Advertising is the best platform for promoting a product. More often than not women have been depicted in the usual stereotypical roles over the years. Women were only shown domestic products like detergent, washing bars, floor cleaners etc. We seldom see a man involved in any household work. The men were portrayed driving a luxury car or a bike, or inn luxury watch brands.
So these are some gender based ads:
(1) Tata Tea

How often we the girls have heard people say, “kya maa ne kuch sikhaya nahi?”
This ad is an perfect example, that it is common in every Indian household which shows how the society knowingly or unknowingly teach the children to be gender-biased.
The ad shows a young girl who seeks permission from her mother to go out and play badminton with her brother. The mother refuses her permission and instead asks the girl to help her out in kitchen. The mother, on the other hand encourages her son to play.
This ad highlights how the society treats girls or women differently from boys. It aims to highlight the stereotypical behaviour we on girls since childhood to their adulthood.

(2) Havells Hawa Badlegi

This ad talks about a new change happening in our society and breaks gender stereotype. In this ad a couple is sitting in registrar’s office, and the husband takes his wife’s last name and makes it official.
So we can see this was a brilliant yet simple take to break gender stereotype. I personally like this ad and I will rate this ad 5/5.

(3) BIBA – Change The Conversation

The ad shows the conversation between a man who is groom’s father and the old lady who is groom’s grandmother.
It starts with an old lady doing stitching and a couple walking in to their house. The couple has just gotten back from a meeting with their son’s bride and her family. The old lady asks her son about the visit. the man says it was good, as the girl and the family were very nice. Then the lady says about the dowry and asks whether he discussed anything about it or not.
The man says yes, and says that they’ve agreed on jewellery, a car and Rs 10 lakhs that we are going to give to the bride. The lady hears the word given and she is surprised. Then the man explains that the bride’s parents are trusting us and they are giving their precious daughter so they owe them that much at least. The man’s wife is happy with this statement and the old lady agrees to it.
The video beautifully portrays the change that has already started. The ad subtly talks about the change that is slowly occurring in the minds of the people.
Dowry is the biggest social evil of our society and we must stop it, starting from our own homes.

CONCLUSION

Now the scenario of women portrayed in Indian ads has been changed. Though there are still some ads which shows gender stereotype but there are some ads/brands which dare to break stereotypes beautifully and showcase the contemporary women in all her new avatar. Now she is being shown as a multi – tasker, sharper, wiser, vigorous and self confident in many recent ads. I would like to give examples: The Bharat Matrimony ad, Airtel ‘Boss’ ad, Nirma Ambulance ad.
Also, the philosophy is changing; today’s young men are respecting and accepting their wives to be equals.

This movie follows the lives of four women’s: Leela, Rehana, Shirin, and Usha. The film continues the patriarchal stereotype that women are lying and conniving. Far from caving in to patriarchy, Lipstick Under My Burkha gives us a version of what women’s freedom might look like. What Lipstick Under My Burkha does is the “slow work” of inspiring women to their dream and chase their desire of a feminist world.

Leela is arranged to marry Manoj, but she wants to run away with her boyfriend(who is a photographer and lives in the same street) to set up her own business and to be independent. She is torn between two men – her lover and her fiance.

Rehana is a college student who comes from a conservative Muslim family. She wants to explore the cool things that girls of her age are into: to put lipstick, to wear jeans and wants to become a musician and loves dancing. On her escapades, she does all the things which were not allowed to her: wear ‘western’ clothes, go to the college parties, explore her sexuality, and participate in student protests.

Shirin is in an unhappy marriage with a man who keeps forcing her to have unprotected sex with him, while having an extra-marital affair himself. Her husband exercise his power to oppress her within and outside the bedroom. She is nothing more than a body to her husband for releasing out his frustrations. But, then also she finds strength in her ambition to work secretly as a sales woman and receives due recognition.

