Quarterly Women in Television Commercials: A Comparative Analysis Between Australia and Bangladesh [38, Media Asia]

Citation preview

"

Women in Television Commercials A Comparative Analysis Between Australia and Bangladesh

Australia and Bangladesh are two opposite countries with regards to cultural and geographical settings. But sometimes, their visions regarding women's identity come closer when a woman is treated as a sex object. This paper considers women's representation in television commercials in Australia and Bangladesh. A total of 400 advertisements were recorded from various television channels of Australia and Bangladesh in 2005 and 2006. Bringing an interdisciplinary but empirical approach to a broad range 6f recently screened advertisements, this paper examines how femininities are stereotypically represented in these two countries'television commercials. The study suggests that women are produced and reproduced as sexual objects. The representations of women's bodies circulate around the binary of purity and pollution. The interesting finding of this study is the extension of the "malegaze" concept where women come under the gaze from (hetero) sexual perspectives. This constructs women's secondary position and creates instability in societies.

SHAOLEE

T

he present study considers the representation of women in television commercials in Australia and Bangladesh. Australia and Bangladesh are two very different countries in regards to their economic, cultural, technological and geographical ettings. However, sometimes their vision regarding women's identity intersects when "femininity" is defined and represented similarly and stereotypically in both countries. This study explores the similarities and differences in women's representation in both Bangladeshi and Australian television commercials. n these two countries' commercials, common images femininity which circulate include women as sexual bjects and objects to be looked at; that women are close o nature; women's bodies circulate around the binary purity and pollution; women must be white, skinny d beautiful; women must obey customs established patriarchy. Consequently, these images strengthen men's secondary position. The study aims at exploring how women are rtrayed as sex objects in television advertisements interpreting sexual and romance narratives implicit explicit in the plots and examining how women ubjugated to patriarchy. There is a hypothesis erpinning this research, that is, the East and the ometimes collapse into each other in constructing femininity in the arena of advertising. - an empirical study. At the empirical stage, ercials are analysed that were screened on primee television (between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.) from August October 2005 and from July to September 2006. commercials were screened on various channels,

ee '\lahboob is Associate Professor in the Department .AI:.!hropologyat Jagannath University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

MAHBOOB

including ATN Bangia Television, Boishakhi Television and NTV in Bangladesh and Channels 7, 9,10 and SBS in Australia. A total of 400 advertisements were viewed. Of these, 200 were screened on Bangladesh television and 200 on Australian television. THEORETICAL LITERATURE

FRAMEWORK

AND

REVIEW

To understand the politics of representing gender in commercials, we need to review some theories and define some concepts. Social scientists see representation from different points of views. Some of these are surveyed below. Hall argues, "Representation is the production of meaning through language" (Hall, 1997, p.16). He extends his discussion of representation by using Foucault's idea of "discourse" which is not merely, but more than, language. Foucault argues that human beings understand themselves through history rather than through semiotic approaches. Power relations form a crucial part of his understanding: One's point of reference should not be to the great model of language (langue) and signs, but to that of war and battle. The history, which bears and determines us, has the form of war rather than that of a language: relations of power, not relations of meaning (Foucault, 1980, p. 114). Thus, for Foucault, meaning circulates within historical, social and cultural fields of power relations. Hall's analyses this in the following way: By'discourse: Foucault means 'a group of statements which provide a language for talking about -a way of representing the knowledge about -a particular 205

MEDIA ASIA, VOL 38 NO 4, 2011

topic at a particular historical moment ... Discourse is about the production of knowledge through language (Foucault in Hall, 1997, p. 44). Hall summarises Foucault's approach to representation by writing that "the production of knowledge is always crossed with questions of power and the body; and this greatly expands the scope of what is involved in representation" (Foucault in Hall, 199 , p. 51). An understanding of discourse in these terms suggests that there are hidden politics of representation. The study takes "advertising" as "discourse" to understand the historical and semiotic meanings of gender representation in Australian and Bangladeshi commercials. For Butler, "politics" and "representation" are controversial terms. Representation is an effective term within a political process that looks to extend visibility and legitimacy to women as political subjects. Representation then is the "normative function of a language which is said either to reveal or to distort what is assumed to be true about the category of women" (Butler, 1999, p. 3). These distortions and assumptions circulate widely in the field of advertising, and uphold myths about women as "lacking" or "castrated': Butler's approach draws heavily on both Foucault and feminist psychoanalytic theory. Recent feminist writing on psychoanalysis suggests that in patriarchal societies, "woman" is the bearer of meaning, not the maker of meaning. As such, she is bound to obey patriarchal imperatives (Mulvey, 1975, in Bartkowski & Kolmar, 2005, pp. 296-297). The following theoretical approaches aid in understanding and decoding the meanings of advertisements. Berger famously suggested that in art and advertising, "men act and women appear': He explains that "men look at women and women watch themselves being looked at. This turns her into an object-an object of vision or a sight" (Berger, 1972, p. 47). Women's bodies are continually constructed and reconstructed. Laura Mulvey states that as material object~, women's bodies are "to be looked at" ( Iulvey, 1975, In Bartkowski & Kolrnar, 2005, p. 299). Iulvev and Kaplan differently demonstra e that dominance or submission structures affect women' ima es -here they figure as passive objects of male desire Kaplan, 1983, pp. 315-320; Mulve , 1984, pp. 361-366 cited in Petersen, 1997, p. 50). \X'omen are displa 'ed as exual objects and are viewed through erotic pectacle: "from pin-ups to strip-tea e, from Ziegfeld to Busbv Berkelev she holds the look, pia 's to and ignifie m;Ue de ire" (Mulvey, 1975, in Bartkowski r Kolmar 2005, p. 299). Women then are subject to the "male gaze" The study uses this "male gaze- concept and extends its circumference from male to female and even to animals when they, as viewers of a woman in a commercial, become the bearers of the look. iewers are (implicitly) always men. In his book, Gender advertisements, Goffman suggests that advertisements are 'rnultivocal' or 'polysernic;

