Female Images in Advertising

Welcome to the world of Advertising! Images of female bodies are everywhere. Women—and their body parts—sell everything from spices to cars.

But have you ever pondered over the gender bias in the media? Stereotypical female images are found in almost every area of television commercials. Women are grossly over-represented in the domestic role and flagrantly under-represented as sensible, capable and independent members of society.

Majority of female portrayals are those of younger, sexually attractive and supporting women, while male portrayals are those of exciting, innovative and adventurous men. The world of banking, business, finance and automobiles is the exclusive domain of male models with women in their supporting roles in the background.  The common sight of women in advertisements for decades has been one of cooking food, doing laundry, dressing wounds, running errands for their hearth and home. Advertisements of Moov, Ariel, and Surf Excel are just a few of numerous such examples. This does not sound odd to us because we are socialized in a manner to accept such portrayals as natural or given.

The media performs a dual role. It represents the existing social reality and at the same time initiates change in the prevailing social values and ways. By being selective in what it shows and how it shows it, the media by and large creates its own reality, and in the process happens to reinforce values, attitudes and behaviors, reinforcing male superiority.

Female images in advertising also create impossible ideas for women to follow if they want to fit into the ‘Eternal Youth’ myth. These images influence them to unrealistically decide what they should look like.  Because most of these idealized shapes and figures are impossible to realize, such a pursuit may make them very anxious and insecure. Several beauty products are packaged to promote the idea that beauty (read happiness) is just a bottle away! An increasing number of advertisements for soaps, creams and oils for fairness show girls being catapulted to name, fame and success and also landing a ‘fair’ chance of getting married to ride away/drive away with their prince charming.

Frequently women are shown in highly sensual poses. They are represented as emerging after a shower in a sexy or vulnerable pose in order to sell a product no matter whether it is a female cream or a male undergarment. She mostly remains a hanger-on to her male counterpart. The Close-Up toothpaste advertisement has a man holding a book on physical chemistry and staring at a girl with his gaze reaching her chest. Such advertisements often objectify women by reducing them to just their bodies, often to parts of their bodies-- breast, torso, legs- seen through the male gaze.

There is a growing concern that photographs of slim, flat-stomach models in advertisement promote an unhealthy figure of young women, which could encourage anorexic disorders. Short skirts, noodle straps, colored hair and impossibly slim and partying career girls represent the image of a young modern girl.

Cultural values are the core of advertising messages and most of the advertisers prefer to comply with this public value system rather than run against it. The advertisement of the ICICI Prudential Life Insurance pictures the ‘sindoor’of a woman in the company’s logo. This shows the advertiser’s obsession with protecting the sindoor for the MAN. The woman is seen as alone, helpless, susceptible to exploitation if the husband does not have the insurance. They seem to promote the idea of insurance as more important for women than men.

Surely, advertising is fashioning out a New Woman for us. However, the vision of modernity and liberation is tied to looks rather than personality or achievement. There is occasionally a portrayal of a single, independent, working woman. But this image reeks of sexism. However, a few advertisements here and there are indicative of social change and of women’s substantive achievements.  For instance, the commercial of Pond’s dream flower is a takeoff from the real incident regarding the dowry case of Neha Rao of Delhi. Such advertisements do project a woman who does not bow down to the age-old practice of dowry. They are indeed a very welcome change.

Changes are occurring, but very slowly. However, a society constantly nourished by the age-old image of woman being the weaker sex and a mere body cannot break out of it easily. The challenge is indeed very great. Yet, if you do not let any such advertisement pass by without seriously questioning its implications, it would indeed be very helpful in ‘ungendering’ society in the fullness of time.