Women play very important role in any society. They serve variety of roles throughout their life span. First they play the role of a daughter, then a friend, then a wife, then daughter in law, mother and then grand mother. Apart from fulfilling their domestic duties they are active and have contributed in many other fields such as Art, Science, medicine etc. From many centuries women have been constantly struggling to find their place in the world and in their society.
But most of the women are known to have weak and dependent personality. That's one of the major drawback because of which the world is predominated by men. Coming to our topic of discussion, we are clearly seeing that advertising and media have been constantly pressing men and women for a certain look for every decade. This is not one of the underlying inner beauty but it is an appeal to the lascivious desires of the world. Women have found to be most affected because of this rapid change.
The most powerful propaganda system these days is advertisements. Advertising is such a fact of our life that is percolating in almost every aspect of our life and we are hardly aware of it. It imposes an enormous influence on our thoughts, attitudes and actions. That is the reason most of the companies are spending millions of dollars on advertisements. Advertisings create an entire cultural view, that shapes our attitudes and beliefs.
Advertisements are distorting Women's self image !
The anxiety of girls and women when they feel unattractive is one of the major extensive and damaging consequence of advertising. Consumer advertisements project an unrealistic feminine form which is not only non-achievable but also it is powerful enough to make an impact. The majority of advertisements on feminine products feature some of the key aspects that are non achievable among majority of the women. This creates false expectations on women and their partners.
One common example is the advertisements of face creams that challenge the consumers that their complexion will become fair by using that product. They try to show a women who is darker in complexion in the beginning and later she attained the desired complexion by using the face cream. But the actual fact is the girl in the advertisement is already fair. She has been made darker by painting her face. These kind of advertisements make women insecure and provoke them to use the cream for getting the fair complexion. Also, it creates a feeling in men that they start looking for girls whose complexion is fairer. In order to attain the ideal beauty, women start using the product and there will be an endless demand for the product in the market.
This is the reason why the weightloss, fashion, and cosmetic industries are blossoming. Also they are one of the largest and most profitable industries.
Because of this millions of women and girls who cannot achieve this standard of beauty feel humiliated, shy, and feel a sense of guilt.
Consumer advertisings negatively objectify women. Most of the advertisements feature women as the sex objects, in order to increase the appeal of their products. In many cases the involvement of women model is semi pornographic. Much of the advertisings is filtered through the male lens and even though it is targeting women, it might reinforce the male chauvinistic view of women as sex objects ! It pits one women against another in a competition of sexual power. These kind of things affect particularly young women, since at this stage of their life they need to develop their self identity. So, this sends a concealed message to the young girls is that the only important thing about themselves is the way they dress up and look, causing many women to believe that their self worth is dependent on getting attention from men.
Standards of how women are depicted varies according to the culture and society. The industries vary the kind of images it uses to suit different markets, showing that it follows social norms rather than setting them. But the fact is they are changing the social norms and standards. The constant abuse of women's sexuality to sell various products industries like alcohol, sports, film or music have completely distorted our understanding of sexuality and gender roles in the society !
Fashion has been an ever changing occurrence in the TV. Thanks to the TV and other fashion magazines that are publishing articles and supporting the companies that are manufacturing products on the name of fashion which is not really upto the standard for the particular society. Women and mainly fashion models they do the propaganda through fashion shows or by giving pictures on the fashion magazine. These kind of things are inadvertently adding spice to already hurt souls.
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