206

meaning that they may bear more than one piece 0 information (Goffman, 1979, p. 2), which may codes of gender order in society. Although Go analysis focuses on print advertisements and tel commercials, which also rely on the interaction 0 images and verbal messages can be analysed Goffman's idea. Butler sees gender as both produced and performative. Butler says that gender performativity is not only about speech acts but also about bodily acts. The relation between speech and bodily acts is a complicated one, which she calls 'chiasmus: For Butler, speech has a bodily component-speech is produced by people with bodies. Interpellating speech has corporeal effects-speech acts ~ave such profound determinative effects that they can literally, corporeally, wound people: "words enter the limbs ... bend the spine ... live and thrive in and as the flesh of the addressee" (Butler, 1997, p. 159). Following L.acan and Felman's views, she asserts that "the body gives nse to language, that language carries bodily aims and performs bodily deeds that are not always understood by those who use language to accomplish certain conscious aims" (Butler, 2004, p. 198). The 'chiasmus' she refers to, then, is the gap between the bodily acts and the speech acts, aims and deeds. The study judges gender performativity in commercials from the bodily acts, speech acts (jingles, dialogue, voiceovers), and the gaps between them. These theoretical frameworks will be employed to understand and analyse women's secondary positioning in advertisements. The following review of literature will act also as a ~onceptual framework for exploring and interpreting the Images of femininity that dominate in advertisements. Tiggemann, Verri and Scaravaggi (2005) write that a thi~ woman is the media ideal in Australia and Italy. This creates body dissatisfaction and disordered eating tendencies. The article of Lavine, Sweeney and Wagner (1999) similarly concludes that depicting women as sex objects in television advertisements increases body dissatisfaction among men and women. However, the present study will not emphasise the consequences of repre entation of thin women on television but takes a broader view: how women's bodies are represented. There are not many works on the portrayal of women in Bangladesh television commercials. However, there has been research undertaken by scholars on print media and television. According to Nasrin (1999 & 2006), in the context of Bangladesh television (BTV), commercials mobilise women's presence in ways that marginalise them. Sometimes, a female model is used irrespective of whether the product is targeted at men or women. She also suggests that advertisements devalue women by selling their sex appeal (Nasrin, 1999, pp. 18-28). Furthermore, she argues that the portrayal of women in the Bangladeshi media is both "peripheral" and "negative" and she describes women in Bangladeshi advertising as a "commodity" (Nasrin, 2006, pp. 164-165). Chowdhury (2006) and Haque (2006) demonstrate that academics and women's organisations such as Narigrontho Probortona, (Gender in Media Forum) or

" WOMEN IN TELEVISION COMMERCIALS:

ari Sangbadik Kendra (Women Journalists Centre) are now vocal in protesting about advertisements for 'Fair and Lovely; a skin-whitening cream, produced by the multinational company Unilever in Bangladesh. There have been allegations that the product increases racial discrimination by suggesting that whiteness is more desirable and that Hydroquinine, which is associated with increased risk of skin cancer and skin diseases, is used in this product. (Chowdhury, 2006, p. 1; Haque, 2006, p. 1). The above literature review suggests that the media play an important role in shaping gender identity in the society and in positioning women's status. BRANDING

FEMININITY:

IMAGERY OF TELEVISION

THE LANGUAGE

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND BANGLADESH

that women are sexualised, in the following group of advertisements prove that women's identity is always subject to the need for women to engage in body beautification and to conform to narratives of sexual desirability. Women are positioned as objects of both the male and female gaze. Close readings of advertisements will show how women take up this double position. Rosken moisturiser (Australia)

