Changing codes of power through the jewelry category for women in India

Gold in India was seen as the only
commodity a woman could posess.
It is common for wives to put their gold
jewelry into banks as collateral for loans
and for use in financial emergencies.
My grandmother was gifted gold on
her wedding that she later would use to
make gold jewelry her own daughter’s
wedding.
[pictured] Ratnadevi Baid in her early 30s, after two
kids, in ’60s fashion.
O N I N D I A’ S H I S T O R I C AT T I T U D E S

My grandmother spoke and read six
languages, dressed as she pleased,
travelled around the country, made
financial decisions with her husband, and
lived abroad in Indonesia, for 3 years.
For a primary school-educated only girl
from a village, there was no hiding her
indoors by the patriarchy, and she had
a husband and two children who loved
her very much.
[pictured] Ratnadevi Baid at Victoria Terminus, Kolkata

When I was 14, I thought having
a nose piercing was the coolest,
most rebellious fashion statement
ever.
“ R E B E L L I O N ” ?

Incidentally, this is a picture of
my grandmother, taken during
late ’50s post-Independence
India.
She is 14 in this picture and already married.
“ C O N V E N T I O N ” ?

I don’t exist without the system of
symbols I use, and in turn without the
meaning given me by them, and
neither does she.
While it is safe to say both of us grew
up with hugely different privilege, it gets
really quite complicated when you call
the one life more progressive than
another.
H O W D O W E V I E W P R O G R E S S ?

Postulation:

This is effected by a conflation
of the Madonna archetype
with the “conventional”
woman, and the Whore
archetype with the
“progressive” one.

Jewelry, being an almost
exclusively female good,cannot
go without betraying a few of
our hidden attitudes about
women.
[pictured] Nanda, a famous Hindi film star playing a
dancer/ courtesan in the ’60s.

THE WORLDS OF JEWELRY ADS

T H E W O R L D O F J E W E L R Y A D S
A quick glance at the world of Jewelry in Indian advertising today brings forth images of bright lights, bokehs, vanity
mirrors, proposal shots, a young bride, with nostalgic flashbacks of one’s girlhood, shots of her bereaved father
saying goodbye (with rest of family out of focus)...
The world of jewelry is rife with sentimentality, and almost always seems to comment on “how some things change,
but others always remain the same”

T Y P E 1 : P R O T E C T I N G T H E P R E C I O U S
THE WORLD
Everyday India
THE MAN
a virtuous, responsible father
THE WOMAN
an innocent lamb
STARRING THE JEWELRY
As seal of approval, trust, truth
THE TASK
Legitimisation of the girl as woman
FT. VALUES SUCH AS
Her security, his status, family values

The oldest known form of legitimacy for women par excellence
It assumes that women who follow this traditional rite can’t be modern
T Y P E 1 : P R O T E C T I N G T H E P R E C I O U S
W H AT A R E W E B E I N G S O L D ?
W H AT A R E T H E R I S K S O F T H I S M Y T H O L O G Y ?

THE WORLD
1990s - 2000s Bollywood
THE MAN
Everyman; her beloved
THE WOMAN
Sanskaari playful; cheeky
As tradition; a license for “fun”
THE TASK
Do one’s duties with scuffles-y delight
FT. VALUES SUCH AS
the joy (nay, temptation) of tradition
T Y P E 2 : C E L E B R AT I N G T H E U N I O N

most acceptable (nay, expected) forms of expressiveness in a woman
Barely consealing the audience’s shock that a woman expresses herself
at all, this world of jewelry maintains that a small
amount of “rebellion” is “cute”
T Y P E 2 : C E L E B R AT I N G T H E U N I O N

THE WORLD
(British and other) aristocracy
THE MAN
sidelined suitor/ knight in shining armour
THE WOMAN
as diva
As irresistable temptation
THE TASK
Win her over; wow her
FT. VALUES SUCH AS
Reinforce (nay, exaggerate) her importance
T Y P E 3 : R O M A N C E O F T H E R O YA L S

“YOU could be the most important woman in the room!”
Inherently inspires a sense of competition amongst women that reeks of patriarchal
exploitation - women are being pitted against one another in
a bid for importance
T Y P E 3 : R O M A N C E O F T H E R O YA L S

THE WORLD
“Western values”/ urban womanscape
THE MAN
Conspicuous only by absence, irrele-
vance, wrongness, or rejection of male
THE WOMAN
Empowered, financially independent, multitask-
ing, doing a job that makes her “important”
A quixotic totem of femininity
THE TASK
Replacing the man
FT. VALUES SUCH AS
female friendship and self-love
T Y P E 3 : R O M A N C E O F T H E R O YA L ST Y P E 4 : T H AT AT Y P I C A L J E W E L R Y A D

> “individuality”; pressure to do it all
> being more like a man = being empowered; progressive
> self-indulgence = self-love
The assumption that career women are far from “traditional”, distancing
us even more from the history of Indian women
T Y P E 4 : T H AT AT Y P I C A L J E W E L R Y A D

TYPE 3
ROMANCE OF THE ROYALS
TYPE 4
ATYPICAL JEWELRY AD
INDIVIDUAL VALUES
COLLECTIVE VALUES
W H O T H O U G H T T H E R E W O U L D N ’ T B E A 2 X 2 ?
TYPE 1
PROTECTING THE PRECIOUS
TYPE 2
CELEBRATING THE UNION
“EMERGENT”ETERNAL

TYPE 3
ROMANCE OF THE ROYALS
TYPE 4
ATYPICAL JEWELRY AD
W H O T H O U G H T T H E R E W O U L D N ’ T B E A 2 X 2 ?
TYPE 1
PROTECTING THE PRECIOUS
TYPE 2
CELEBRATING THE UNION
MADONNA?? WHORE?
PROGRESSIVE??
CONSERVATIVE??
INDIVIDUAL VALUES
COLLECTIVE VALUES
“EMERGENT”ETERNAL

Jewelry-wearing is circumstantial to
upbringing and SEC, not a symptom of
one’s liberal or conventional attitute.
K E Y TA K E AWAY # 1

Women like to play both “traditionally
feminine” and “stereotypically
unconventional” roles depends
on where they are.
e.g. office, wedding, home

By acknowledging how women wear
jewelry, rather than what kind of women
wear jewelry, we free ourselves of the
seemingly ancient bind of viewing women
as existing within the spectrum of the
Madonna and the Whore.

Changing codes of power through the jewelry category for women in India

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Changing codes of power through the jewelry category for women in India