The politics of representation: A critical exploration of essentialist categories in select advertisements from India

The present paper seeks to substantiate the assertion that the modus operandi of contemporary advertisements in Hindi frequently entails exploiting women’s relational networks to sell products. It thereby intertwines women’s consumption patterns with the desires and expectations of their social milieu, further complicating any simplistic portrayal of women as individualistic consumers. It draws upon French feminist Luce Irigaray’s essay ‘When Goods Get Together’, which discusses the commodification and subjugation of women. This study attempts to discern the recurring tropes in Indian advertisements, their underlying socio-cultural and psychological implications, and their potential influence on shaping consumer values and lifestyles. Additionally, the study leverages the concept of individual and dividual personhood posited by anthropologist Chris Fowler to explicate how these representations in advertisements foster differential behavioral patterns in gendered subjects. By illuminating the subtle ways in which these tropes operate within the broader societal and cultural contexts, this research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between gender, consumer culture, and social norms in contemporary India. Aligned with Fowler’s framework, this paper also briefly examines how neoliberal tendencies are preferentially reinforced in one gender over the others. The data set comprises advertisements that target predominantly middle-class Hindu households, aired primarily in Hindi, and circulated through television and YouTube.