The only difference between a man and woman’s success is your point of view
English translation of the video
Officer 1 (woman) - hmm... This is done.. the complete and recommended
promotion list. ( handing over some papers)
Officer 2 - Thankyou.. mmm, ah... Kiran! Recommended by Rajat. Obviously.
Officer 3- Why Kiran and why Obvious? ( excited)
Officer 2 - Sir Kiran .. Star of Rajat's team, Rajat takes him to each and every project he do sir. They make a great team. completely. Although Kiran is young and also a fresher Rajat believes in Kiran. And also they work together whenever we see them. Not only in the office, they spend weekends also on work, on discussion, brain storming sessions and presentations. They come early and leaves the last together everyday. … For them it is all about work. ( everyone in the room visualizes Kiran as a woman)
Officer 4- Let us also see who Rajat's recommendation is.. (sarcastic smile)
Officer 2 - sure sir. ( picks the receiver and dials)
woman in call - yes sir.
Officer 2 - send Kiran in... thank you.Officer 2 - EVERYONE THIS IS KIRAN. ( a man enters the room)
We are exposed to many moralistic things daily, yet we fail to notice very important details due to our ignorance. Television commercial is one such platform we are exposed to, everyday while watching a teledrama, movie or news broadcast which conveys a message, promoting, and aiming to market a product or service. Although we watch the same advertisement multiple times we rarely realize the moral and their true impact on us. This video is an exemplification for an advertisement which intends to change the stereotypical ideologies engulfed in the society dealing with the juxtaposition of expectation and reality, reinforcing that prejudice over people and their success depending on gender is unfair.
Not all advertisements have a message to convey, yet this advertisement has an enigmatic message which deals with how society looks at a woman's success and how success is defined by society based on gender. Here the officers who are gathered around a table are deciding upon the employees for promotion based on recommendations that voice the ideologies of the society. When the officers hear about “Kiran” and the attachment this employee has with “Rajat”: the person who recommended “Kiran'', at a jinx they visualized a beautiful woman. Until the last few seconds of the video even the audience is manipulated to think that Kiran is a woman. So that this scenario clearly depicts how society looks at a woman’s success, thus the so-called society is still engulfed in the typical mentality where they believe that women cannot rise on their own and to be a successful woman there is always an involvement of a man. And the sarcastic truth which is evident in this video is that how women being women themselves tend to think narrow mindedly about another woman's success.
Until the end of the video the audience tends to picture the exact idea depicted by the society: officers, but this is when the reality appears, shattering the expectations of the society into pieces. When the officers called in “Kiran” to see who exactly was this person who had the interest of “Rajat”, the expectations the officers had, along with viewers, were totally proven wrong. Thus juxtaposing expectation: Kiran as a woman, and reality: Kiran as a man, this advertisement reinforces how narrow minded and judgmental the society is when they hear a woman’s name in a promotion list. In simpler terms, promotion refers to upward movement in the job leading to greater responsibilities, higher status and better salary. Nevertheless people tend to define success or promotion in terms of their own stereotypical perspectives where they believe that men achieves success on their own while women achieves success with the help of a man, thus the society tends to look at women as dependable creatures who cannot stand on their own and who doesn't have a voice of their own. The moment Kiran: a man, enters the room the facial expressions of the officers loses its excitement and fills with shame depicting that as humans we should be ashamed of the narrow minded ideologies we plant and grow in our heads daily and we should first change our own perspectives to change the world.
Though we tend to believe that society changes and their ideologies develop with time, the truth is specially in today's society men and women are still separated by stereotypes and what society thinks they should be doing. And this advertisement conveys an eye-opening message to its audience, that is, if promotions refers to upward mobility in career and status, nonetheless of being a woman or a man, both parties have the ability to draw their own success path independently, thus no woman is lesser than a man , and no man is greater than a woman, the only difference is the society’s point of view.
I agree with this argument. Women are strong, although society sees them as weak. They can be strong as men may be more than them.They can be successful by achieving their goals. Most of womens do not like to depend on someone, they have their own goals. It is true that women want love, affection and security, but they are not weak. Mrs.Ashcharya Peiris, who included in the BBC's list of 100 inspiring and influencial women from around the world for 2019, and Mrs.Caroline Jurie who crowned Mrs.World prove that women can be successful, overcoming the obstacles. So, women can be successful as men sometime more than men and the society should see their success in a positive eye.