Usha is an 55 year old, widowed woman who is respectfully addressed as “Buaji” by everyone in her surroundings. Disobeying the societal expectation of living a chaste(virgin) life, Usha reads erotic novels and she wants to live as a sexual being again. She joins swimming classes and there she is lustfully attracted towards her swimming instructor and observes his semi nude, muscular body. Although society holds Usha’s sex chats and her readings of sex stories as taboo. She is scared of water, but she is more scared of a society which criticize her for learning swimming at this age and also for “jawaani ki bhoot” not leaving her not so jawaan body. So we can see that ‘The patriarchy still exists in India is undeniable’. So now the question arises that,

IS THERE ANY SPACE FOR HER TO EVEN DREAM OF A SEXUAL FANTASY IN OUR AGEIST AND PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY?

In short, this movie is a narrative of how women negotiate their desires, fantasies, and dreams within the patriarchal and culturally conservative social contexts on an everyday basis. It is a film about desire – not just sexual desire, but women’s desire to live life on their own terms. It is not just the story of these four characters, but it is the story and desires of the Indian women. Seeing ‘Lipstick Waale Sapne’ that means, every Indian women dare to dream free.

This is probably the first time someone has talked about it in mainstream cinema and this film is different from bollywood films. Mainstream bollywood films show romance and sex from the point of view of men. In various scenes and songs the heroine is shown as an sexual object of desire for the hero and sometimes for the villain too. But “Lipstick Under My Burkha” refrains from exercising the male gaze on the ‘sexy women’ but instead turns the female gaze towards the ‘macho man’.

The film ends with the four women’s who sits in a room, smokes and reads adult novels and sex stories.

We have seen four waves of feminism and feminism and fight for women rights in United States and Britain. But here in this article I am going to discuss feminism and people involved in the movement in India.

Not only women like Mirabai and Sati Gargi but also men like Sant Tukaram, Kabir, Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Kavi Narmad were included in the movement against society for women’s right, improper social norm and injustice.

Sati Gargi was philosopher of Ramayana times. She was daughter of sage Vachaku born in 800 B.C. She acquired knowledge of Vedas and scriptures and became renowned for proficiency in the field of philosophy and even surpassed men in her knowledge. Once when the Raja Janak held Rajsuya Yagna (a holistic activity where all the scholarly people and sages were invited to perform the rituals) Sati Gargi was also invited with all other scholars and sages there she ended into a debate with Sage Yajnavalkya who was well known sage and was considered as the most intelligent amongst. The debate went long and at the end Sati Gargi won the Debate.

This was the example of female setting an example of women equality and showing that women are no lesser then men. Now let’s see example men setting examples by fighting and making efforts for women issues and gender equality. Kavi Narmad was a poet, writer, essayist, author and reformer of 19^th century. He wrote several poems and essays regarding social issues and improper social norms. He published “Nayikavishaypravesh” and “Uttam Nayika” dedicating to his wife Dahigauri (who later got separated). In the year 1860 he fought for widow remarriage against society and religious leader Jadunathji Maharaja for widow remarriage and he also married to widow of his caste Subhadra (later she changed her name to Narmadagauri) in the year 1869 breaking all the social norms. The second name is of Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was a social reformer who started Brahmo Samaj (a socio-religious reform in Indian Subcontinent) and also fought against sati system. According to sati system the women whose husband died should burnt alive along with her husband which was opposed by him.

This was story of 19^th century so let’s see the story of 20^th century. Institutions like “Akhil Hind Mahila Parishad”, “Elite Women of India”, “Women’s wings of political parties in India”, “Bharatiya Grameen Mahila Sangh”are some organizations which are always on their toes to fight for women equality and women issues. And there are other several little organizations and NGOs started by the time which work for women issues.

Blog by Heta Bhavsar

Ladies special is a television show played on Sony television channel in week days (Monday-Friday).

Show focuses on the story of three friends Meghna, Bindu and Prarthna.

Prarthna Kashyap is a 30-year old hardworking woman who works in corporate telecom company and manages to earn bread for her family single handedly. She has struggled a lot therefore prefers a simple and conserved lifestyle but she has never restricted her dreams, she dreams to buy her own house one day in Bombay.