AND

ADVERTISEMENTS

The advertisements in the present chapter have been taken as cases from various Bangladeshi and Australian channels to compare the constructions offemininity that exist in both societies. These case studies will present the world of femininity constructed by advertising through an understanding of gender in terms of male/female differences. We shall see how femininity is represented through modes of sexual deference, sensuality, mothering, housewifery, cleanliness, compassion, females' attachment to nature, nurturing and family responsibilities and patriarchy in advertisements. Powerful messages of dependency, servility and propriety are attached to femininity in television commercials. All the 'urvashies" and 'venuses' in commercials: Reflecting gender through 'male-gazing' Slogans like "Inside every woman, there is a goddess waiting to be discovered" (Venus battery-operated razor, Australia)", "She is a dream queen" (Keya Super Beauty Soap, Bangladesh) form the mirage of an imaginary world, where a woman is praised as a 'goddess' for her bodily beauty. Here, she becomes an 'object'-an object to be looked at, appraised and desired. The concept of beauty varies from culture to culture. However, from top to bottom, the female body is an "object of sight" targeted by advertisers for beautification. Both in Australia and in Bangladesh, we watch television commercials where women use make up to change their body colour, use cream to hide wrinkles and acne, use shampoo or hair oil for long strong hair. The commercials suggest that these make men want to look at women and women want to be looked at. Mulvey writes that women are "to be looked at" (Mulvey, 1975, in Bartkowski, 2005, p. 299). The same connotation is uttered in the writings of Wolf, "The beauty myth tells a story: The quality called 'beauty' objectively and universally exists. Women must want to embody it and men must want to possess women who embody it" (Wolf, 1991, p. 12). Women are encouraged to buy cosmetics, both to fulfil male desire and because of the impact of mass advertising on television by the cosmetic industries. Furthermore, sexual content, as well as the ways

This Australian advertisement is for Roskin moisturiser. The female model, identified as "Kate A., age 34'; is a life model-a model who poses nude for artists. According to the script, she needs to have beautiful skin because of her job. She uses Roskin, a product that "seals moisture for twenty four hours': She removes her underwear while two male painters begin to paint. However, these two men do not appear in front of camera, as only their hands are revealed as they are working. Berger's notion "men act, women appear" and Mulvey's idea of "Woman as image, man as bearer of the look" are illustrated here. Here the woman "appears" in several senses: first of all, she is to be looked at because she is an object of beauty; secondly, she is both the painters' model as well as the skin cream company's spokesmodel. As such, she is positioned as overtly subject to the male gaze-both to the 'painters' in the advertisement and also to the 'male gaze' of television viewers. Whether male or female, the viewer exercises a male gaze because the woman is looked at. Mulveywrites that a woman performs within two narratives, "the gaze of the spectator and that of the male characters in the film" (Mulvey, 1975, in Bartkowski & Kolma!, 2005, p. 299). The model thus becomes the object of the male gaze. The woman in the commercial is reduced to an image. This Roskin advertisement strongly and overtly draw: upon the conventions of art-history/and oil painting of nudes. Nudity is important here in placing the woman within the gaze. According to Berger, nude painting expose a particular hypocrisy: "You painted a naked

.••. WOMEN IN TELEVISION COMMERCIALS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND BANGLADESH

ut

n

Nari Sangbadik Kendra (Women Journalists Centre) are now vocal in protesting about advertisements for 'Fair and Lovely; a skin-whitening cream, produced by the multinational company Unilever in Bangladesh. There have been allegations that the product increases racial discrimination by suggesting that whiteness is more desirable and that Hydroquinine, which is associated with increased risk of skin cancer and skin diseases, is used in this product. (Chowdhury, 2006, p. 1; Haque, 2006, p. 1). The above literature review suggests that the media play an important role in shaping gender identity in the society and in positioning women's status. BRANDING

FEMININITY:

IMAGERY OF TELEVISION

e

THE LANGUAGE

that women are sexualised, in the following group of advertisements prove that women's identity is always subject to the need for women to engage in body beautification and to conform to narratives of sexual desirability. Women are positioned as objects of both the male and female gaze. Close readings of advertisements will show how women take up this double position. Rosken moisturiser (Australia)

AND

ADVERTISEMENTS

The advertisements in the present chapter have been taken as cases from various Bangladeshi and Australian channels to compare the constructions of femininity that exist in both societies. These case studies will present the world of femininity constructed by advertising through an understanding of gender in terms of male/female differences. We shall see how femininity is represented through modes of sexual deference, sensuality, mothering, housewifery, cleanliness, compassion, females' attachment to nature, nurturing and family responsibilities and patriarchy in advertisements. Powerful messages of dependency, servility and propriety are attached to femininity in television commercials. All the 'urvashies" and 'venuses' in commercials: Reflecting gender through 'male-gazing' Slogans like "Inside every woman, there is a goddess waiting to be discovered" (Venus battery-operated razor, Australia)", "She is a dream queen" (Keya Super Beauty Soap, Bangladesh) form the mirage of an imaginary world, where a woman is praised as a 'goddess' for her bodily beauty. Here, she becomes an 'object' -an object to be looked at, appraised and desired. The concept of beauty varies from culture to culture. However, from top to bottom, the female body is an "object of sight " targeted by advertisers for beautification. Both in Australia and in Bangladesh, we watch television commercials where women use make up to change their body colour, use cream to hide wrinkles and acne, use shampoo or hair oil for long strong hair. The commercials suggest that these make men want to look at women and women want to be looked at. Mulvey writes that women are "to be looked at" (Mulvey, 1975, in Bartkowski, 2005, p. 299). The same connotation is uttered in the writings of Wolf, "The beauty myth tells a story: The quality called 'beauty' objectively and universally exists. Women must want to embody it and men must want to possess women who embody it" (Wolf, 1991, p. 12). Women are encouraged to buy cosmetics, both to fulfil male desire and because of the impact of mass advertising on television by the cosmetic industries. Furthermore, sexual content, as well as the ways

