SEXUAL OBJECTIFICATION OF FEMALE POLITICIANS

 

As the gracious host of the recently concluded G-7 meeting of heads of states, the Italian Prime Minister Ms. Georgia Meloni came out in flying colours but the old fashioned misogyny is refusing to die. We are inundated with jokes and memes about her in the social media, desperately trying to reduce her achievements and turning her into a stereotype dumb blond bimbo. This is a very well planned effort by the male world, which reacts typically in this crass way, when they don't know how to deal with a successful female of their species. The press too exhibits failures in the coverage of women politicians, and instead of their worth and their contributions they end up covering their looks, clothing, weight, tone of voice, attractiveness, and hairs.

 

Even in India, a country which was ruled for a very long time by a strong woman leader Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the Italian P.M' jokes and memes are all over the Internet and her open appreciation of our Prime Minister and his popularity has even resulted in a lot of wink- wink and nudge-nudge among our Desi netizens. It so seems that even if you are a Prime Minister, if you are a woman, you remain an object of ogling through the male prism and 'hot or not' is what only matters.

 

 

The world scenario

Discussing the appearance of female politicians is an evergreen tactic that has been used to delegitimize and diminish them. But objectification does more than just delegitimize. In fact, objectification is a form of dehumanization. Dehumanization involves the denial of essential human traits and qualities. Essentially, to dehumanize someone is to strip them of their attributes and personhood. P.M Meloni is not the first female politician to suffer this fate and surely won't be the last. Age doesn’t matter and young and old all women are fair game, when it comes to female objectification. When Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon were discussing Brexit and it's fallout in all seriousness the British tabloid were comparing their body parts - "Never mind the Brexit, who won the legs it?" 

 

In 2008 Sarah Palin was doing well as an hands on Alaskan woman on the McCain/Palin ticket for the U.S Vice President’s post but suddenly the focus shifted to her appearance and perceived attractiveness, with Time magazine calling her a “sex symbol.” The American public opinion changed thereafter and so did her electoral fortunes. No more was her achievements taken seriously and the press was discussing her looks, her smile, her outfits and her hairstyle!

 

Last year Finland's former P.M, Sanna Marin was the unfair target of netizens for partying with friends! How can that be wrong? Does becoming a P.M mean not having friends, family and private life? Are male politicians gauged by the same yardstick? New Zealand's former P.M, Jakinda Ardern and Brazil's Dilma Rousseff have faced their own objectification and subsequent witch-hunt. A tabloid photographer even photographed Hilary Clinton's panties while she was changing her sitting posture, and netizens offered their innumerable and priceless opinions about it! You sometimes wonder where is this going to stop.

 

 

The Indian scenario

In our domestic politics our female parliamentarians have been the target of sexist remarks and objectification since ages. Hema Malini, Jayapradha, Jaya Bacchan, Urmila Matondkar,  Smriti Irani, Navneet Rana, Kangra Ranaut all have been easy targets. The perpetrators usually get away without any reprimand or legal action because it is a very accommodative All Boys Club! Gender parity and pluralism are still nascent and uneven in India. Women representation is far less than many other democracies. The few women that are there are from privileged and well connected families, and only recently the not so privileged ones are getting elected to the parliament and the state assemblies. 

 

Mrs. Hema Malini, BJP's three-term MP from Mathura was at the centre of debate in this year’s election with a Congress leader, half her age, made almost casual reference in his speech objectifying her status as a star, wife and as daughter-in-law and corralling her identity. Many years ago, she was the subject of another offensive analogy when RJD chief Lalu Yadav claimed he would make Bihar's road as smooth as her cheeks. In 2019 actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar became a target of sexist remarks as BJP's Gopal Shetty said that she had been given a ticket because of her looks. In 2022, police registered a case against Congress leader Ajay Rai for a sexist remark against Union minister Smriti Irani, again a very successful actor.

