Women are genetically good care-taker?
- 25090091
- Dec 11, 2021
- 1 min read
Ads are the most generalized and accessible medium that is used to convey any kind of message in society. These are also some TV commercials from different baby brands that we all have seen and all of them depicts a similar notion that this society holds.
All of these ads depict the mentality of our society, where only mothers, grandmothers, aunts are responsible for the diaper-changing, feeding, bathing and other child-caring tasks. Even, if she's a working woman, she's still supposed to do these tasks alone, as if she's the only one, responsible for bringing a child into the world.
This notion isn't just confined to the mothers, but also the day-care centres only hire female staff. The concept of babysitters or nannies also plays a role in this gender supposition. Seeing such ads constantly had developed an idea that only women are responsible for diapering and taking care of the child as it's induced in their gene.
Even though the old patriarchal mentality doesn't exist today, and women enjoy almost equal opportunities in every walk of life, but still, in most of the segments of our society, child-caring is considered such an arena, that is supposed to be one-sidedly managed by women and if a man tries to make his contribution towards it, then the society tags him as " Zun-mureed ".
One thing that has always irked me is the notion that women are the primary care takers of their children and must assume full responsibility for their growth and character. This narrative is constantly reiterated by our media, books, dramas, and as you mentioned, advertisements. This notion burdens women as when they do decide to work, there is the guilt and pressure that they will have to handle two full time jobs. I think it is time we encourage the division of roles in raising children and start granting paternity leave as well. Men should assume an equal role in raising their children and performing domestic tasks, as one way we can start seeing more women in the workforce, is…
I feel like even though there has been some kind of progress but there’s still a long way to go. When it comes to commercials, we often see the ‘Vim lemon max bar’ add where the the daughter in law is washing dishes and the husband shows up with the soap bar and starts washing the dishes but immediately stops when the mother walks in. This add is just another representation of how even if we try to come out of these societal expectations where the girls are expected to do the house chores, there’s always something or someone that won’t let that change. This mentality has been existing for a very long and hence to keep up with these…
While advertisements depict the mentality of our society, they also reinforce the patriarchal mindset and it is a recurrent cycle that we fail to escape from. Don Zimmerman and Candace West were the first to articulate the concept of “doing gender” which refers to nurturing the differences between men and women. People become a victim to judgment based on the ability to meet gendered expectations which are socially acceptable through the policing of boys into masculine roles and women into feminine ones (as seen in various advertisements). By encouraging the conformity to the specific gender roles, this process of conditioning leads to a patriarchal system; a persistent and institutionalised form of male domination stemming from the relationships within families and…
I agree with the part where the representation of women in advertisements, but I think it’s wrong to assume that the “old patriarchal society doesn’t exist today .” It may have taken different forms, but it is there, it impacts the structure of the society and the media is still promoting it to normalise it. The representation of women in many Ads is limited to care taking activities. We will never see a father changing a diaper or a husband washing the dishes because this is the norm is the society. This is what is practiced in the society, mostly. At least in the circle around me, I don’t see men cooking food in the kitchen, however, I do see…
You did an excellent job but one thing here is that if you are selling something you have only one question in mind is that how you can maximize your profit. What is the target audience. And specially if you are making ads for audience of Pakistan or South Asia. Where if father says today i have changed my baby's diaper everyone will make fun of him but when mother says the same everyone feel it's normal. Instead of criticising ads, Should not we criticise other media products because these ads are for specific audience and if they don't meet audience requirements how would they sell their products ?