Has The Depiction of Women in Indian Media Really Changed?
Media by its nature receives
wide exposure. It presumably affects various activities of people including
lifestyle and values. It exerts a powerful influence on the society due to its
ability to shape social trends and mould personal attitudes. It plays a
substantial role in the social and economic development of women.In the past, women were
always patronized by men. Their modus vivendi included marriage, looking after
the family, needs of the house, getting involved in household chores, lacking
confidence to deal with the cosmos outside the four walls of the kitchen and
being oblivious to all the political events and technological breakthroughs in
the country and the world.
It would be incorrect
to say that depiction of women has not changed since the dawn of media in
India. We have ads like Yakult - which shows a lady looking after her family
without being dependent on her husband, Stayfree- which says, “'If something irritates us so much, hume isse change karna chahiye” indicating that women today
are capable of bringing about a change, Samsung Galaxy Y that shows a young girl
trying to fulfil her dream of becoming a singer despite of discouragement from
others, the Scooty Pep ads with the tagline, “Why Should Boys Have All The Fun?”
In earlier days, a widow in movies was
depicted as a Dukhi Aatma who was
chronically ill and poor. We can witness an array of movies that depicted
actresses like Nirupa Roy and Kamini Kaushal as helpless, dependent widows trying
to save defend themselves from being dishonoured. Whereas today, one can acknowledge
the change by watching movies like Partner, where Lara Dutta plays the role of
a photo journalist, who wears low waist jeans and short skirts, is the mother
of a child and falls in love with a man despite of being a widow. The word “Vidhva”is a part of her life and is not
dominating her life.
Regardless
of these changes, some studies have found that social issues
of status and opportunity related to women got less than nine percent while sensational
stories relating to women which included mostly crime stories got a score
around 52 in newspapers. Majority dailies portray women as victims of sexual harassment
but news of serious problems that are faced by women in their daily lives is
missing. The portrayal of women in advertising is an issue that has received a
great deal of attention. Some ads have
been stereotyping women, failing to recognize their changing roles in the
society. The Axe Dark Temptation ad shows a woman taking bites out of a man’s
bottom who is coated in chocolate after using the chocolate flavoured deodorant.
A Wild Stone deodorant ad shows a woman tricking her way into her brother in
law’s arms due to the effect of his deodorant on her. The makers of the ads
have defended themselves by saying that since males mostly groom themselves for
females, they have used the theme of attraction for selling the products;
however the objection here is reaction of women which states that sexual availability
of a woman becomes easy after using these products. Females have been used as decorative
objects by showing them in ads which are nowhere related to women, a J.K Cement
ad showed a woman in bikini emerging the sea to show the strength of the cement.
Our daily saas-
bahu serials depict women involved in conspiracy, premarital, extra-marital
affairs leading to pregnancy (How can we ever forget the proverbial “Main
Tumhare Bache Ki Maa Banne Waali Hu.” dialogue?) , wearing big ticket clothes
and make-up, roaming in luxurious cars to attend parties and functions with
little concern about the happenings in the outside world. In fact when I was
watching an episode of a serial, I overheard my friend’s father saying, “This
is the reason why girls shouldn’t be given the liberty to lead their lives the
way they want!” News channels have many good looking female news readers, reporters
and it evident that many of them are employed mainly because of their looks
rather than potential.
All this indicates that though the lifestyles and
habits of women have changed dramatically in the last few decades, media
reflects a very small part of the true picture. Instead of trying to curb
stereotypes and promote values, trends, attitudes that can help in
strengthening the position of women in our country, media falls short in the enhancement
of women’s role in our society.
