"It is all about perspective"

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This week we read "Top Girls? Young Women and Post-Feminist Symbolic Violence” (Chapter 3) in The Aftermath of Feminism.

We talked about how a certain specific post-feminist narrative of success is sold to young women - something which simplifies the women's struggles and reduces them to one's individual shortcomings. It uses the trope of a 'top girl' to argue how women issues are finally solved now because certain (few) woman have managed to reach the higher positions of power. For example, the fact that female CEOs exist is a sign that 'women can do it all' and that 'women's issues have been addressed'. If they had not been, how would these women achieve all this success? So if you cannot achieve what you want, it is your fault. You are the one being lazy.

To illustrate, I want to focus on this one advertisement (the like of which I have seen many on Indian media) about 'women empowerment'. (It is about 3 mins of ad but you don't need to watch it to understand the following)

The advertisement starts with a young actress (I will call her 'protagonist' from now on) talking over the phone while walking on the railway platform. She is complaining about the limited acting roles she is getting in the film industry because she chose to marry in the middle of her acting career. Then she expresses her confusion/anger about how she does not want a kid because it will ruin her career.

After that we see her enter the railway platform where she sees three other women in the scene - one is a regular cleaning lady at the station, the second one is a business woman working on a laptop, the third one looks like a housewife wearing a traditional attire, carrying a baby.

The cleaning lady starts to talk about the baby with the housewife and talks about how she also has three kids and really loves them. The business woman listens to them and reacts to the situation quite frustratedly. She asks the cleaning lady, "Has not having kids just ruined your life? Have you not lost your whole identity?"

The cleaning lady claims that she loves being a mother. But then the business woman adds "You don't understand. It has certainly taken away all your time. That is why you are just a cleaning lady."

Then the businesswoman also confronts the housewife seeking reassurance and says, "I am sure you understand, you seem educated. Kids always make your life worse and you lose all your sense of independence. Right?"

All this time, we see our protagonist listening to the conversations.

Now, the housewife replies. She says that she loves being a mother and it has brought great joy to her life. She further adds that is has added one more identity of being a mother to her life.

The businesswoman looks really disappointed and dismisses her saying that she does not understand either because she is a housewife. She adds that housewives don't have to balance work and home so the housewife does not really know.

Then we hear someone calling the housewife from the back as the "Senior Superintendent Of Police (SSP)" and we see that everyone is shocked. So, here we realize that the 'housewife' is actually a police officer (SSP). She stands up and says "It was really hard at first to balance maintaining law and order of the city while taking caring of the baby. But she managed."

The SSP then says, with great force, "It is all about perspective."

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"She can carry both" - says the title of the advertisement. It is an ad for pregnancy test. 

What is wrong with it? This kind of promotion of 'top girl' success narrative rather puts the burden on the women to do it all and do it all without complaining because certain others have also done it. At the same time, what about the double shifts f working at the home as well as at the office the SSP had to go through? What about the daily extra labour the SSP has to do to challenge the stereotypes in the industry? Is that 'added labour' a good indicator of success? Why was the cleaning lady's story not enough to convey a message about "you can do it all?" Well, the cleaning lady is also actually doing it both. Cleaning lady cannot be 'the top girl', the SSP can?

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In the end we see that the SSP receives a parcel from our protagonist. It turns out to be a magazine with our pregnant protagonist on the cover. So, she decided to 'changed her perspective' and decided to 'do it all' because 'she can definitely carry both'.

Was it just her perspective that needed a shift?


























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