Why do commercials portray womxn as subservient to men?

By Shailendra

Source: Screenshots from https://youtu.be/nw37g80DgV0

Have you ever thought about why most of the Indians embrace patriarchy and traditional practice of masculinity?
Or, why do so many Indians think that several things that we practice as a social conditioning are just simply true or fact about us?
Even, why do most of the Indians say things like ‘ye toh mahilaon ka kartvya /dharma hai’ and believe that only womxn are entitled to do household chores.
The simple answer is this is what we have been taught while growing up and still being taught through traditional family practices and commercials. One of the main reasons of patriarchy being so deep-rooted is that the commercials in India normalize and glorify it.
There are plenty of such commercial ads which encourage such patriarchal norms and stereotypical traditional masculinity. We cannot deny the fact that how much commercials have an impact on modern capitalist human nature and behavior. Whatever we see or consume on a regular basis, we eventually end up becoming that as well.
Recently, I came across this ad (https://youtu.be/ugcgOCHFMTY ) which I found problematic. Just observe the characterizations of three characters involved in the commercial.

Let me break down some of the observations which I drew it:

• Father and son comfortably sitting on the couch and watching sport.
• In India, mainly men are expected to have interest in sports which is largely considered as muscular trade, and this has been thoroughly glorified.
• The womxn in the commercial has been shown sitting separately and doing some household chores.
• It also seems that soon they will be served food on the table while womxn will be busy preparing and serving the food.
• The mother initiated the conversation for a trip while father and son were busy watching sports on TV.
• While the womxn (mother) is trying to have a conversation with them, her partner sarcastically tries to avoid her and mimics the mother in front of his son. Such behavior influences the audiences, encourages them to do so. Acknowledging this wrong attitude, it gets passed on to the next generations, that it is okay to mimic your partner (especially wife) in public. This is exactly where we need to reject the normalization of husband-wife jokes and memes.
• Earning money and making decisions regarding trips is largely considered as men’s job because they earn, so they have control over everything which is associated with money.
• There has been a stereotypical mindset that womxn cannot access technology well, so they have to be dependent on their son or others to use it for them.There is hierarchical dependency. For finance and decision making she has to be dependent on her partner and for accessing technology she has to be dependent on her son.

Eventually, this is a systematic deprivation from finance, decision making and technology altogether.

Consequently, one can easily see the gendered power dimension in family which is being played out through this commercial. It influences the audiences, and they end up developing and adopting gender biased thoughts and practices. Once these norms are converted into behavior, it could lead to several forms of domestic abuse and violence against womxn.

Therefore, I think that it’s high time that social and cultural norms should be changed in the commercials and it should be inclusive and gender equal.

As simple work as peeling peas doesn’t require any unique skill which only womxn have. It could simply be done by the men as well.

Why is it a big deal? Think about it.

By Shailendra

He is from Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh. He works with Manas Foundation as one of the trainers involved in the gender sensitization training programme to public transport drivers in Delhi NCR. He holds M.A. in Development from Azim Premji University, Bangalore. He likes reading and writing, watches web series, and attends talk shows, events. He loves to participate in discussions on intersectional feminism, society, culture, politics, media, satire etc.