Media ads and gender insensitivity<\/p>\n
By Michael K. Muchiri<\/p>\n
YOGYAKARTA (JP): You have been glued to a television program,
\nprobably watching the local love dramas, the Mexican dramas or
\nthe Indian musicals where mostly the woman is typified as
\nungrateful, self-seeking, insatiable, but a gorgeous thing.<\/p>\n
The usual picture of the woman on all the television programs
\nis the same: women are helpless, vindictive, self-seeking souls
\nwho gossip and do stupid things.<\/p>\n
When they are not advertising shampoo and soap, they are on
\nthe brink of being easily seduced at the same moment a priest is
\nabout to purify their wedding.<\/p>\n
The following examples dot the typical commercial break.<\/p>\n
A serious looking businessman is assessing a girl through a
\nsix-week program skin lightener, courtesy of Ponds. Initially she
\nis \"dark\" skinned but as the weeks progress, and with the aid of
\nthe Ponds product, her face becomes \"white\", what the advert
\ncalls beautiful, until the once disinterested man in the office
\ndecides to announce that he would take her out for dinner.<\/p>\n
Besides the controversy on whether Indonesians should strive
\nto lighten their skins, the advert portrays women as persons
\nworthy only of being dinner partners who should strive to whiten
\ntheir faces in order to interest men.<\/p>\n
Then the second advert -- a man cuddling his sweetheart,
\ndrives a beautiful boat on a serene, calm river. \"Believe me
\nsweetheart\", the man says, \"I will always protect you\". Until a
\ncrocodile appears, then the man, forgetting his promises made
\nonly a few moments earlier, hangs onto a tree branch as the
\nhelpless woman shouts for help.<\/p>\n
The male savior, another man who uses a product called M150
\ndubbed \"energy for the brave\", rides on the back of the crocodile
\nas he brings the woman to shore.<\/p>\n
Whether the advert sets out to educate girls to mistrust men
\nor whether it sets out to show how women will helplessly hold on
\nto men for help, the M150 advert portrays women as mere
\nplaythings who should be lied to when necessary.<\/p>\n
Then the Suzuki Baleno car advert -- whether the advert aims
\nto compare a Baleno to a woman running to nowhere is not clear.
\nWhat is clear is that the car stops to pick up the woman -- but
\nnot before her expansive thighs are momentarily the focus of a
\nprying camera. Baleno is a nice car that should not have to
\nexploit the sexuality of women to promote sales.<\/p>\n
There are so many more: the female \"noisemakers\" on the Telkom
\nadvert while a male model is the busy businessman; the Kit-Kat
\ncommercial in which it is difficult to imagine that a male
\ninterviewer would tolerate such nonsense as being \"seduced\" with
\nchocolate. Such trivialities, the advert seems to be asserting,
\ncan only be accommodated by women bosses.<\/p>\n
Then comes the Lippo bank radio advert. It opens with a coarse
\nexperienced sulky voice of a malcontent woman: she calls the
\nmanager of a certain bank to complain about the way her account
\nhas been relentlessly the target of the bank fees, dwindling her
\naccounts and motivating her to withdraw from the bank.<\/p>\n
Not so long after Lippo Bank says that opening an account with
\nthem suffers no costs for all services and with a high interest
\nrate on deposits we hear another telephone buzz.<\/p>\n
Now the \"unsatisfied\" female customer on the line accuses
\nLippo Bank management of causing her to be \"overweight\" and other
\nhealth problems due to the growth of her account with them. The
\nmalcontent in women is brought out again -- even when you do good
\nto women, they will never stop complaining!<\/p>\n
One cannot help but wonder whether there are women in charge
\nof advertising departments and dramatic productions who dare
\nchallenge the monotonous stereotypes that are being portrayed by
\nthe mass media.<\/p>\n
Do advertising agencies advise their clients on gender and
\neven racial sensitivity? Are the advertising agencies doing
\nenough to check the return of stereotypes such as those depicting
\nwomen as mere dim-witted people, here for the satisfaction of
\nman?<\/p>\n
Roles that caricature women or worse still magnifies existing
\nfemale stereotypes should be avoided by the mass media.<\/p>\n
Why can't adverts featuring women emulate the new Extra Joss
\nadvert that positively portrays a woman lifter eying gold as well
\nas aiming for success in the Olympics? Or the Mylanta stomach
\nmedication that depicts a working woman in a complex working
\nenvironment? It is time that advertising producers go back to the
\ndrawing boards and make more gender sensitive adverts.<\/p>\n
The writer is a Kenyan student at the Faculty of Psychology,
\nGadjah Mada University.<\/p>",
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