Chetna Bhatia
Published:
Total Pages: 232
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The life of a common Indian woman is full of struggles, dilemmas, pressures and conflicts. Family's pressure to plan kids, explanations for opting night shift jobs, scolding about going alone to eating places and movies, reservation of seats in public transport, reaching out to diet and cosmetic industries to attain size zero and ultra-fair faces to get her boyfriend’s attention back.Where does 21st century Indian society stand on such issues? Also, what role does mass media, especially advertising plays in influencing public mindset about women ? This work acknowledged the need of examining it with reference to a wider context of the hard core issues faced by women in their bedrooms, kitchens, offices, streets and living rooms. Therefore, a sincere effort was put in reaching out to the people and mapping their minds through a set of questions (hidden form) about the control over a woman's body, the concept of her beauty, aspects of her occupation and mobility, her role in decision-making and in division of labor in the households. The book goes one step ahead of the typical impact studies or analysis of stereotypes in advertisements. For those interested in women studies, the book contains facts about women's movement in India till 2016 and a complete list of issues affecting a woman from her bedroom to her workplace.Those interested in advertising and cultural studies can find a full-length discussion on basic aspects of advertising as a format and as an institution .For the scholars of media studies or sociology, the work contains self-constructed Likert scales and codes. Further, the research has attempted to directly compare the advertisements and society on common parameters. The study draws its basic concepts and critical perspective from the works of Richard W Polay, John Fiske, John Hartley, Daniel Schandler, Lewis Hedwig, Kamla Bhasin, Nivedita Menon, Naomi Wolf, Radha Kumar, Foucault, Erving Goffman and Laura Mulvey. The issue has been examined thoroughly in the light of contemporary events and factors which make it more relevant to the present stage of globalized Indian society.