Written by- Aakanksha Singh
Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth, Varanasi
Introduction:
Research conducted for the Dove Self Esteem Project found that only 11% of girls worldwide would call themselves beautiful and six in ten girls avoid participating in life activities because of concerns about the way they feel insecure.
One-third of all 6-year-olds in Japan experience low body confidence.
Australian girls list body image as one of their top three worries in life.
While 81 percent of 10-year-old girls in the U.S. say they are afraid of being fat.
Why does a young girl feel insecure at such a young age?
This article aims to cover various reasons why women are so conscious about their body.
Beauty standard:
Beauty standard is basically a set of values applied to the appearance of men and women to be regarded as beautiful or handsome to rightfully fit in the community. While beauty standards are cruel to both men and women in this, in this article we will be focusing on the women’s Portrayal in the media.
In the west, the condition is much worse as these unrealistic beauty standards have resulted in normalizing plastic surgery. As today in the US alone, plastic surgery alone is a 27 billion dollar market with over 14,049 businesses operating in the industry.
A study at Miami University also shows that the pressure to get the so-called “perfect” appearance can stem from feelings of inferiority if someone sees themselves as less attractive.
Changes in the beauty standard in India:
If we go back in the golden eras of Hindi when Madhubala, Meena Kumari and so many more are even remembered after more than a decade of their death and rightfully so. Women’s bodies and looks have always been a topic of discussion in the media not just in India but all around the world. Although now it’s bigger than ever.
While earlier the Portrayal of women was much more authentic than it is now. Recently, whilst revisiting some old songs I saw women with much more authentic bodies and watching that was so much more refreshing.
For example: according to today’s beauty standard having a fuller big lip is considered attractive and while as beautiful as it is, it takes away the uniqueness of people as every big actress in today’s generation has started to look the same. While in the earlier generation, especially in the Hindi media, the various lips shapes were shown and now looking back I appreciate it so much.
One more thing that was noticed by me was the belly fat, looking back at the old music videos different body types were appreciated from hourglass body to the one with belly fat because realistically speaking even today when I look around myself I don’t usually see a woman like the one I see in the media the one that never gets bloated or the one that’s always working out. Rather I see women with different body types and that isn’t that beauty of uniqueness? I would argue that women feel much more seen by the women around them rather than the one portrayed by the media.
Influence of the world:
South Korea is set to ease its immigration procedures for tourists seeking cosmetic surgery as the nation attempts to capitalize on growing international popularity of K-pop and k-beauty trends. On one hand, it highlights the global brand power of Korean cosmetic and the excellence of the country’s surgeons while on the other hand, it acts as a reminder of the unrealistic standards and fierce competition that undermine the self-esteem of many young Koreans. South Korea is often dubbed the plastic surgery capital boosting the highest number of cosmetic surgeons per capita than anywhere else on the planet.
While in US, the influence American celebs have over India is unimaginable, which can be seen through multiple trends started by them. One of the many problematic trends was the “Kylie Jenner lips cup challenge” where people were literally putting small cups on their lips in such a way as creating a suction effect leading to their lips looking swollen or “plum”.
the harm of this challenge that does to one’s lips apart from making lips enlarge, the suction causes blood and other chemicals to rush to your lips, engorging the tiny blood vessels. If the suction is done for too long it can burst these tiny blood vessels, causing permanent damage, or even clots.
Over sexualization of women in media:
According to UNICEF, “the objectification and sexualization of girls in the media is linked to violence against women and girls worldwide”. Well, let us consider Hindi films like Kabir Singh where the director himself said “if you can’t slap, if you can’t touch your woman wherever you want, if you can’t kiss, I don’t see emotion there.” The media does the other job of showing women as object of pleasure. This indirectly influences man to see them as an object.
In any case, the body becomes an object that exists for sexual pleasure, leading to self-objectification. Remember the time when one of the leading newspaper times of India, tried to objectify Deepika Padukone for having a cleavage? These headlines and so many ads on TV goes to show that women need to and feel shame for their body. The same goes for boys, they see who’s their relationship with girls has been portrayed and they internalize this notion that they need to have this ‘alpha” attitude in the relationship. Market research done by internet providers found that average age a boy first sees porn is at the age of 11. Psychologies magazine in the UK found that a third of 14–16-year-olds had seen their first sexual imagine online when they were 10 or younger; 81% of those looked at porn online at home, while 63% could access it on their phones. This goes to show how easy it is to see images that younger kids weren’t supposed to see.
Indian laws:
To be fair, India has strict laws that bans indecent representation of women in the media. Recently, the Ministry of Women and child development said that it was ready to finalize the amendment in the Indecent Representation of Women Act,1986. This act deals with the depiction of women; her form or body or any other part thereof in such way as to have an effect of being indecent, or derogatory to women, or indecent representation of women in any form. Under section 2(c), it prohibits any kind of indecent Portrayal of women. This is done not only in books, circulars, posters etc. but also in ads.
Young Person’s (Harmful Publications ) Act,1956
The act defines harmful publications “means any book or like publication which consists of stories told with the aid of pictures or without the aid of pictures or wholly in pictures, being stories portraying-
(i) the commission of offenses; or
(ii) acts of violence or cruelty; or
(iii) incidents of a horrible nature
Information Technology Act, 2000 prohibits both publication and transmission of those materials which are of lascivious nature or have an appeal of lewd interest if they are in electronic forms. Any publication and transmission that has an effect which leads to degradation or corruption of those who have read, seen or heard will be punishable.
Central Board of Film Certification:
The Central Board of Film Certification is a statutory body in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India. Its main function is “regulating the public exhibition of films under the provisions of the Cinematograph Act 1952. No vulgarity, obscenity or scenes degrading women, including sexual violence (as much as possible) And No discrimination of the race, religion or other social group.
While all this has been helpful in the Portrayal of women in the media, there has been nothing done to set realistic expectations of how a woman’s body should look like.
One of the countries that is currently working on making it mandatory for influencers to declare retouched and filtered photos. According to the bill by France’s finance minister Bruno le Marie, this law could “help limit the destructive psychological effects of filters on the internet users.”
In 2017, france have moved to make it mandatory for models/influencers whose body had been edited to be accompanied with a tag that read ‘retouched photograph.’
Way forward:
Clearly, at the moment legislation is not enough, there is always an outlook of more and better regulations. To be fair, India has fairly done a great job with rules and regulations but where India fails is in the application of such laws. Because of inconsistent judgements and board certifications people have lost faith in them. As there is no use of legislation or bills if they cannot be integrated in the life of a person who is affected by it.
A country where violence in women is so high and representation of women in the media, law and many commercial sectors is very low and needs to find its way to resolve this issue. Through this article I wanted to throw some light on how good women’s representation in media matter and how current representation is affecting women.