ReplyDeleteI would like to comment on this statement that you have included in your comment. "It is true that women want love, affection and security, but they are not weak." This is where the society fails in defining who exactly this woman is, right? People tend to notice that a woman is an affectionate, responsible, love seeking and love giving person but is it okay to define a woman's nature depending on these specific qualities. Can the society define this woman only as a person who seeks for love, affection and security? its true that women tend to seek for these, so does this mean that men do not seek for love, affection and security? so why do most men search for a woman who can treat him like his mother or who is like his mother? isn't it because they expect the woman they choose should love him, show true affection and provide a secure space to live in just like the way they've been treated all these years by their own mother? don't you think so?
DeleteYes. Both men and women seek for love, affection and security. What I wanted to say through that particular statement is that, although women seek for love, affection and security society cannot see them as weak. This article is mainly focused on success of women. So, I wanted to convey the idea that women are strong although they want love, affection and security. Men seek for these things, but society sees them as strong ones. When women seek for these things, society sees them as weak ones. What I wanted to say that, although women seek for love, affection and security they are not weak. Society cannot see women as weak ones based on their seeking for love and affection. They are strong same as men.
DeleteYes, this is exactly what I wanted to point out. Though women are defined based on such qualities , men too possess these qualities. But it is only women who are looked down upon based on these qualities pointing these out as "Qualities a woman should possess" and "qualities which makes a woman a down to earth weaker person when compared to men" despite the fact that all these qualities are common among each and every individual despite their gender differences. Again this reinforces the idea that "The only difference between a man and woman’s success is your point of view".
DeleteYes, I agree with you on this completely. Everything that happens in the world has a lot to do with the perspective of society. Whether it is the success or the lifestyle of people, mostly women have affected by this a lot. There are more social norms and judgments regarding women than men like how they should wear and how they should behave. After all, this is a society where masculinity is given more prominence than feminism. But it should be like what you have stated, “No woman is lesser than a man, and no man is greater than a woman, the only difference is the society’s point of view.” After all we all are humans despite anything.
ReplyDeleteThis mindset has been there for a long time. This is depicted by historical dramas and documentaries. Women were treated like animals just because of their gender. The narrow-minded society has shaped these stereotypes. Even though thousands of years have passed, and no matter how the world develops still that social norms are there. fortunately, over the years the world has become more and more gender-neutral and hopefully one day there will come a day that both men and women will be treated as the same humans regardless of a label called gender.
Yes, the society tend to lag behind when the discussion is about perspectives, because of the manner in which they have been taught to define who a woman is and who a man is. Cultural norms/ Long driven social norms has a great effect in manipulating their perspectives to individual mindsets.
DeleteSo I just want a clarification to this statement you have used, " After all, this is a society where masculinity is given more prominence than feminism"
What is your definition(your point of view) for femininity and masculinity?
I agree with this view that, most of the people consider men are most powerful. In ancient period, women even didn't have permission to educate. Even a birth of a girl was considered as curse to her family. In short,most of the people's attitudes were success is based on gender. Then, how Malala Yousafzai has become a
ReplyDeletePakistani activist? It is very clear that gender is not a barrier to one's success. It depends on to what extent they are confident about themselves. Another successful woman, Mrs. Caroline Jurie who has attempted to suicide for many times is an instance. According to her statement, it is true that her husband helped her to achieve her goals, but if she was not confident about herself beginning to the end, her goals definetely become only dreams. Therefore, women are not weak. They can bear up hardships to achieve their targets.
I really appreciate the two examples you have taken, because these two examples you have taken to interpret your view point indicates two individuals who have achieved a great deal of success in two different ways. The former who was born and grown in such a society where people, even women themselves believed that education is not something that should be acquired by women instead the society she lived in was thoroughly against the idea that women should be provided with the platform to educate themselves and to reach their dreams and then, while the latter exemplifies a women who had the moral support from his husband yet he did not depend on him, she decided and fabricated her own success path. yes so if women can achieve so much success all alone, just imagine what they would have achieved, if they had the expected moral support from the society: both men and women, thus the world will be an ideal place to live in for both women and men. Right ?
