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Women
Fashion
Vs Indian Women
 Like it happens in any
developing economy, in India, there’s been an apparent growth in
aspirations of the people. Today, people aspire to be someone famous. And,
to become ‘that someone’, they’re willing to pay a premium for quality,
design and exclusivity. Be it the contemporary housewife, a sophisticated
or the next generation of working class, they all want the best in life.
"Today people, in one word, want Glamour. Anything written on celebrity,
fashion and social revelry etc. is received with great delight. By giving
the readers’ what they want media whets their appetite for it. Then
follows the vicious circle of desiring more and more. So media goes on
providing the same.
Let’s take up growing awareness about fashion among youngsters. Media has
given a boost to the fashion industry, to the fashion shows. The fashion
industry is at its peak with Indian couture catching the fancy of the
fashion gurus all across the globe. Beauty pageants have helped in
promoting it. More and more youngsters are getting pulled in by the
glamour of lights, camera, grease pint and fame. Young girls are being
lured to the show bizz. Almost every young girl wants to be a slim trim,
sexy model dancing on ramp, or wants to get a “Miss ….” Crown on her head.
Since the last 4-5 years , the whole scenario of beauty paegents and
fashion industry has just turned on.
Beauty contests sprout like common weeds today. Every small dance and
college wants to organize one and ofcourse everybody wants to participate
in it. Well , from an ordinary looking girl to a “crowned ideal woman “,
it’s a long long process. The body beautiful is carefully crafted in the
beauty factory, to be sold at a beauty mela. A successful sale helps it to
lure millions of other bodies back to the beauty industry. Except for a
woman’s height which is non negotiable, everything else can be altered.
And do we really know what is the price of a beauty crown? Sushmita Sen
had to have her breasts augmented - artificially shaped to please the
judges! Women today are using silicone breast implants their contouring
that make men drool. Silicone injections produce the precise lip-chin
correction which gives women the ‘sexy pout’ that sells soft porn
glossies. Lipo-suction for fat removal, nose jobs, facelifts, and every
possible surgical trick In a way we can say that a girl passing through
different surgeries is carved into a ‘new master piece’.
Through aggressive advertising the beauty industry has been very
successful in convincing women of the ‘Ideal Woman’ myth. It has made the
woman’s body into a commodity which should meet a standard i.e. of
queen’s. Every woman desires to look beautiful, sensuous and she feels
insecure if she does not meet this standard. Perhaps this insecurity
persuades women to buy beauty aids with often false claims of "removing
wrinkles", "changing skin complexion" or "making one fair". But there is
the other side of the woman, the true Indian woman in picture. The Indian
woman, who hopes that her husband's longevity is increased by larger dot
on her forehead, who has no idea of her rights. She just knows giving and
giving.
When we talk about fundamental rights of women. what are these? We all
know these include every right being a human being should have in a
society. And who wouldn’t want these rights? These are the fundamental
rights that every human being would love to enjoy. Law is there to protect
these rights of women in particular. But after 54 years of Indian
independence, the condition of Indian woman is even worsened. Of the 15
million baby girls born in India each year, nearly 25 percent will not
live to see their 15th birthday.
The Indian constitution grants women equal rights with men, but strong
patriarchal traditions persist even today. In most Indian families, a
daughter is viewed as a liability, and she is conditioned to believe that
she is inferior and subordinate to men. Sons are idolized and celebrated.
May you be the mother of a hundred sons is a common Hindu wedding
blessing. The rules laid down by Manu in 200 B.C.: "by a young girl, by a
young woman, or even by an aged one, nothing must be done independently,
even in her own house". "In childhood a female must be subject to her
father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons; a
woman must never be independent."
On the contrast, the new generation X asks they have the right to drink or
smoke in public, right to wear seductive cloths in public, right to take
part in beauty contests, right to sleep with anybody she wishes. They
should not be interrupted in whatever they do. Should all these include in
fundamental rights? Don’t you think that these so called new rights only
reinforce the 'objectification of women', the feudal and/or the
consumerist culture.
Whenever any association opposes the beauty paegents or fashion shows ,
our “Miss India’s and crown girls’ do talk about feminism and women’s
rights but has any celebrity model expressed any anguish at the higher
rate of infant mortality among girls in rural areas? Did anyone mention a
sharp declining male-female ratio, existing female infanticide and
increased selective abortion of the female fetus through sex
determination? Did these models even know that every hour a woman is raped
and every 10 minutes a crime is committed on a women somewhere in her
country?
Hard earned money that could have been spent on nourishing food to bring
on a natural healthy look is used for buying artificial blushes and skin
nourishers. These artificial aids only worsen the condition if a woman’s
general health is bad. Women’s groups and activists are objecting mainly
to the ‘commodification’ of women as sex objects. "Women should be free to
decide which beauty products to use. They should not be conditioned by
advertising and a beauty contest culture.
India’s constitution guarantees free primary school education for both
boys and girls up to age 14 but India has the largest population of
non-school-going working girls. Foremost is the view that education of
girls brings no returns to parents and that their future roles, being
mainly reproductive and perhaps including agricultural labor, require no
formal education. The "another disincentive for sending daughters to
school is a concern for the protection of their virginity. Women work
longer hours than men. Still, men report that "women, like children, eat
and do nothing. If all activities — including maintenance of kitchen
gardens and poultry, grinding food grains, collecting water and firewood,
etc. — are taken into account, then 88 percent of rural housewives and 66
percent of urban housewives can be considered as economically productive
Mothers breast feed their girl babies the reason of feeding for shorter
periods of time reflects the strong desire for sons. If women are
particularly anxious to have a male child, they may deliberately try to
become pregnant again as soon as possible after a female is born
Conversely, women may consciously seek to avoid another pregnancy after
the birth of a male child in order to give maximum attention to the new
son." A study in Punjab shows that medical expenditures for boys are 2.3
times higher than for girls. Why a woman does so ? obviously , to fulfill
her patriarchal family wishes.
Male violence against women is a worldwide phenomenon. Although not every
woman has experienced it, and many expect not to, fear of violence is an
important factor in the lives of most women. In recent years, there has
been an alarming rise in atrocities against women in India. Every 26
minutes a woman is molested. Every 34 minutes a rape takes place. Every 42
minutes a sexual harassment incident occurs. Every 43 minutes a woman is
kidnapped. And every 93 minutes a woman is burnt to death over dowry. The
most extreme expression of the preference for sons is female infanticide
and sex-selective abortion. Women are kept subordinate, and are even
murdered, by the practice of dowry. It is estimated that the average dowry
today is equivalent to five times the family’s annual income and that the
high cost of weddings and dowries is a major cause of indebtedness among
India’s poor.
There are too many contrasts between the Typical Indian woman and modern
outgoing Indian woman. Should we say that womanhood has been divided in
between two polarities? Between big dot on forehead and the hair style
where vermillion finds no place. The point is not to follow centuries old
customs, but to maintain the grace and dignity of womanhood. To maintain
herself in such way, her presence gives a feeling of proud of being a
woman, no matter she be in any corner of the world.
We must learn to accept women in all their diversity - tall, short, thin,
fat, white or black....Let’s try to understand in real terms that "Beauty
is not in the body but in the mind." Let’s try to improve women’s living
conditions in real picture.
–
Puneet Kaur
April 28, 2002
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