Musings....

The new Amul Macho ad that is being aired in between IPL matches caught my attention the other day. Well, yes the IPL fever has invaded my home too in the figure of my father and brother, two maniacal fans of the Mumbai Indians and has left me indignated in more ways than one. Firstly, because I do support KKR (or the Kolkata part of it to be more precise) and as a result I have been left alone to lick my wounds but more importantly because the sudden comradeship between my father and my brother has a stinking male exclusivity about it that gets on my nerves. I have ganged up with my unsuspecting mother (poor woman, I have poisoned her mind) and wrecked havoc on my dad’s and bro’s gastronomical delights and I’m praying very hard that Mumbai will not make it to the semis.

But to return to the Amul Macho ad, I did not know whether to laugh or cry at it. For those of you who have not seen it, the advertisement begins with three scenes showing how confident women have become and how that has ‘victimised’ men. The first scene shows a young man shrinking away from holding the same handle in a moving bus as a woman about the same age as he. She holds on to the piece unflinchingly and the man shies away. The second scene shows a man hitching a ride on a woman’s scooter and feeling uncomfortable when a sudden brake causes him to fall on her. She is, however, unbothered and it is the man who tries to move away and places his briefcase between them. The third scene, and this is the more stereotypical one, shows a skinny pyjama kurta wearing man bringing in the food tray with a very demure expression while a aggressive looking woman, presumable his wife-to-be totally checks him out. These done, a battered and briddhosto man runs to a temple on a stormy night and falls on his feet asking for God’s help. An Amul Macho vest falls infront of him and as soon as he wears it he is able to stand self-confident and strong. He leaves the temple premises and returns to three leather wearing ‘macho’ women and as he nears them, he teases them and for a change they shrink from his touch. The transgressive women are successfully put back into their places and the day is saved.

The advertisement betrays the anxiety that is caused as more and more women start taking up roles that have traditionally been male. What should then happen to men? Would they then be relegated to the marginal position that women occupied in traditional society? The makers of the ad seems to suggest that this will be the case but fortunately the calamity can be avoided if men wear Amul Macho as that would turn him into a real man who is able to tame the new generation of women. What is interesting is that the ad portrays three very true to life situations, only with the gender roles reserved. Every woman who travels in crowded buses and trains has had to face men who keep repeating antics like placing their hand over yours on the handle or falling on you under the slightest pretext. And this is also what is objectionable about the advertisement because it sends the message that these things are acceptable and it is the normal outcome of the roles assigned to men and women in a normal society. If women are empowered enough to do the same things to men, that is abnormal and things have to be put right. It is ridiculous, the assumption, that men have to wear a particular shando ganji in order to hold on to their concept of manhood.

While the Amul Macho ad is a laughable attempt at defining masculinity in the changing times, a billboard off the Sukanta Setu advertising some liquor brand is a pretty interesting one. A very middle-class stereotype of a young man is portrayed and he declares that he is a responsible Indian with time for both his parents and society (we are to presume he’s a bachelor). But that he’s advertising alcohol logically suggests that he also drinks. What sets him apart is that he is also a useful member of society. He is the ‘Ram’ of Bornoporichoy je thik shomoy pora koriya ashe abong ma baba ke dukho day na. It is intriguing how the conception of the “good boy” is changing as the middle class starts getting richer. The splurging on alcohol, a notion that has always been associated with the moneyed elite or the poisha wala baper bokha chele is suddenly acceptable. Aajkal to mota moti shobi chole! But needless to say there are skeptics (like my poor jethu who frowns and starts grumbling every time he sees a long line infront of the only liquor shop in our town).

But what should be really interesting is that if it would be a salwar kameez clad woman up on the billboard declaring those exact same things and we would have a bra or a pink panty ad in the lines of the Amul Macho advertisement. The temple, then, would obviously belong to a Devi Mata.