‘WOMEN'S issues’ appear to be common currency in the media these days, and with good reason – Take a recent video on Youtube, ‘Labels Against Women’ – it points out the double standards that professional women in particular face, though many would agree that it illustrates the sort of skewed perceptions that a lot more than just professional women suffer from. With combinations such as boss/bossy, persuasive/pushy, dedicated/selfish, neat/vain and smooth/show off, it shows the sort of polarity that women experience, not just in professional life, but in everyday life - because the sorts of perceptions that we are shown by the advert may start off as superficial, but once normalization sets in, they soon become lived, as all too many women have experienced.

However, some might question the videos’ intentions and its power as an advocate of social change given that it is, after all, a shampoo advertisement. With the slogan ‘Be strong and shine’, few can miss the irony of an industry that thrives on the superficial, to be addressing the essentially superficial perceptions of women. However, that’s a very cynical way of looking at things. I believe that, above all, the video is smart, perhaps even by virtue of the fact that it is an advert; not only is it significant in addressing the labels used to oppress women, but it’s significant that an industry which traditionally puts women down in order to sell products to fix them up is taking notice of the way in which women are perceived, and drawing attention to this. In this way, both the oppression identified and the method in itself becomes empowering, and an industry that might previously be seen to oppress women, becomes an ally.

What the advert is most successful in however, is its accessibility, and its ability to make people think – as a Feminist, I am well aware of labels and their often negative influence, but this advert and the binaries that it shows forced me to consider how I myself am treated differently in almost every sphere, not just the professional, because of perceptions that people can have of my gender, due to not just the labels mentioned, but many others.

Most of all, it made me think of just how many labels I put up with on a daily basis, and the extent to which I am willing to put up with them, or have to put up with them, for the sake an easy life – after all, what the ad is essentially addressing is sexism, and it would be exhausting to point out every instance of sexism that occurs in everyday life. Yet this is precisely how it becomes normalized, and thus precisely why we need consciousness- raising materials, shampoo ads or otherwise, to remind us.