Sentinaro Longkumer
Every woman is made beautiful in God’s own image but we hear people saying, “She is beautiful, she is not.” But, have we really pondered who sets this standard of beauty? Why do very few fall in the category of the so called, “beautiful.” Perhaps there may be many forces that set the standard of a beautiful woman but one of the strongest forces among them would be commercial advertisement. Earlier, media were accused for influencing the audience towards violence but now they are also subject for pursuing girls to be like the models as projected in the commercial advertisement. Media too has its own share of positive influences, they are indeed very helpful in today’s fast changing world but when it comes to commercial advertisement there are concerns which need serious attention, one would be the stereotyping of woman’s beauty.
The cultivation theory in media studies talks about how media influences the audience into believing what they project as true and authentic. George Gerbner developed this theory where he states that regular exposure to media images cultivates in audience’s consciousness the idea that the images projected in the screen are the norm. And the viewers accept whatever is displayed in the screen to be the ultimate standard for beauty. For e.g. in an advertisement, if a fair skin with slim figure is projected then gradually that becomes the norm of beauty for the viewers. Media ideals can thus have a powerful effect on the audience’s understanding towards beauty. When the viewers are conditioned towards a certain norm of beauty, it becomes the common standard for beauty and perhaps, because of this reason, the concept of real beauty is diluted. Living in an era of new media, almost everything is digitalised, even the concept of beauty. We see beauty defined, in the commercial advertisement, in the light of slim figure, white complexion, well groomed legs, silky hair and of course flawless skin. In commercial advertisement, be it in print media, television or any electronic gadgets, it is usually a style for every fairness cream product to project a dark girl getting nowhere because of her complexion, then she is recognised when she uses a fairness cream and becomes white. This logically depicts the message that black is ugly and white is not. But in a country like India where majority are born with dark complexion, how can one define beauty on the basis of complexion? In our immediate tribal context, we see the effects of media in the form of girls not wanting to be fat, even to the extent of taking surgery, which is indeed very risky for health. We also hear complains that tribal girls are short, but majority of the tribal are born this way; so we are tall in our own tribal way. We say we are short only when we start comparing ourselves with the girls promoted in media. In other word, media defines how short is short and how tall is tall which is misleading. Commercial advertisement endorse different products by projecting only young girls (hardly do we find aged woman) with white complexion (hardly do we find dark complexion), with skinny figure (hardly do we find fat girls), with fair skin (hardly do we find scars in their body), with shiny hair (hardly do we find dull hair) etc. All these are media’s standard of beauty, which influences men and women to follow this standard. We may be taken to the world of fantasy by believing that such flawlessness is possible if we try the product but to be very frank, lot of photoshopping and editing are done before the models are projected in the screen. Therefore if I may be allowed, then I would like to term media’s projection of beauty as commercial beauty.
Research shows that media often projects an unattainable standard of women’s beauty and links this standard with woman’s worth. But how can a woman’s worth be confined only to media’s projection of beauty, women are more than that. If we go back to Bible, the creation account talks about God as the creator who created everything good. Womanist Patrica Hunter stated: “If all God created was very good, including humankind, then all women, regardless of ethnicity, class, varying abilities, or sexual orientation, is part of God’s very good creation.” God is the creator of beauty, and he created every individual, irrespective of race and culture, beautiful. Everyone is unique in appearance which displays God’s creativity and aesthetic sense of beauty. But when a certain standard of beauty is imposed upon a woman, it is like forcing all the women to denounce their unique natural beauty. For example, if a rose is the supposed standard of beauty, then it is like forcing the lilies, sunflowers, marigolds, geraniums and all the flowers to be like the rose. But just as every flower is uniquely beautiful so also every woman is uniquely beautiful.
Commercial advertisement may be hijacking the concept of beauty but it will not be of much effect if we become a critical viewer instead of consuming and believing everything that is projected. Thus every audience must become a critical audience of media. If we allow commercial advertisement to determine what beauty is, then we are not allowing our rational to determine what beauty is from our own perspective. If any woman hates herself for her appearance and if any man judge a woman’s beauty basing on the criteria set by commercial advertisement, it is high time not to internalise oneself by media’s stereotypes and not to judge a woman’s worth by the industry’s standard of beauty. It is high time to celebrate God’s creativity in creating women who are all beautifully unique. Take out the spectacle of media and we will see how beautiful a woman is.