This Australian advertisement is for Roskin moisturiser. The female model, identified as "Kate A., age 34'; is a life model-a model who poses nude for artists. According to the script, she needs to have beautiful skin because of her job. She uses Roskin, a product that "seals moisture for twenty four hours': She removes her underwear while two male painters begin to paint. However, these two men do not appear in front of camera, as only their hands are revealed as they are working. Berger's notion "men act, women appear" and Mulvey's idea of "Woman as image, man as bearer of the look" are illustrated here. Here the woman "appears" in several senses: first of all, she is to be looked at because she is an object of beauty; secondly, she is both the painters' model as well as the skin cream company's spokesmodel. As such, she is positioned as overtly subject to the male gaze-both to the 'painters' in the advertisement and also to the 'male gaze' of television viewers. Whether male or female, the viewer exercises a male gaze because the woman is looked at. Mulvey writes that a woman performs within two narratives, "the gaze of the spectator and that of the male characters in the film" (Mulvey, 1975, in Bartkowski & Kolmal, 2005, p. 299). The model thus becomes the object of the male gaze. The woman in the commercial is reduced to an image. This Roskin advertisement strongly and overtly drav upon the conventions of art-history/and oil painting 0 nudes. Nudity is important here in placing the woman within the gaze. According to Berger, nude painting expose a particular hypocrisy: "You painted a

MEDIA ASIA, VOL 38 NO 4,2011

woman because you enjoyed looking at her, you put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting vanity, thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for your own pleasure" (Berger, 1972, p. 51). The mirror reflects the woman's naked body and beauty back at her, as if she is its consumer and producer. Males thus enjoy nude images but do not take any responsibility for this nudity. So, strategically, advertisers make the woman in the Roskin commercial sa ' that she is posing nude for her job, as if she is an active subject rather than the passive object of the male gaze. Here we can see the gap between the body act of the female model (nudity which bears the sexual content) and speech (she is acting for herself, not for male-gaze). This gap, to Butler, is 'chiasmus; where the female model fails to understand that through the gap between the body act and speech (the language of the script) that she is an object of the male gaze. In this way, we see women occupying a viewing position in which they must imagine themselves as men see them. As Berger suggests, "One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at ... Thus she turns herself into an object-and most particularly an object of vision: a sight" (ibid., p. 47). Positioning of the female body is an important mode of constructing women as objects. The image can be explained by Goffman's contention. Goffrnan's reading is that women posed lying on the floor, or in bed bending their legs, act as though the relevant body parts were being employed in a disassociated or innocent way. But this dissociates the part from the whole. So, women's consciousness of being sexualised, or "engaging" in the game, is neutralised. This sets up a powerful association between the female body and sexuality (Goffman, 1979, p. 68). The image thus contains a sexual narrative. The provocative pose insists that the woman is employing a form of sexual invitation and that this is done knowingly. Women, then, come to be read as complicit in their own objectification. Further, animals can s -mbolise men and can be bearers of the male gaze. In one of the advertisemen for Optus 3G, a giraffe, after getting 10 , raise his nec ' to the room of an apartment building and as' a 'oman, "Could you please tell me where I am?" The \ 'oman is dressing, and is wearing onl ' unden 'ear. The \ 'oman screams upon seeing the giraffe at the \ -indov ' and runs out of the room crossing her hand over her breas . This is the same reaction a woman would have if it \ 'as a man watching her while she dressed. After hearing the scream, the giraffe says, "Oh sorry, no I'm not really like that, honest:' This is another advertisement in which an animal, is "the bearer of the look" standing in for an actual man. The above idea illustrates that the male gaze does not necessarily have to mean a man's eyes in any literal sense but rather represents a (hetero) sexually objectifying gaze. The following advertisement for Tibbet beauty care soap in Bangladesh also carries the connotation of the objectifying gaze. 208

Jingle text I spread love on my body and I draw love in my mind Flowers say I want your fragrance Sun says I want gloss [of skin] Green leaves want liveliness [of skin] and Butterflies want beauty Tibbet soap (Bangladesh)

The jingle text for this advertisement demonstrates that the female model knows that she is being looked at both by her male partner as well as viewers of the television. In the advertisement, she is unclothed which is a sexual signifier (Godrej, 2006, p. 6). This is reminiscent of "the nude" theme discussed by Berger (Berger, 1972, p. 47). Secondly, as she is taking a shower, the jingle text "I spread love on my body" can be associated with sexual touching. From the background, the male directors and crew produce her as a sexual object to be looked at. The same contention can be found for the advertisement for Lakme lipstick in Bangladesh. Lakme lipstick (Bangladesh)

"\X'ho's watching your lips today" is the motto of Lakme Lipstick, where the closed lips of the model have been broadcast on the television screen in a stadium. Here, the male is the technician behind the television camera and the audience. The female model automatically comes into the (male) viewing position. Thus women are always upposed to imagine themselves as men see them. Another example of Berger's men act/women appear theory is the ATN collection in Bangladesh.

