Healthy debates are vital in a flourishing democracy. “What, in the end, could be more central to free speech than that every segment of society should have a voice”, said Dr. Athalia Molokomme, former head of SADC Gender unit and now High Court Judge of Botswana.

Quite a few voices were heard on the advertisement showing the nude body of a woman with the caption of the “power of purity” to market a brand of water. The voices are indeed here but not all of them were heard as some preferred to remain anonymous while others made themselves heard through telephone calls, e-mails and SMS.

We heard only those who were interviewed by the media and the media practitioners themselves but there are hundreds of men and women out there who have their views on using the nude body of a woman for a product that has nothing or little to do with the body of a woman.

We cannot compare the vulgar big boobs advertisement “I wish these were brains” on waste bins to the perfect nude body of a woman called the “power of purity”. Many women would wish to have such a perfect silhouette. The sensuality of this nude body cannot be questioned and it is far from being vulgar.

The television version is aesthetic and artistic. The techniques used are so effective that they become dangerous. We are living in a world where women have for a long time been stereotyped in the media. Does the advertisement promote water or a certain type of body called “the power of purity”? People in control of their lives normally stand upright, alert and ready to meet the world and do not have their body parts unprepared, submissive, insecure and weak.

Certain positions especially those not showing the faces convey shame and embarrassment. The advertisement for the same product at the Mauritian international airport in Plaisance makes one feel thirsty as it shows a woman in control of her mouth drinking the same water. The water being the “power of purity” comes out very strongly in this advertisement and there was is no need for a nude body.

Advertising companies use gender stereotypes to sell products to people they believe would use them most and thus showing women in “situations” that consumers like. They portray women in housecleaning and child-rearing roles to sell cleaners and baby products. They sell alcohol, cellular phones and cars to men by showing women in revealing postures and outfits.

“There is feminising of consumption”, said Christian Blachas, conceptor of Culture Pub, France. “As men are sensitive to women, there is an overuse of the female image. There is certainly feminising to enahnce consumption”, he went on to say in an interview in l’express dimanche dated 8th May 2005.

But should we be passive consumers and accept that women are used to sell anything? In Mauritius sex has been used to sell rum, vodka, eggs, building blocks, cigarettes, telephones, furniture and household appliances, just to name a few. And mind you, not any woman. She must be flawless.

Growing old is taboo. She must remain innocent like a little girl, have a perfect body, and be passive and dependent. The sex object must look like a model, as conventional beauty is her only attribute. She has no lines or wrinkles, no scars or blemishes. She is slim, tall and long-legged. She is the “power of perfection” or , should I say, “the power of purity”.

“The power of purity” advertisement brings subliminal messages, which can be even more dangerous than these housewives who are pathologically obsessed by cleanliness, and debates the virtues of cleaning products. Men are now saying “eski boir fam aster”.

Let it also be noted that the advert makes an deliberate echo of a macho cliché in the Mauritian language, which uses “dilo” (water) pejoratively to mean a woman and “bwar” (drink) to mean having sex as in the expression “Mo bwar sa dilo la”. Such remarks have been heard by macho admirers of the “Vital” advert.

The sexual connotation of “drink woman” is degrading, harmful, dangerous and disempowers women without mentioning the fact that not all women can afford to drink bottled water and that poverty, more and more, has a woman’s face.

<B>By Loga VIRAHSAWMY</B>