
advertising world over women.
In Europe which is still a little more traditional, women
are still portrayed in the home, where they do not
make important decisions or do important things, are
dependent and need men's protection who regard
them primarily as sexual objects and are not
interested in women as people.
Take Indian television soaps, the heroine is the
obedient daughter in law who cares for elders, listens
to husband and is the perfect mother. The scheming
vamp, donning low cut blouses and colored hair is
meant to look seductive and repulsive at the same
time.
In print advertisements pictures of women's bodies
and body parts appear more often than pictures of
men's bodies. And often women get a slightly tougher
ride because the focus is on what they are wearing
rather than what they have to convey in the
advertisement.
There is also another woman always - the mistress
who has an affair with the hero, has a child who is
brought home by the wife and all is well that ends well.
Most movies and serials adopt this formula and this
is acceptable to the viewer. Would any woman bear
this mental torture in real life?
The most surprising discovery is that in today's
China, the image of Chinese women in the media is
undergoing a subtle change. It is to a large extent
influenced by the socio-economic and politicalideological changes in China. Rather than a literal
portrayal of the “reality,” it is a symbolic
representation of the Chinese women created through
the interaction of party ideology, editorial policy, and
readers, taste as well as the changing reality of
Chinese women’s life and work.
But the last four to five years are seeing an optimistic
change in a section of the media. Women as gaining
substantial ground on their male counterparts and
breaking out of negative stereotyping. Role portrayals
in commercials are more representative of
contemporary women and are gradually becoming
equal to men.
The Indian Government, concerned over the indecent
portrayal of women in the mass media, had instructed
Ministry of Women and Child Development to
constitute a committee for finalising modalities for
media campaign on the issue.
In the past women in television commercials have
been portrayed as central figures only in commercials
about household products.
This committee decided to have a sustained media
campaign to highlight positive aspects of women
empowerment and against negative, indecent and
stereotyped projection of women in movies, TV
shows and advertisements. Hope it works!
However, women are no longer being portrayed only
as users in the commercials but they are also being
depicted as product representatives and they are not
depicted as often in subordinate positions. This does
indicate that some changes in the direction of more
The writer is Chief of Bureau, INDIA STRATEGIC
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