ZEYNEP PEHLİVAN

Television, which gradually entered our homes in the second half of the last century, was described as a revolution at that time. But the alarming evolution of this interesting box and its slapdash journey over time turned it into a kind of counter-revolutionary instrument. The more we witness the influence of television on the masses, the better we realize how the words told about it years ago are true today.

“Television is a half-meter prison,” said Billy Wilder and “Television keeps incessantly hammering into the consciousness of people the standardized messages and images that correspond to the official philosophy and ideology,” said Alija Izetbegović. These sentences were said in different places and times; however, both of these ideas show us the fact that television is a power in the hands of totalitarian regimes on a universal scale.

Television gains a substantial space to reinforce its power after the increase of private channels. And this opens the doors to an unconscious and wild power for it. Over time, television has become the focal point of everything "imposed" rather than preferred. News bulletins, soap operas, advertisements, food programs, fashion programs, discussion programs, sports programs, and many more contents have turned into highly effective tools of the ideology that is wanted to be imposed. It would be naïve to say or think what is presented to us by television like a pill was coincidental. When we watch the television consciously, we are faced with the fact that television is a device that reinforces the roles of women in social life. Today, I would like to talk about fashion program formats that have gained importance on television lately and created a uniform perception of beauty, and about advertisements that are in the hands of official ideology.

“If you can't live like us then you cannot be one of us, honey!”

As it is known, beauty contests in our country and around the world have been trying to design the physical and aesthetic understanding for many years. These contests and imposition of this aesthetic understanding are aimed to put both men and women into a certain stereotype. It is also aimed to identify someone as a target group in this big market and to show many products as exigency for people. Muscular and low-fat bodies, long eyelashes, a clothing style suitable for the fashion of the period... I mean, both our image and our tasks are created by television programs and advertisements carrying out a visual marketing strategy. In a simple way, some messages are given without allowing us to think too much. We are demanded to adapt and accept what they show and to buy and consume more. Our task is to gradually be consumed in this world of competition and consumption…

What is demanded from us; our service to the dominant understanding of a period by consuming it without questioning our personality and body, even our psychological and physical health. Let's think a little about what is being done on our bodies and minds by analyzing TV programs and ads.

For example, “fashion program” formats in our country have been turned into “fashion contest program” formats for a long while. Don’t underrate the contest! The existence of contests in which an unconscious narcissism is pumped sets off a certain hierarchy and a culture of the contest. I mean, we are talking about the formats that are used to give us information or ideas about the dressing style of a certain period and to cause the people to compete with each other over the predetermined aesthetic understanding. These formats are of course designed directly toward women. A “beauty” understanding targeting women, a huge clothing, cosmetics, and advertising sector designed for the same target group! It is a sector based on consumption, all about our visual appearance. If you cannot do and live like that, then you cannot be one of us, honey!

There were many dialogues saying during those programs such as “These shoes don’t suit these pants, you should have preferred stiletto as shoes,” and that caused the people to watch them more. Aside from the show part, hiding our disproportionate parts of our body became almost our duty. We should be physically fit, care for our appearance, wear fashionable clothes, and have a style. Even if a few kilos overweight didn’t affect our health, we got depressed. Even if we were healthy, we did have no right to be “overweight”.

Later, when things were repeated by those programs, other formats were developed and oversized women were presented by those new formats. But nothing changed, and we heard very brutal criticism against those women. The stereotypes and gender roles imposed on us were reinforced.  The rule of the game was clear: women must follow fashion no matter they are physically thin or overweight.  We were left with no breath! Even if some of us never watched those programs, they sometimes had to face them.  While we watched them or didn’t watch them, we got used to thinking that we always needed more than we needed. “Does this dress with this necklace?”, “What should I wear tomorrow?” We started to spend a lot of money to buy dresses that probably we wear only once.

There is a small change thanks to our struggle

Credit card debts increased; we ate, lost weight, consumed, and got bored. While the show continued, we controlled the length of our skirts and shorts because the attacks against our bodies started.  The critics of the fashion contest often did not fit the life at home. All of us should be beautiful. We should be liked by men and we should be those who know how to get dressed. Although we were shown as a sexual object, we could speak of a highly conserved sexuality. We can do everything shown by the programs at home but we become someone’s honor.

In fact, we had faced these impositions from ads before the contests took place. The ads used women as a sexual object. They used women to publicize electrical household appliances and cleaning products. The ads show that women are responsible for washing clothes and dishes. The advertisements manage to use women as a tool as much as women serve their purpose.  Fortunately, some people are caring about us! They have realized that a group was aware of what was ongoing. TV channels and advertisers tried to handle that situation in a slightly different way; changing the format from fit size to oversize. It is also interesting that we see men cooking in the ads!

If we did not realize what position they put us in by the system that was wanted to be built, still these small changes would not have made. For example, maybe it would be impossible to see a man in a shampoo advertisement. Perhaps, cars would only be driven by men; bank accounts would be only men's accounts. The change of the world and the active business life of women could not go unnoticed by both advertisers and TV owners. This is not a kindness given to us by them. While the wheel of brutal capitalism is spinning, the results are thanks to women's struggle for rights and freedom. Everything changes due to our struggle.