" WOMEN IN TELEVISION COMMERCIALS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND BANGLADESH

In one of the advertisements for the ATN collection, the jingle text with its female voiceover states: "Khuji Tomake" (I am looking for you). This means the female model is looking for the male model. The male model works comfortably in his ATN singlet. The female model then appears and becomes happy after hugging him. Here, "he" is the subject and "she" is the object of this advertisement and achievement of his romantic goal. This advertisement shows that "man acts and woman appears'; because she figures as the achievement of his romantic goal. Competition

between/among

women

In advertising discourses, women are often represented as being engaged in competition among themselves. "Lux brings out the star in you"-this is the message of Lux soap products. The star of Lux Aqua Sparkle advertisement is Aishwarya Rai, who was Miss World in 1994 (Wikipedia, 2006a, p. 1). In Australia, the star of Lux body wash is Jennifer Hawkins who won the 2004 Miss Universe pageant (Wikipedia, 2006b, p. 1). The Lux campaign featuring beauty pageant winners seems to offer a salient illustration of the need for women to compete against each other. As Berger explains, the logic of the beauty contest is something like the myth of the Judgment of Paris. The Judgment of Paris was another theme ... of a man or men looking at naked women ... Paris awards the apple to the woman he finds most beautiful. Thus Beauty becomes competitive. (Today The Judgment of Paris has become the Beauty Contest.) Those who are not judged beautiful are not beautiful. Those who are, are given the prize. The prize is to be owned by a judge-that is to say to be available for him (Berger, 1972, pp. 51-52).

Lux body wash (Australia) The (fe)male gaze? One might expect that where cosmetics are advertised to male consumers, we might find the gender tables turned. We might expect, for example, to find men competing for women's attention, or being objectified beneath a female gaze. We might expect to find men "appearing" rather than acting. But gender representations are not symmetrical: we do not see men represented in these ways. On the contrary, even for products used by men, we find that women appear as sexual objects. In the advertisement, we see four women embrace one handsome man who uses Emami Fair and Handsome cream.

Lux (Bangladesh)

Emami Fair & Handsome cream (Bangladesh)

In the Lux commercials, women are supposed to compare themselves against each other as (male) judges might; the "prize" is to be deemed most beautiful (by a male judge). Radical feminists might say this directly undermines notions of solidarity of sisterhood among females by inviting division.

The man does not compete with other men for the prize of being judged by four women. Instead, thewomen are competing among themselves for his attention. In this advertisement, the "logic" is the same, even if products are aimed at different users, women are still sexual objects in these advertisements. So, it is clear that female positions in these advertisements are not "subject" positions. A woman's body and beauty is continually constructed within the cultural sphere and the media thus establish an image of women's lower position. The idea of the male gaze, mirror and vanity, the beauty contest and the (fe)male gaze and Berger's assertion that "men act/women appear" all feature. In the above advertisements, it is seen that women's beauty is a commodity, women are represented as objects of sexuality, objects to be looked at and objects 0 males' unlimited desire. In addition, women are depi as enjoying this.

MEDIA ASIA, VOL 38 NO 4,2011

SEPARATE WOMEN'S

SPHERES:

CONSTRUCTIONS

OF

WORK

This section helps us to understand that television commercials also produce and reproduce image of femininity at the aegis of male understanding. Furthermore. it offers an expression of how femininity is constructed by framing representations of femininity \ ithin binaries like public and private pheres, and purity and pollution. The patriarchal dichotomy

"family" and "home"; Public, Private

The following advertisements establish that the private sphere is still reserved for women. Graycar and Morgan write that "Public may be used to denote state activity. the values of the market-place, work, the male domain, or that sphere of activity which is regulated by law. Private may denote civil society. the values of family. intimacy. the personal life. home. women's domain. or that sphere of activity or behaviour unregulated by law" (Graycar & Morgan, 2002. p. 10). Feminists have criticised the public/private dichotomy because in patriarchal society. women's positioning in the private sphere reduces them to an equivalence with nature, nurture and non-rationality (Thornton. 1995, pp. 9-12). In commercials. women are often relegated to the private sphere. As we have seen previously, where women do operate in the public sphere, they are linked to the sphere of the body and uncontrollable sexuality. Servility is also an important feature of patriarchal femininity, that is, the images of women. which operate in patriarchal society. The following advertisements will show the public/private patriarchal division of labour. In an advertisement for Tetley tea in Bangladesh, the husband comes home from the office and his mood is not good. He is traversing the public and private spheres here. At home. his wife brings him a cup of Tetley tea. The husband becomes nostalgic and remembers his university life in England where he used to have Tetley tea. After having tea, his mood improves and his wife is happy with that. The suggestion of this advertisement is the wife is happy when her husband is. Frames of the advertisement demonstrate female subordination. In The ritualisation of subordination, Goffman writes that "Holding the body erect and the head high is stereotypically a mark of unasharnedness, superiorityanddi dain" (Goffman.1979. pAD). Here. the woman concentrate on her hu band while her husband concentrates on the tea. Her head is lowered. which is suggestive of her subordinate position.

