DETTOL IN ADVERTISEMENT ON TELEVISION

-IN RELATION TO GENDER IDENTITIES-

Written by Salwa Maziyatun Najah 306222403189

To accomplish mid-term assignment of Gender Studies Class

Dettol is a common brand of antiseptic product in Indonesia. The advertisement is

also well-broadcast on television. The newest audio-visual advertisement on television

portrays a life of a family. The first shot of the advertisement is a mother who is

commanding her dirty-clothed children to take a bath. The next shot is that the mother is

pouring Dettol into waters into the bat water. Then, the narrator explains the dangers of

bacteria in the water, which can be killed by Dettol. The setting of the next shot is in the

afternoon when the father goes home from work then he greets the neat-clothed children

in the dining room. Finally, the last scene is the close-up shot of the mother who is

promoting Dettol by saying, “Kalau saya tidak bisa menjaga diri saya, siapa yang

menjaga mereka?” (If I cannot take care of myself, who will take care of them?”.

The advertisement promotes not only the anti-septic product, but also gendered

identities. It depicts femininity ∞ domestic works and masculinity ∞ public works.

However, greater emphasize is placed on the construction of femininity. It is somehow

very vivid, the difference of the mother and the father in the advertisement. The mother is

one who commands the children to take a bath and pours the anti septic; in other words,

she handles the domestic works; whereas the father is portrayed slightly as a public-

working man who dresses in very formal clothing and carries a suitcase. Here, we can see

the language, which signifies that women are supposed to do domestic works but men are
supposed to do public works. This portrait supports the nineteenth century’s theory in

relation to gender:

“….biologically and physically based theories of female difference continue to

serve as justification for viewing women primarily in relation to motherhood and
domesticity” (Weedon;1999)

This is so much opposed to liberal feminist who keens on women emancipation

(Jeffreys;2005). Moreover, if we see the statement said by the mother in the last shot

(“Kalau saya tidak bisa menjaga diri saya, siapa yang menjaga mereka?”/”If cannot

take care of myself, who will take care of them?”), it is so clearly depicted that a mother

is supposed to handle domestic works and not supposed to work in public because if she

works, who will take care of the family. This statement is as much as to say that a father

will not be able to do domestic works. Furthermore, although in that very advertisement,

the mother says “saya (I)” rather than “kita (we)”, as the representation of women

viewers, still, the “saya (I)” here represents all women watching the advertisement

because they will feel the same emotion as the mother in that very advertisement

(www.australianpsichology.com). In other words, the statement said by the mother in the

advertisement forms a subjectivity and identity of a woman or a mother as an embodied

subject in domesticity. Also, it creates a stereotype of a woman or a mother as one who is

the most caring and persevering in a family, and a man or a father is not caring and

persevering enough, so that domestic works are supposed to be handled by a mother or a

woman, not by a father or a man.

All of portraits of women or, specifically the gendered identities of women, in

that very advertisement are trying to dismantle common people’s view of femininity
nowadays. As we can see today’s reality, people in Indonesia nowadays are more liberal

in viewing domesticity of women. Many women work in public. Common people today

do not adhere a stereotype that women must work domestically (Hastuti: 2003).

However, watching this advertisement is like a slap in viewers’ collective faces. Some

might rethink of the stereotypes of women which say that women are more caring and

preserving than men, so that they should only take care of the house and the family and

not work in public. Especially the last statements said by the mother in the advertisement

might be a strong influence for the viewers. That is all because the whole advertisement

of Dettol is a popular culture which creates such an ideological discourse in viewers’

mind (Barker; 2003) and discourses define what it means to be a woman or man and the

available range of gender-appropriate and transgressive behavior. From ideological

discourses, we learn how to think and behave in discursive practices (Weedon: 1999)

After such deep discussion, we might consider that Dettol advertisement is such a

bad advertisement in the eye of liberal feminist because it does not have gender-equality

perspective. It stereotypes a woman and a man. However, it might not be fair if we only

see the advertisement from one point of view. If we use the theory of Hall’s sociological

identities, this kind of advertisement appears because it is formed in relation to significant

others. The significant others here is the capitalism, which, we know, does not really care

about gender sensitivity (Iswara and Pratiwi; 2003). The Bayer.Ltd might create such an

advertisement with no gender perspective because it wishes to shoot directly to the

consumers which are mostly women. Isn’t it the way capitalists think? But somehow, an

idea that capitalism always contradicts liberal feminist’s theories in the advertisement of

Dettol we are now discussing can be dismantled, actually. The advertisement should have
been not only highlighted the mother as the one who is supposed to take care of the

family’s health, but also the father. So, ones who command the children to take a bath

should have been both the father and the mother because there is no such biological

explanation which supports a pattern that a woman is more caring and persevering than a

man so that there is no such rules that only demand women to do domestic works (Irene

and Lee; 1988).

Human is born as male or female, not as masculine or feminine (Irene and Lee;

1988). Everything excluding our sex is cultural. One that creates such femininity patterns

with no biological explanation is power (Foucault; 1899). Therefore, what if we break

those patterns which have been created by power and combine different theories of

feminists and capitalists to create liberation for women. Starting from criticizing the

advertisement of Dettol, I myself hope that advertisements in Indonesia can take a notice

of gender-sensitivity so that there is no subjectivity and identity of women that creates

patterns of femininity.

Bibliography

Jeffreys, Sheila. 2005, Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in The West,
London and New York : Rutledge

Weedon, Chris. 1999. Feminism, Theory and The Politics of Difference. Oxford:
Blackwell Publisher, pp 99-180

Diamond, Irene and Quinsy, Lee (eds) 1988). Feminism-Foucault. Boston: Northeastern
University Press, pp. 61-89
Iswara, Dana and Yoseptin, Pratiwi. 2003. Jurnal Perempuan Edisi 28. Jakarta: Yayasan
Jurnal Perempuan.

Tri, Hastuti. 2003. Jurnal Perempuan Edisi 28. Jakarta : Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan