The product owner claims it to be a product of empowerment for the middle aged women in India.Women who experience loss of faith in themselves and are treading upon the earth as diffident souls the product is no less than a magic potion for them.The spunk of greenness which is lost over the years can be re-established once again and you hapless women out their can once again be the virgin of your husband’s dreams.”The 18 Again gel will bring back the lost confidence of middle aged women and boost their self esteem as well “,asserts the product owner.To quote it bluntly the product will enhance the desirability of middle aged women and they could once again prove serviceable. It is hard to decipher how could anybody call such products as empowering tools of womanhood? The word liberation (of women) is growing more and more stymie with the passage of time,for women are being ensnared and trapped in the patriarchal trap shrewdly.
Why would a middle aged women feel the need to tighten her vagina?
1)To enjoy sex like a virgin ?
2)Or just to reconstruct her serviceableness for her man?
I think the second option is the appropriate answer,since it a known fact that men are obsessed with virgin status of a female .Studies in the same have revealed that middle aged men are enchanted by youth and virgin status of a female.So products like “18 Again” provide an opportunity to middle aged women to re -establish their value as sex objects .
’18 Again’ is another manifestation of empowerment-as-sex-object, especially coming as it does in a society that is adopting a western lifestyle whilst remaining shackled by patriarchal attitudes.
Far from empowering women, it is the latest incarnation of the tired virgin-whore dichotomy, which renders a woman either acceptable (virgin) or contemptible (whore), desirable or derisible.
Products like these can only be a brainchild of patriarchal beliefs.These products promulgate the notions of patriarchal suppression of female in the society .It a reminded to women that their value diminishes with age and sexual activity.Scores of middle aged women in our country are plagued by depression just because they ain’t able to satiate the sexual demands of their partners,and this also gives a licence to their partners to indulge in promiscuous activities .I have heard chronicles of several middle aged women who have been abandoned by their husbands on account of this reason only.Hence it is a matter of serious concern that products like “18 Again” will promote such notions of virginity in the society and nurture patriarchal fantasies of virgin hood.It would give impetus to the representation of women as objects of sexual gratification.Women would grow more and more conscious about their desirability status.
In the past years we have seen products offering fairness and freshness of the nether regions being audaciously televised.
(Coffee a reminder of the dark nether region of the wife and how dull and uninteresting
their life becomes devoid of any sexual indulgence ,culprit “THE DARK VAGINA”)
(Wife learns about this whiten your vagina cream )
(Ecstasy unparalleled and they live happy ever after….Rubbish)
Can one think of products on the same line for men?
These products simply make females obsessed about sexual desirability and reduce their status to being objects of sexual pleasure,to go as per the demands and commands of the potent a mute,passive receiver.A reminder to women that you become feckless if you don’t make any efforts to enhance and reconstruct your productivity from time to time.Products like these promote infidelity and promiscuousness.
Social responsibility which happens to be one of the important objectives of business should not promote patriarchy in any way.The responsibility is just not about keeping the men in the society healthy,happy and alive…..after all there’s life to life givers also.
Neha Raghuvanshi 