Pran Scented Rice (Bangladesh) (stereotypical housewife in Australia) 210

In advertisements for Pran sugondhi chal (Pranscented rice) and Fresh Spice (Bangladesh), female models appear as traditional housewives who serve their husbands and children at the dining table, standing beside them. In Australia, this is not unusual at all. a uperwomen" of today In an advertisement for Fresh salt, Bipasha Hayat, a celebrity in Bangladesh tries to balance the public! private sphere. as she is an actress, a painter and a model. This "new woman" has emerged in commercials and is represented as "superwoman': This superwoman "manages to do all the work at home and on the job (with the help of a product, of course not her husband or children). Or as the liberated woman, who owes her independence and self-esteem to the products she uses" (Kilbourne, 1995, p. 125). Furthermore, these images are not at all symbolic of progress, but rather create a myth about progress. Fresh salt and Radhuni spice in Bangladesh bear such myths. In Australia. the same scenario, the myth about progress, can be seen in various advertisements for products (KFC and others). The representations of women's work in commercials still construct the home as the women's primary sphere of activity. When women "act'; this activity is for men's comfort.

WOMEN

THREATEN

CONTAGION:

HEALTH

AND HYGIENE

Advertisements for washing products, house cleaning products and sanitary napkins are attached to the realm of femininity. Ideas about health and hygiene are connected to ideas about pollution and danger signified by the female body, which needs to be purified and cleansed. Douglas demonstrates that dirt is essentially disorder. However, she believes that dirt exists in the eye of the beholder. Ideas about pollution relate to social life. With our separating, tidying and purifying. we interpret primitive purification rituals for modern life. There is a beliefthat each sex is a danger to the other through contact with sexual fluids. Another belief exists too, stipulating that only one sex (female) is a source of pollution to the other (male). Women signify both blood and purity and these double positionings are perpetuated in advertising representations. So the female body is understood to threaten contagion, and therefore needs to be purified through elaborate rituals (Douglas, 1966, pp. 1-3). In advertisements for toilet cleaning products, most of the time. the cleaner is female, but "experts" or "advisors"

Harpic Max toilet cleaner (Australia)

Harpic toilet cleaner (Bangladsh)

" WOMEN IN TELEVISION COMMERCIALS

rannale eir ide

,a ic! a als an ob nd er

a

are more often male. In an advertisement for Harpic Max, the female model is worried about the smell and cleanliness of the toilet. In a commercial for Harpic screened in Bangladesh, the advisor is again male but the toilet cleaner is female. So, we can conclude that women need to (be) clean because their bodies signify pollution and disorder. Again, the mother's duty is to clean the baby's bottom (Huggies Baby Wipes), or use Dettol as a disinfectant in both Bangladesh and Australia, suggesting that women clean household dirt while men work outside. In Australia, to change a child's nappy, to wash a young baby's hand, to prepare chicken are all female duties. Here, we see that the male's hands are dirty from gardening or repairing a bicycle and he washes his own hand.

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND BANGLADESH

kind of acknowledgement of women's capacity to pollute. Having a period is a matter of women's reproductive health. In Bangladesh, it is a hidden subject because of its association with the leaky female body. Shame and secrecy is used in the advertisement to remind women that the "ultimate humiliation would be any indication that they are menstruating" (Houppert, 1995, cited in Merskin, 1999, p. 947). The motto of the Senora Confident is "use senora and be confident': Here, the confidence arises out of not having a leaky body. Libra sanitary napkin (Australia)

: of

g e e ~d

Dettol hand wash (Australia) We see that the man's hand in the sphere of technical work while women do not do heavy manual work. The women's hands are decorated with long nails and gold bangles, (Winship, 1987, pp. 26-30). These images produce and reproduce the traditional divisions oflabour. Five years ago, it was rare to see any advertisement for sanitary napkins on any Bangladeshi television channel. In that sense, Senora is a unique advertisement. Senora sanitary pad (Bangladesh)

However, the representation degrades women. We see in the advertisement that on a college campus, a menstruating girl seeks a sanitary napkin from her female friend with lots of hesitation, simply saying "Have you one?" This hesitation signifies the unspeakable leakiness and messiness of the female body, which symbolises disorder. She does not mention the name of the product. Her friend provides one Senora sanitary napkin. The jingle text expresses "whisper, otherwise everybody will know it': The need to whisper connotes cultural shame, a

In Australia, the Libra sanitary napkin commercial promotes the "comfort" theme. These advertisements focus on the hygienic conditions necessary for female health in patriarchal societies. Martin suggests that menstruation is a form of "failed production': It suggests a failure to provide a "warm womb to nurture a man's sperm" and it relates the "leak" to "deterioration" and discharge (Martin, 1987, p. 47). Patriarchal views construct barriers against the transmission of information about menstruation. Merskin writes that "as a social construction, femininity involves the cultivation of a body that does not leak" (Merskin, 1999, p. 948). In these two advertisements, the terms 'confident' and 'comfort' remind us of the opposite view that women are sometimes 'unconfident' and 'uncomfortable: Based on Douglas's theory of purity and danger, Kristeva introduces the concept of 'abjection' in her Powers of horror: An essay on abjection, under which the clean and proper body, the obedient, law-abiding, social body emerges. According to her, there are three broad categories of abjection: abjection towards food thus towards bodily incorporation, abjection towards bodily waste and abjection towards the signs of sexual difference. Kristeva, like Douglas, conceives of fluids as objects (Grosz, 1994, pp. 192-195). In these ways, television commercials continuously produce and reproduce images of femininity and remind us how to behave as clean and proper bodies. CONCLUSION

Television commercials in both Australia and Bangladesh illustrate images of femininity such as mothering; the beautiful bodies of young women; sexuality; the ideal housewife; and women's compassion feature strongly in Australian and Bangladeshi commercials. Sometim female models' body, eyes, hair or lips are used "part

MEDIA ASIA, VOL 38 NO 4,2011

parcel" so that women appear as fragmented objects. Using both Mulvey's and Berger's theories, it has been shown that women function as objects to be looked at. An interesting feature in this regard is that even animals can take up the position of male gaze. Some advertisements suggest that patriarchal domination is linked to the fear of castration, posed by the female, so that women are positioned as secondary. Patriarchy produces and reproduces images of women in ways, which serve men's interests, that is, as "the good mother" "good housewife" or as sexual objects. It is suggested that patriarchy plays a key role in producing stereotypical images offemininities in both Australia and Bangladesh. The study investigates some code of ethics and laws enacted to regulate representations of sexism and racism in Australian and Bangladeshi commercials. According to the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA), the code of ethics states that "Advertisements shall not portray people or depict material in a way which discriminates against or vilifies a person or section of the community on account of race, ethnicity, nationality, sex, age, sexual preference, religion, disability or political belief" (AANA, 2006, p. 1). Bangladesh regulates advertisements through the legal framework. Law for banning obscene content in advertisements was enacted in 1963 (Act no.12) for printing media (Mass Line media centre, pp. 33-35). After 1986, the authority of the ational Broadcasting Authority ( BA) regulates the standards for advertisements (Mazumder, 2005, p. 1). The draft of Bangladesh Broadcasting Act 2003, provides all rules and regulations for programmes and advertisements of broadcast services, including terrestrial, satellite and cable. Advertisers must keep sexual conduct and violence within accepted boundaries to promote tolerance and respect for religious and ethnic minorities and disadvantaged group, and to respect religious views. According to this draft, there are penalties such as losing the broadcast licence and going to court if advertisers breach the code (BNNRC, 2006, p. 1). However, this is still in the process of being enacted by Bangladesh government (GKP, 2006, p. 1). However, codes of ethics, whether in Australia or in Bangladesh, may not be adequate to deal with embedded objectification as these codes rely on consumer complaints. This paper therefore recommends that gender discrimination be reduced by implementing these laws properly. Gender performance in advertising re-enacts gendered myths of culture. According to Butler, "Gender is an identity tenuously constituted in time, instituted in an exterior space through a stylised repetition of acts .. .If gender attributes and acts, the various ways in which a body shows or produces its cultural signification, are perforrnative" (Butler, 2005, p. 503). Furthermore, history, time and space playa significant role in producing the subject positions of genders. Butler posits "history created values and meanings by a signifying practice that requires the subjection of the body. The corporeal destruction 212

.•.

is necessary to produce the subject" (Butler, 2005, p. 497). Foucault claims that the subject's act is "to expose a body totally imprinted by history" (Foucault, 1977, in Butler, 2005, pp. 496-497). In accordance with the above theoretical points, it is clear that in both countries' advertisements, the female body performs roles that are historically and culturally already established in these societies. This paper has shown that the media do not invent new images of women, but circulates images that already exist as cultural forms. However, the study also shows that the media give an image or icon (like the myth of superwomen of the day) in front of audiences for their approval. So, advertising both produces and reproduces images. In terms of participation, it seems that women dominate the commercial sector. However, in both countries, their position is peripheral, passive and negative in television advertising only because of the representation. Women are objects, packaged for the pleasure of patriarchy, or bodies of pollution and subjection. Overall, it can be concluded that commercials in Australia and Bangladesh demonstrate or reflect male dominance over female. NOTES

1.

Urboshi or Urvasi is the name of an apsaras or heavenly nymph referred to in RgYedda Y. 41,19. (Hindu Myth) (Stutley & Margaret, 1977, p. 313).

2.

As Germaine Greer writes that "Women with 'too much' (i.e. any) body hair are expected to struggle daily with depilatories of all kinds in order to appear hairless" (Greer, 1999, p. 20).

