How The Media Represent Women In Local Ads and Programs on TV In Ghana.

The media is responsible for a major ‘cultivating’ and ‘acculturating’ process, according to which people are exposed systematically to a selective view of society on almost every aspect of life, a view which tends to shape their beliefs and values accordingly (McQuail, 1994). Through the media representations, they create a perception of the social system outside of their immediate environment. This perception of social reality may seem real, though inaccurate. This discussion will deliberate on how women are represented in the media using examples from local TV programs and advertisements in Ghana.

 Women have been stereotypically represented throughout history and they are usually allocated particular restrictive roles by the media. Women are presented as mothers, home makers and house wives. We are consistently barraged with images of women using home appliances, beauty or personal care products, cleaning products and other domestic labour related advertisements as well as being sentenced to a life which consists predominantly of cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children and husband. A classical example of such representation is Ariel Washing Powder where the women were assembled to wash stained table cloth to know how the detergent removes stains just once.

 There is a construction of what constitutes the beauty of a woman in the media especially in advertising and local TV programs.  The representation of women’s body image has long been misrepresented in the media especially on TV. A “conventionally beautiful” woman is the one who is tall, slim, long-legged, and has flawless skin. Having such attributes are necessary for measuring a woman’s worth and beauty in most reality shows and beauty pageants programs that are aired on TV. Examples of such reality or beauty pageant programs that focus on such attributes are Miss Universe Ghana, Miss Malaika, and Miss Ghana. These extremely simulated representations bear little or no relation of reality of the women in the Ghanaian society.  However, beauty pageants or reality shows such as Ghana’s Most Beautiful and Miss Excel Plus celebrate and accept the voluptuous body curves of the contestants, which are the proper reflection of the body type of most Ghanaian women.

Female characters who are over-weight in TV programs tend to receive negative comments from the male characters about their bodies. Judge Quibo in Effiewura series on TV3 has assigned names to some of the female characters in the program according to their body sizes. Names such as Twemelanga for petite slim, Obotwella for plus size and Oboshie for an obese or an over- weight. This shows how gradually the Ghanaian society is beginning to frown on plus size or obese women.

The media especially television has two representational images of women in its world. “Good women” are pretty, deferential, focused on home and being subordinate to men. They are often depicted in TV programs as victims, God–sent, martyrs, and loyal housewives. The other image of women the media offers us is the bad nut. They are witch, bitch, nag, non-woman who is represented as hard, cold, and aggressive; all of all things a woman is not supposed to be. Example of such local representation on our local screen is Kyeiwa. The media also represents women who are ambitious, independent, and strong -willed as secluded, embittered spinsters who are counterpoints to the “good woman”.

Women are portrayed as ornamental objects, who must attract men in order to be valuable, or as victims of men’s sexual impulses. Advertisements for make -up, perfumes, hair products, and clothes often show women attracting men because they got the right products and made themselves alluring. Example of such advertisement on our local screens is Class Range of Perfume (What is your number? My number is 33) which the male character was drawn flirty to the female character because of her perfume.

Once more, the media also represent women as vulnerable, gullible and easily used by men to satisfy their sexual desires. “I clear am”, an advertisement on the use of contraception is a definitive example of such representation of women in the media. The advert starts with two friends driving around neighbourhood, they see couple of beautiful girls and one friend  asks his friend about them and he responds by saying I clear am” meaning he has slept with all the girls. When they were at bar, when his friend asked about the girls there too, he says “I clear em all”. After a while his phone rang and he intentionally cuts the line because the lady who is calling him from Takoradi was pregnant.

When it comes to the media representation of interpersonal relationships, women become the dominant gender without question. In addition to some affirmative comments about women’s interpersonal skills, such as coping with relationship with neighbours, in-laws or soothing and comforting family members, there are also negative representations on the way women take advantage of their sexuality or feminine wiles in relationships. In general, women are shown as solely relying on their parents, boyfriends or husbands and their other female friends, because women are typecast as not being able to solve personal problem by themselves.  TiGo’s advertise (Boo Boo, all for me? Keep texting) where the gentleman was telling his high maintenance girlfriend that he has text to win more money in order to cater for her Brazilian hair, designer bags and shoes, pedicure and manicure and eye lashes is classical representation of women in the media.

Many advertisements on our screens have sexuality as prevalent and imperative feature of selling products to men as its target audience. It is often the case that women are represented as augmenting the male images, by either being sexual imagery or as a background.  An established example of such advertise is Angel Natural Herbal Capsules (Democracy, Obiponbidi) which the two women were not satisfied with their husbands’ sexual performance until they had taken the capsules.

In relation to representation of violence in the media, women are represented as either oblivious to it, encouraging it or starting it.  In Effiewura, the character Aunty Bee constantly provokes Koo Fori to verbal abuse her or fights with her Naana (her rival) and other tenants in their compound house.

The outlook of women as sex objects in music videos is fast gaining roots as representation of Ghanaian women in the media. These music videos are aired during local programs on both private and state-owned television station. Typically, females are shown dancing provocatively in barely- there or revealing dresses as they try to gain the attention of the men. Frequently, men are seen coercing women into sexual activities or physically.  Example of such music video is Tinny’s Anaconda which shows a lady bathing and dancing seductively in two piece bikini while Tinny is rapping.

In concluding, in today’s society, the role of women keep changing, so is the representation of women on TV programs and advertisements.  The makers of media messages should be consistent with the real representation of women in the society in order to accommodate their changing roles and reflections in society.

Reference:

 McQuail, Dennis (1994). McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory – Fourth Edition. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Wood, T. Julia (2001). Gendered Media: The Influence of Media on Views of Gender Department of Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


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