Mirrors of Value? Advertising and Political Theatre in the Hegemonic Construction of Women in India

'Fair and Lovely’ fairness cream (FAL) advertisements and plays by Jana Natya Manch (Janam) are cultural representations that make particular claims about Indian women’s value and what they value. For FAL marketing and advertising professionals, women are potential consumers. It is not adequate to view FAL advertisements as efforts in manufacturing consent. These advertisements must be viewed as projects of persuasion through which people come to be more or less persuaded to consume products and particular representations of their own value. On the other hand, Janam too engages in projects of persuasion through which people are invited to recognize the poverty of seeing social relations as exchange value between things. People are invited to look at the social forces that treat people as commodities while suggesting the power of seeing social relations in collective terms. FAL ads and Janam plays are both mirrors that reveal different aspects of women’s value in a complex neoliberal reality.