DeleteWomen can stand alone. they also can go a long way without the help of a man. It is society's belief that women always must have a helping hand of a masculinity in order to achieve success. The time has come to eradicate this idea, because modern woman is more stronger than the ancient woman, and I think I am not wrong if I say she is more stronger than a man. Woman has a large capacity to bear up and for patience than those so-called men. Also, Chamoda has given the character of Mrs.Caroline Jurie , and I think she is one of the best and recent example whom we can see the woman's power. In her interviews she says how she became success without any help of the outsiders. So, my point is , being a woman is not an obstruction to achieve success.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed, the society is the perspective creating machine, thus their/our perspectives can lift a person's spirits and at the same time the society's perspectives can drag a person's spirit down. This reinforces my argument which clearly states that "the only difference between a man and woman's success is YOUR POINT OF VIEW". You have mentioned that "modern woman is more stronger than the ancient woman" and this is a little bit confusing , right? what I believe is that its hard to discover a clear demarcation between modern and ancient women, after all, modern or ancient, women are women right? Even women in ancient times were strong, thus there were women in ancient times who have tried to create a revolution: Indira Gandhi, a controversial but very powerful figure, winning a war with Pakistan, Margaret Thatcher dubbed as the “Iron Lady" by the Soviets for her hardheadedness. So what I intended to prove is that ancient or modern, 'time' does not make any change when deciding whether a women(person) is strong or not. It is not that women were not strong those days, it depends on the availability of opportunities. Thus nowadays there are more opportunities for women to search and reach for their success unlike ancient times. And that's what makes a difference between ancient women and modern women. And yes as you have pointed out, " being a woman is not an obstruction to achieve success' thus GENDER should not be an obstruction to achieve success. Therefore, it is clear that "no woman is lesser than a man , and no man is greater than a woman, the only difference is the society’s point of view."
DeleteAll in all, the context of this advertisement is India where it has a patriarchal society, so do in Sri Lankan. The mindsets of people are shaped to accept that men are powerful than females.
ReplyDeletePlus, what I believe is women should support themselves and should identify their strengths. Although concepts like feminism are introduced and promoted in modern society, still there are women who devalue themselves. GENDER should not be taken as a measurement to mark the boundaries."no woman is lesser than a man , and no man is greater than a woman": If males keep themselves in a higher position same can be done by females.
On that basis, I have to claim the idea: not only the society's point of view mark stereotypical gender biases but also within the female community they must be able to stand up. That is mainly beacuse changing the society's point of view is not enough.
Yes , you really have a point here. It's true that we try to blame the society when it comes to a women's matter. Nevertheless we try to blame the so called stereotypical perspective of a widespread society towards a minor community within the same society. Yet, what we have to remind ourselves is that the female community is not a seperate society!, the female community is again a part of "Society". And it's again true that more than men, women look down upon women, that is why "women rights " is not something that is fully achieved no matter how hard we/women protest or shouout. CHANGING THE SOCIETY'S: mixture of men and women,PERSPECTIVE IS IMPORTANT, and this cannot be done as whole, yet the change should be done by changing ourselves first not by trying to claim a change in others.
DeletePrejudice over people and their success depending on gender is unfair. Women can rise on their own and no need of any involvement of a man. Woman is not a dependable creature. What matters is our attitudes. It's true that we should change our perspectives to change the world.
ReplyDeleteI would like to state about Gaia Kodithuwakku ,a coach. Her story is quite inspiring to me and thought about letting you know about her journey as an independent woman. As I earlier mentioned, she is a trainer who trained over a thousand women from over 25 countries. She can be considered as a transformational coach;transform people mentally and physically.She is also a physique competitor,first Sri Lankan from Sri Lanka to go and compete on International platform IFBB Bali and achieved a top ranking during the competition.She also created the biggest female driven Fitness platform in country. So,how she came to such a position?As she said, she kept asking herself, "who am I? ,Who do I want to become? , what is my purpose?, what are my passions?" It's the self-awareness which brings her the success in life not a man. Earlier,she studied criminal justice in Australia, Melbourne. But she was not happy with her life. She was overweight then and we cannot believe that she was that fat after looking at her current figure. No one find her attractive and she has no friends either. She was going through a traumatic relationship and she give up on that. She was depressed and went through chronic depression for nearly 10 years. she even had financial struggles that she had to starve there in Australia. She then lost her weight so much and also failed in university. She then went to the gym to train her body and she found her comfort zone there at the gym. She gained self-confidence. There wasn't anyone to help her,no man or a woman. She became independent with her own strength. So, it's proven that a woman needs no need of a man to achieve success in life. Now she trained other women to overcome their problems being overweight,to relax themselves physically and mentally. She even post the feedback on her Instagram that she got from women after training and their feedbacks are the most joyous thing in her life. So, it is apparent that "no woman is lesser than a man , and no man is greater than a woman. It's only the perspective that matters.
Thank you for sharing this inspiring story Anu. This truely proves my point, "no woman is lesser than a man , and no man is greater than a woman. It's only the perspective that matters." and I have to also mention leading an independent life achieving things on our own, is not an easy task, yet it's a challenge worth experiencing because at the end of the day the satisfaction we get from our own achievements is what matters. π
Delete