 

This year it was a television savvy spokesperson and Congresswoman asked BJP’s Kangna Ranaut “Mandi me kya bhav chal raha hai?” (What is the prevailing rate in Mandi?) Mandi is her constituency and she, a National Award winning actor, had played the role of a prostitute in a prize winning film. In 2019 Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan's crass comment on BJP leader and his former colleague Jaya Prada was even worse. At a campaign rally in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur Khan said, "I brought her to Rampur. You are a witness that I did not allow anyone to touch her body. It took you 17 years to identify her real face but I got to know in 17 days that she wears khaki underwear," this being a reference to Rashtriya Swayam Sewak (RSS), the BJP’s ideological organization.

 

And it's not only between rivals, even inside political parties all women politicians face sexism from their male colleagues. You can ask any woman politician and she will tell you the same. Many women politicians have left Congress and Aam Admi Party because of unapologetic sexual harassment and objectification. In 2013 Congress leader Digvijay Singh, a former Chief Minister, had joined ranks of such politicians by commenting on one of Congress' own member, Meenakshi Natarajan, then-MP from Mandsaur, as "sau taka tunch maal" (100 per cent pure material or totally unblemished), which resulted in criticism from across party lines.

 

Why does this objectification occur?

Sexual objectification occurs when a woman's body, body parts, or sexual functions are isolated from her whole and complex being and treated as objects simply to be looked at, coveted, or touched. The sexual objectification of women by men is the primary mechanism of women’s subordination: men regard women as suitable for sexual use and exercise socially sanctioned control over them so as to make them conform to men’s view of them; in so doing, men make women into objects, wrongly harming them by denying them their humanity. When you read this you will realize that this is exactly what the Taliban is also doing, and we are vilifying them quite rightly for the same, but sub-consciously we are going down the same line……..perhaps just a few steps behind them!

 

This attitude stems from the larger patriarchal order that creates an uneven field for women both in private and public spheres. This is due to lack of proper education, nurture and awareness which results in a perverted perception of male superiority which is not reflected in the real world. We have a liberal political structure but the corresponding development of a liberal society is an ongoing process and that will take time.

 

Women are subject to objectification, and in particular, sexual objectification, at significantly higher rates than men. It is happening in all spheres of life – court rooms, corporate board rooms, hospitals, offices, sports fields, you name it. Women in politics are no exception; since women entered the arena of national politics, they have been subject to objectifying rhetoric and portrayals in a way that men have not. Objectification is just one strategy used to devalue and undermine women in politics.

Self objectification

A constant exposure to objectifying rhetoric and imagery can lead to a phenomenon called 'self-objectification', which occurs when individuals internalize observers’ perspectives of their physical bodies. Women tend to self-objectify at higher rates than men. This is related to the belief that beauty is a type of social “currency,” and that both this belief and self-objectification are negatively related to gender-based political activism. Put simply, women who are high self-objectifiers are more likely to be content with the status quo in terms of gender relations and less likely to engage in efforts to improve the current status of women. These women believe that physical attractiveness is an extremely important asset or “currency,” and is something that will benefit them more than other skills, talents, and other pursuits.

 

How to break the objectification loop?

What do we do to combat objectification in our politics? First, we need to recognize that increasing women’s presence in politics is only one part of the equation. We also need to interrogate the way that women in politics are treated and talked about in the media and in everyday discussions. Sexist scripts that objectify women, whether they are cruel or purported to be positive, need to be called out.

 

Female politicians have to give up self objectification and start calling out the offenders loud. Their warmth and confidence is there for all to see, their contribution to the society is out there in the open. Discussion should be about these things and not looks and appearance. If they start howling a few offenders to the court of law and if our justice system responds promptly, the changes will surely happen. We have a liberal political structure but the corresponding development of a liberal society is an ongoing process and that will take time. It has to start from the family, and then reach the society and then the country and the world. The change has to begin at home and parents will have to do it and teachers should then take over and make the societal change a reality.