The Dilemma of Women’s Identity in Pakistani TV Ads: A Case for Beauty Myth

Abstract

Commercial advertising is more systematically designed, and more ingeniously disguised as something else. Vance Packard accurately observes that advertising hides more than it reveals. Advertising is not only about selling products but also about selling values. It has characteristically become an unavoidable shaping agent of our identities in the modern digital world. John O’Toole correctly assesses its significance when he observes that there is no other effective way of communicating packaged information about products to prospective consumers with adequate speed without advertising. Kilbourne, on the other hand, considers advertising as the key purveyor of cultural and social climate. Pakistani TV Ads construct women along stereotypical lines showing them in the positions of powerlessness, submission and subjugation. The commodification and objectification of women’s bodies are at the heart of most of the ads. The ads portray women as beauty-obsessed, highly gullible and less astute, oriented in lookism whose basic existential code seems to be physical beautification and a complete disinterest in intellectual concerns.  The concept of power extended to women is highly superficial and the powerful women, by and large, are either portrayed as excellent cooks or as inconsiderate and rude housewives. The empowerment of women is associated with beauty appeal and their existence is dovetailed to the procurement of appreciation from their family members. This paper attempts to examine some of the Pakistani TV commercial ads within the framework of “The Beauty Myth” by Naomi Wolf.  It attempts to show that advertising manipulates and challenges the intellectual credentials of women for commercial purposes. The study makes a textual analysis of some of the selected TV ads broadcast on different channels during peak hours of transmission.

     Keywords: beauty myth, TV commercials, gender dynamics, women’s identity