By Pallavi Kamat, Mumbai, India, SSH Correspondent
In India, as all over the world, the commodification of women in the media is a very common thing. The women are either shown as docile homemakers at the beck and call of their husbands or they are shown as sex symbols trying to convince the public at large to buy the product. The latter reflects in products as varied and unrelated as cement and residential buildings being sold by skimpily clad women.
How is this related to street harassment you wonder? Walking down the street, women and men are exposed to these advertisements. If a woman ever raises her voice in public over an issue, she is asked to not express her opinion and behave like the calm housewife. Posters of skimpily clad women have been reported to result in violence against women.
Apparently, the general public is unable to distinguish between the advertisement models and the women they see in the social sphere. Or they believe that since the models are unattainable, they can take out their feelings on these women. Either ways, it is the women who have to bear the brunt of such portrayals.
I believe organizations have a certain responsibility in this. At the cost of making profits, they are ignoring their social obligation. After all, they are just as much a part of this society. It is unfair that they use women to sell anything from a soft drink to a tile.
Other than media, the daily soaps and cinema has an equal role to play. In the soaps, women are either meek wives or villainous vamps. Either case, they send our wrong signals. A wrong portrayal of women in the domestic sphere affects the lives of married couples. They expect their wives to be like the ones in the soaps – waiting on their every requirement. The incessant bickering between mothers-in-law & daughters-in-law is responsible for marital discord in many households. And the clichéd stereotyping is not helping at all.
And the Indian cinema industry (Bollywood) only adds fuel to the fire. With the recent spate of movies featuring item songs whose sole purpose is to commodify women & titillate the men, they are not helping the cause. The movie-makers that claim this is the demand of society and reel only replicates the real. However, that is only shirking their responsibility.
However, all is not lost. If the media and the cinema decide to be a little more responsible in their portrayal of women and showcase them in a positive & realistic light, there would not be such ripple effects in society. Sure, at the end of the day, they need to make profits. But earning them at the cost of objectifying women (which ultimately hurts the women) means they will never sleep with a clear conscience. And that is a huge price to bear!
Pallavi is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a Commerce Graduate from the University of Mumbai, India, with around 12 years of experience working in the corporate sector. Follow her on Twitter, @pallavisms.
