Misinterpreting Empowerment.

I am a woman and I think the Women’s Day ‘Dance to my Tunes’ campaign by Godrej was offensive. 

Of course, who wouldn’t like people dancing to your tunes, especially when they are people deemed in the socio-cultural rulebook to do just the opposite!

But that’s the whole point.

Imagine the same app being designed for the men folk; it would have been received with an outrage from feminists, social activists, media, critiques and even our current and aspiring leaders (who have suddenly woken up to the need for women empowerment).

The problem is, we are living in a highly skewed society, where the only way to counter a problem is to do the exact opposite.

The opposite of a patriarchal society is a matriarchal one. But that is not the solution. It is another problem in itself.

The solution to a patriarchal system is an equal society that does not get overly excited, or upset and starts judging women who stay out of home for more hours than the men in the family or men who do the laundry and take care of the kids.

I recently wrote about how more brands are using the power of social advertising, something I have been vouching for, for long. And I appreciate the effort to connect a lifestyle brand with women empowerment in a fun way. But tilting the balance to the other side is only going to heighten the effects of objectification and sexism that advertising is increasingly being accused of.