Pranta Pratik Patnaik

Media Representations and Gendered Subjectivities: Sociology of Television Advertisements Pranta Pratik Patnaik

Can we talk about gender as a category which is fixed and appropriated for once and all by the society? This book is an attempt to examine the fluidity of the concept of gender through media discourses, especially television advertisements in India. The social construction of gender through Indian television advertisements explores the terrain of nationalism, globalisation and liberalisation in India,which played with the image of gender using it for maintaining the ?cultural purity? on one hand and luring into the dens of consumerism on the other. Apart from media representations of women, the book also explores the dynamics of advertising where there is a ?shift? in focus from female bodies towards mens' bodies. What counts as masculinity or femininity is defined by the generous acts which is possible through the purchase of certain products. The linkage between capitalism and patriarchy needs to be taken seriously as structures of constraint for manipulating with the notion of gender. Such media representation tries to conceal the prevailing inequalities in the society. The audience tries to negotiate with such images which present before them their dreams, hopes and aspirations.