REFERENCES

Australian Association of National Advertisers. (2006). Advertisers code of ethics http://www. ad vertisingstandardsburea u.com.au/P D F I AANACodeotEthics.pdf. Retrieved from www. advertisingstandardsbureau.com.au/pagesl images/6067 _AANA_ethics_final.pdf on 14August 2006. Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication. (2006). Retrieved from www. bnnrc.net/bnnrc/publication/broadcasting_act on 20ct 2006. Berger, J. (1972). Ways of seeing. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. ew York: Rutledge. Butler, J. (1997). The psychic life in power: Theories in subjection. California: Stanford University Press. Butler, J. (1999). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Rutledge. Butler, Butler,

J. (2004). Undoing gender. New York: Rutledge.

J. (2005).

From gender trouble. In W. K. Kolmar

& F. Bartkowski (2005), Feminist theory: A reader.

New York: McGrawHill.

....-

WOMEN IN TELEVISION COMMERCIALS:

Douglas, M. (1966). Purity and danger: An analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo. London: Routledge. Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972-1977. Ed. by Colin Gordon. Translated by Colin Gordon, Leo Marshall, John Mepham & Kate Soper. The Harvester Press, Harvester. Global Knowledge Partnership. (2006). GKP members' e-bulletin. Retrieved from www.globalknowledge. o rgl gkps _portal! newslettermaster.cfm? &action =n ewsletterview&menuid=633&parentid=636 on 20 September 2006. Godrej, D. (September 2006). Captive. New internationalist: The people, the ideas, the action in the fight for global justice, NI, 393. Goffman, E. (1979). Gender advertisements. Macmillan.

London:

Graycar, R. & Morgan, J. (2002). Chapter 2: The publici private dichotomy. In Hidden gender of law. Sydney: Federation Press. Greer, G. (1999). The whole woman. New York: Doubleday. Grosz, E. (1994). Volatile bodies: Toward a corporeal feminism. Allen and Unwin. Hall, S. (1997). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. London: Sage Publications. Haque, F. (2006). Unfair cream er ugly Biggapon Bondho Houk (in Bangia) (Stop broadcasting the advertisements of unfair cream). Daily Sangbad. Retrieved from www.thedailysangbad. corn/index. php ?news_id= 7302&nature= l&cat_ id=6&date=2006-04-26 on 26 April 2006.

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND BANGLADESH

menopause. In The woman in the body: A cultural analysis of reproduction. Boston: Beacon Press. Merskin, D. (1999). Adolescence, advertising and the ideology of menstruation. Sex Roles, 40(11/12). Mozumder, S. H. (27 August 2005). Autonomy of radio and television: Expectation and reality. The Daily Star, No. 204. Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. In W. Kolmar & F. Bartkowski (2005) (Eds.), Feminist theory: A reader. Boston: McGrawHili. Nasrin, G. A. (Ianuary-Iune 1999). BTV Biggaponer rajnoitik Orthoniti: Ekti Loigik Bisleson (in Bengali) (The political economy of advertisements in Bangladesh television: A gender analyses). Rajniti Orthoniti Journal, 5,19-28. asrin, G. A. (2006). Gonomaddhom 0 Nari in Bangia (Media and women). In S. Chakrabarti (Ed.), Chandrabati: Nari biso-ok Choto kagoj, 1 (pp. 161-169). Dhaka Petersen, H. L. (1997). Divided consciousness and female companionship: Reconstructing female subjectivity on Greek vases. Arethusa, 30(1), 35-74. Thorton, M. (1995). The cartography of public and private. In M. Thorton (Ed.), Public and private: Feminist legal debates. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Tiggemann, M., Verri, A., & Scaravaggi, S. (2005). Body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, fashion magazines and clothes: A cross-cultural comparison between Australia and Italian young women. International Journal of Psychology, 40(5), 293-302.

Houppert, K. (1995). Pulling the plug on the sanitary protection industry (Village Voice). In D. Merskin, Adolescence, advertising and the ideology of menstruation, Sex roles (1999), 40(11/12).

Wikipedia. (2006a). The free encyclopedia. Miss World 1994. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_ World_1994 on 24 Oct 2006.

Kilbourne, J. (1995). Beauty and beast of advertising. In J. M. Humez & G. Dines (Eds.), Gender, race and class in media. Sage Publication.

Wikipedia. (2006b). The free encyclopedia. Miss Universe 2004. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.orgl wikilMiss_Universe_2004 on 24 Oct 2006.

Lavine, H., Wagner, S. H., & Sweeney, D. (1999). Depicting women as sex objects in television adverting: Effect on body dissatisfaction. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (PSPB), 25(8), 1049-1058.

Winship, J. (1987). Handling sex. In R. Betterton (Ed.), Looking on: Images offemininity in the visual arts and media. London: Pandora.

Martin, E. (1987). Medical metaphors, menstruation and

Wolf, N. (1991). The beauty myth: How images of beauty are used against women. New York, London: Anchor Books, Doubleday.

213