Second friend is Meghna Nikade. Meghna belongs to a lower middle class family who has started her own garments business with her husband Mandar Nikade. Mandar was working as supervisor in a textile mill but leave his job when he was insulted by his boss and his decision was supported by his wife Meghna. According to Meghna self-respect matters first than money, she says that though we are poor by money but we are rich by ethics and moral values. So when Mandar left his job she suggests starting their own business and is also gets successful in doing one along with her friend Jyoti and Mandar. Thought behind starting her own business was to make her children’s future bright; Meghna thinks that what struggle and comprises her and her husband faced during their childhood should not be faced by her children she wants to fulfill each and every wish of her children. Meghna is poor by money but rich in terms of thinking and dreams.

Third friend in Bindu Desai who addresses herself as “Bindu Dr. Amar Desai” as her husband is a well known cardiac surgeon and she is very proud of her. On the very first day of their marriage her husband confronted her that he loves the other girl who works with him and has married her only because of the family pressure. After knowing the truth instead of breaking the marriage and telling the truth to the family member Bindu decides to be friend with her husband also supports him in his thick and thins and takes care of his family whole heartedly. Though she is having problems in her married life as she loves the man who is never going to be hers and the couple is simply faking their marriage she is always happy and smiling face no matter how big the problem is she is always on her toes to solve. Though her husband is a well known cardiac surgeon and they are enough rich she believes to be independent and run the small business of mehendi and handles business as well as family.

The show conveys the message that if a woman decides to do something she can do and it is not necessary that when a women works then she cannot handle the household. This show proves that a woman is capable enough to handle work and house hand in hand and she is capable enough of living her dreams.

All the three characters showed in the show are shown in the very simple dress-up and in Indian dress code. This shows that women empowerment and modernization doesn’t mean one need to follow western dress code. To be modern and empowered one should be modern by thoughts and not by dress-up.  The show tries to define women empowerment and Indian Women. The show beautifully shows the versatility of the women, show focuses on the several roles a woman plays in her day to day life whether it be taking care of children and in-laws or supporting her husband in business or single handedly managing the finance of the whole family and also maintaining the workload in the office. Thus an Indian woman, her lifestyle and woman empowerment in Indian society and woman in Indian family setup in well define in this show.

Blog by Heta Bhavsar.

Right now into this world when we are always hungry for entertainment and always have jolly and happy post over flooding on our social media accounts… What happens if suddenly a social media account goes inactive ….! Do we witness any change in our life? Don’t know why we are running so fast!! Do we have plans to match the speed of light? Anyways I accept that even I m like everyone else never care if something wrong is happening around me? But yeah had it been someone close to me … It would have definitely affected my life style … But then there is where we go wrong, we don’t care about it until and unless it doesn’t affect us…
Oh before I completely get into the topic, you should have the idea why I m talking about all these things. I was struggling to find a topic to write my blog on and suddenly can across the documentary “Amoli”. I naturally made my mom watch the documentary.
The documentary “Amoli”, a hindi word which means priceless talks about how we nevercome across the heinous business in our country.

The documentary is very well divided into four chapters which explains the whole concept of child trafficking. It starts with trying to explain the pain of Amoli’s parents and there is where I saw my mother crying, they don’t know if their daughter is ok or not, if she had the lunch or not. In the introduction part the anti trafficking activist Raju Nepali explains why, how, and where these children go missing. He says these children are kidnapped or are victim to trafficking because of demand for domestic servant and sex workers in large number. He also adds that every every source places have large number of sleeper agents who take children along with them to bigger cities in the name of job placement and are pushed into sex working.
The documentary says “Every 8 min a child goes missing in India”

CHHAPTER 1: मोल (becoming a commodity)

The business starts with giving a price to a human life, to a young girl. These girls are bought for as little as RS 1000 or sometimes for mere RS 200 or 300. Usually the money young girls earn is distributed between the pimp and the brothel madam, the only price of a young girls’ childhood is make-up, clothes and food.
Y.K Gautam, another anti-trafficking activist explains why minor girls are trafficked more. And the first reason being that they are more vulnerable and less mature. Second, being the belive on the myth that if a elderly man have sex with a very young girl then he would be cured of all diseases.

CHAPTER 2: माया (the devil demands)

Dr. Suman Lal a social worker says, it’s the rich and powerful people who invest into this as business. The other part of the reality is explained by Neelam, a survivor, trafficked at 14, she shares how because of the demand she given injections to induce artificial growth and how she was treated like am animal.

CHAPTER 3: मंथन (trapped in tradition)

Sometimes even family push their daughters into sex work for mere 200 to 500 rupees. Tara explains how a daughter in some communication are forced and trained about the sex work.

CHAPTER 4: मुक्ति (end of nightmare)

Ashok Rajagir, cheif investigative officer, Rescue Foundation says that one can stop the bussiness only if their end of demand.
At times when these children are thrown out of the bussiness or are rescued, it might be the end of those bad days but those days never let them move ahead in there life things go topsy turvey for them. Nothing remains normal and if someone wants to move on and try to find some reason for there lives the society never let them do so.

I being less emotional than my mother just thought of how things change in a moment for someone, and they can’t be what they were earlier. But my mom I saw her crying, she said how difficult it would be for those parents who never get to know what happened to their child… how difficult would it be for them to eat, sleep and talk and be normal …
If just the thought to make her cry, then we can’t imagine how much painful it would be for those parents to be alive.

I (i.e. Aditi Parasher) thank you to go through my post and let me know all you feel about my post in the comment section below.

This was the title of Shivani Gupta’s Instagram post which has captured everyone’s attention.

This video clip was uploaded by Shivani Gupta from Delhi NCR on Instagram where she asks a woman to apologize for the harrowing statements she made about her and her friends. This is what she wrote in her caption-

In the video, the woman’s opinion, in the end, disgusted everyone on social media and everyone started posting it to their stories. She said that the girls wear short dresses because they want the men to see them and that’s the reason they get raped. 

These were the few responses from Shivani’s friends which she posted on her Instagram stories.

Although, the post was deleted by Instagram stating that the post doesn’t follow the community guidelines. But the video is still available as it is re-posted by many users and the girls in the video want that the video gets viral until the lady apologizes to them.  

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The woman Soma Chakrabarty took a poll on Facebook and posted the following-

The mentality the woman holds is very disturbing but what is more gruesome is that she is not the only one. We regularly encounter incidents wherein girls are blamed for getting raped because they wear revealing clothes and move out late at night. In our country, a democracy which beholds equality and individual freedom as the core of its constitution how fair is it that a woman can’t even wear whatever she chooses to wear. She is an individual and has a full right over her body and dressing, but no one else has a right to harm her or comment on the basis of clothes she chooses to wear. Saying that women who wear short clothes should get raped is extremely wrong in every sense. What right does anyone possess over her body?!

The lady is pulling down women and is also justifying rape which is a crime. Rape is a crime and not a punishment. Not a single person, however wrong he/she is, not even a criminal deserves to get raped. And wearing clothes of one’s own choice is not even wrong or a crime.

She also says that the parents seeing this video should teach their girls how to talk and should control them. It is not the girls who need to be taught how to talk but the lady itself needs a lesson about what is right and wrong and what should be said in the public places. In a time where women are progressing, we ironically have such women who are trying to pull girls down.

Shivani Gupta also posted a picture of the woman from Facebook where she is wearing an above knee length dress which is completely fine. But what bothers me the most is the hypocrisy, why is she even commenting on the girl’s choice of clothing when she herself is quite comfortable with wearing similar clothes and posting the same on a public platform.

While discussing this video, I came across many opinions and this is what Monisha Singh Boparai, a 28 year old  acquaintance of mine believes.

She says that this incident is a reflection of society at large and it is scary to the core. No amount of awareness on social media platforms is helping infiltrate the potholes in the thinking of such sickening individuals. Having the audacity to comment on someone’s dressing and telling them that it is provocative enough to get you raped is absolutely disgusting.What if her son rapes someone and her defensive statement be like “but the girl was wearing “short short dress”. *slow claps*It was law that protected gay marriage (which is natural of course) and people then were okay with it, so do we need a law for dresses now.  Are we coming to this in the “21st century”?

She writes “On a side note words of wisdom to the “Aunty”

Dear Aunty,

Thank you for telling us how dark the world is. I only feel sorry for you. I can’t fathom the things you were deprived of, like good education, stable mental health, and manners. But don’t worry you will get there. Lose the stubbornness and be more courteous

Yours truly,

A girl who wears everything! “

A blog by Dhruvi Chhajer.

This video is a satire made on the serious issue of marital rape in the form of the American sit-com ‘how I met your mother’.

In the video, a newly married girl returns to her parent’s house and is distressed because of her husband. All the ladies from her maternal family tell her to open up as they are females and they will understand her problem. She opens up and asks them ‘just because I am a woman, is my ‘No’ not important ?’ This is where her uncle comes in between and offers her ‘pakodas’ and she says no. He backs off and says that I will not force you to have them and therefore your ‘no’ is important. Here ‘pakodas’ are compared to her consent making it such a small issue over which the girl is shown making such a fuss about. Then she blurts out that she is raped every day! All the women are shown to be shocked and men stand up in anger picking up anything which can be used as a weapon. The girl’s father is angered and asks her who raped his daughter. She tells them Arun, i.e., her husband rapes her every day. At this, the entire family starts laughing as if this was a joke and something which is completely insane and impossible. It is outrageous and unbearable if someone rapes their daughter but if that someone is her husband it is funny. They do not believe that anything like ” Marital Rape” exists and blames her to misidentify a friendly gesture as a ‘new age concept of rape’. Marital rape is not considered as anything wrong but just an act of “intense lovemaking”. The women tell her that it is not rape but love. Her mother tells her that this is what happens after marriage and it happens with everyone. Even though all of them face the same problem they all are trained to believe that it’s natural and it is the way it happens. Having sex without consent was common for her grandmother as well which shows that this is not a new issue but has existed in all generations before but questioned openly for the first time. She tells them that she is not able to bear this and her husband treats her worse than animals instead of supporting her they give her absurd solutions and ask her to compromise.

Then her husband Arun comes into the picture. He enters the house and is worshipped like a god by his in-laws. Instead of blaming him and making him understand they start sympathizing with him. They blame their daughter for being immature and troubling Arun. Then comes his emotional speech where he changes the entire game and plays the victim. He comes up with this bizarre comparison that even his wife doesn’t take his consent every time. He compares that even she didn’t take his consent while making ‘ baingan’. He says that he goes out and earn money and she only prepares breakfast, lunch, dinner, mops, and cleans. He undervalues the household work and says that he gets tired and so he makes intense love with her to remove his frustration. At this, the girl also starts blaming herself and is blinded by the truth the same way her aunts and mother are. She is manipulated to believe that his husband works hard while she sits and passes time at home and that he gets tired. She apologizes to him and calls him an ”angel”. Even she like others is blinded and is taught that this is love and nothing else. She is taught to compromise and keep her wishes and consent aside. Throughout the video, the only sane and understanding person shown is the adolescent girl who is disgusted and shocked by the way tables took a turn. She is shocked by the fact that how her family is so normal with something so serious and wrong and how they taught this to their daughter as well.

Marital rape is an open secret in India. Most of the women face this issue but our silenced because they believe that having sex with their husband with or without consent is their duty and very natural. Most of the men who indulge in sex without consent from their spouse do not think that it is something wrong. They think that after marrying a woman they have owned her and have a license to have sexual intercourse whenever they want. Because of this mentality, it is very difficult to legalize the law against marital rape because people believe that marriage is a sacred institution and passing such a law will question the sanctity of Indian culture.

In the link above some people of Delhi were questioned about their opinions and views about the same issue and the answers which we get to know are outrageous to hear. Some views reflect that it is okay to rape your wife, it is okay to use violence and force if she refuses to sleep with her husband, and all this is an act of “mardaangi” or according to me “toxic masculinity”. Although the video represents an unfair portrayal of what people of Delhi think about marital rape as it excludes the opinions of young couples and also women as only two of them were questioned. India still has a long way to win this battle because recognition of marital rape as a challenges Indian values which are deeply ingrained in the minds of the people. 

A blog post byDhruvi Chhajer.

Ethnic wear brand, Sabhyata, launched a campaign that shows the father daughter relationship in a new light. The advertisement starts with a father entering the house and sees his daughter and asks her whether she is going somewhere and the girl says no. He asks for a glass of water. At that time she says to him that her friends are calling her to meet up. His cold stare makes her freeze. And her brother comes from outside and says that he is going for a night out with his friends. His father didn’t say anything to him. Her mother comes from the kitchen and asks what happened, he says ask to your son about this. His father asks, “ what if our son goes out at night at harass a girl or he do something bad to anyone?”. And then he looks at his daughter with a smile and gives her permission to go out .

He asks his daughter to drop her brother at his friends house. The advertisement end with everyone smiling. In this ad they have shown how they treat gender equally. The intention behind the advertisement is to aware people about the gender equality. This campaign by Sabhyata group intends to reach out to people across all age and helps them to think in a positive way. Women should be respected, her existence, her grace and her freedom. We should take a step to redefine this connection between parents and their children.”

In this generation inequalities takes place in all fields. Gender inequality is defined as discrimination not in favor of women based on their sex. They are always considered to be weaker. Women are discriminated all over the world but more so in Indian society. It is caused in the Indian society due to patriarchy system. Indian constitution had made all efforts to eradicate gender inequality.
The society has made it as a norm that certain things should be only done by men and not women. Like men can go anywhere anytime as their wish, no one will ask them anything. At the same time women are not allowed to go out. They are tied up in many kind of rules. This has been followed up by years, it has been like a tradition. There are even many religious institutions where women are not allowed inside the premises.
CONCLUSION:
These type of gender discrimination should be eliminated from the society. This will only happen if people change their mentality.
These types of gender inequalities and discrimination will only change when the mentality of men will change. They should feel women as one amongst them and treat them equally.
In fact not only men but women also need to change their way of thinking as through cultural taming they have also become part of the same manipulative system of patriarchy and they play a supportive role in men’s agenda of dominating women. Everyone has their own rights. This ad is not only for the promotion of the ethnic brand, but also aware people about the gender equality.

Since 18^th century women are fighting for their equal rights and raising their voice towards inequality due to which we tend to forget about the other genders. Whenever the gender injustice happens in gender issues the central point is always given to women, because of which nowadays women are falsely accusing men. There might be instances where men have committed suicide because of false accusations of women towards dowry, molestation, domestic violence etc. Also in the Ted Talk of Deepika Bhardwaraj, she talks about gender equality is when both men and women have a voice. She talked about the young man Avadhesh Yadav whose marriage became the reason for his suicide. Along with his family he himself implicated in false dowry case, where his wife demanded a property of his father and also charged a case on his brother and father for molestation. After few days Avadhesh hanged himself. Hence, alike Avadhesh there are so many other men that are implicated in false accusations and found not guilty; due to which men looses their dignity, self respect, career, job, everything. There are laws which are made for the protection of women but it seems like women are misusing it. Hence, no steps are taken against them.

We say, “Men are not supposed to cry, Men are strong, macho” and because of which men are not able to express, and are not heard. If one men does something bad then we conclude that  ”All men are bad”, where we discriminate the gender. There are several laws, NGOs and helpline no.  where women can seek help for their physical, emotional, domestic, sexual  issues from which they suffer but man can’t. She also says that ,”There are laws for rape, sexual harassment, the act that insults the dignity of woman but these laws don’t consider men as a victims.” Also there is no helpline for men and they end calling up women’s helpline and they do not have any support for them. She also talked about her documentary film “Martyrs of Marriage” where the people are arrested under IPC 498A which has taken many lives.

Hence, while raising the voice for women we stopped hearing the men. While giving rights to women we took many rights from men too. It’s not about the men and women, it’s about who is wrong and who’s right. The justice should be for both men and women and the voice should be heard of both men and women.