Public
becomes smarter and smarter today. It turns out in a fact that, even in
trading, people need to spend their time to think further in buying or selling
things. This happens because people do not want to be tricked by the marketing
when they are going to buy things. Vice versa, the sellers are also smart
enough to do the marketing in promoting and selling their things – even the
things are not that good as in the advertisement. Therefore, the use of
language is really powerful in marketing world to guide people in selecting
things before buying.
Talking about marketing and the
existence of advertisement in trading, the use of language is a key to achieve
their success. Moreover in this wired era, the seller should be attractive to
get the consumers’ attention not only in real world, but also in the virtual
one. As we know, the elements of an advertisement are not limited by the
picture and the classification of the product only. It also needs a beautiful
arrangement of words to attract the readers. The use of sensitive words is also
often found in advertisement. One of the examples is in Pulsar’s advertisement.
The advertisement of Pulsar as a motorcycle is provocative. It uses a phrase “Cewek Duluan” or “Ladies First” to
describe that their men-designed motorcycle is better than women-designed.
Therefore, the use of that phrase in Pulsar’s advertisement contains gender
bias. It can be analyzed from anthropomorphism, socialization, and culture
point of view.
The first way
to analyze it is by using anthropomorphism. As been said by Goddard and Mean in
Intertext (2009:6), “Anthropomorphism means giving something a human shape and describes
another kind of projection that we often see in language”. In other words, we
can say that anthropomorphism is a way to humanize thing that is inhuman. In
this case, Pulsar is a motorcycle that is designed for men in Indonesia and its
advertisement is using the word: ladies which means the advertisement makers
describes that product as if it is a man and describes other motorcycle
products as women. Why is it called as provocative or gender sensitive?
The terms
“Ladies first” has been used since long time ago. If we look at the history,
there is no certain sources that can give us an exact history of why those
terms exist. Some say that the terms “Ladies first” exist is due to the fact
that in earlier days if women were allowed to walk behind a man, they would be
able to run away so in order to keep an eye on them, the phrase women first
came to be. So, it is related to beliefs or religion. Some also say that the
phrase is the way to show that men respect women, so that they give chance for
women to walk first. But another theory says that it is because women are weak
and lazy, so that men should open the door for women and let women to enter the
room first.
Whatever
the theories say about “Ladies first”, the good and bad connotations have
already made up by the marketing makers. The good connotation can be projected
if the objective is to show up that women deserve to be respected, in the way
“ladies first”. But it comes to a bad connotation if the objective is to say
“Look, that is a slow motorcycle. Let them go first because we can beat them
easily”. Those two connotations can be used in advertisements as a provocative
word.
From those two connotations, if
we compare it with those which exist in Pulsar’s advertisement, it definitely
shows the offensive words towards other products. Not only offensive for
products, but also for the gender that is related, that is: women. The tendency
in this advertisement is to show that man is strong and woman is weak. That
woman tends to be slow, and man tends to be fast. The advertiser uses this
comparison to say indirectly that other motorcycle products are as weak and
slow as female. Therefore, from the point of view of anthropomorphism, this
advertisement has successfully humanized the “motorcycle” as “strong and fast
man”.
The second way is analyzing from
the socialization point of view. Advertisement is a part of media to introduce
a product that will be sold to public. In terms of socialization, the
advertiser should pay attention to the nature of the product as well. As
mentioned in Goddard and Mean (2009:32) “Early learning about sex differences
provides a strong grounding for beliefs about which social roles are ‘natural’
to men and women.” Therefore, the advertisers cannot easily make an
advertisement with obeying the gender. They, indirectly, should think more
about the nature of the product, is it man-used or woman-used.
Looking at the Pulsar’s
advertisement, the advertisers have already used the theory of Goddard and
mean, that the strength of a media is reflected in the extent to which
masculine or feminine behaviors and preferences have become a completely
‘natural’ part of our identity. This advertisement has already strengthened
their nature as a mean or motorcycle for men. So, the advertiser uses feminine words
as bad connotation to persuade the consumers that the motorcycle is naturally
for man. Besides, the advertisement also adds the terms “Pulsar Pasti Lelaki” or “Pulsar is definitely Man” to strengthen
the male readers that the product is suitable for men, not for women although
in reality, some women are riding this kind of motorcycle also. This fact has
already proved that the use of terms “Ladies First” in this advertisement is
offensive or gender sensitive.
The third is analyzing the
advertisement using the cultural point of view. Pulsar’s advertisement exists
in Indonesia and it affects the culture point of view of Javanese people for
sure. The strength of this advertisement is it uses provocative words: “say ladies
first for other motorcycle products”, is to evoke the readers’ feeling that
Pulsar is certainly suitable for man, not for woman. If we relate the nature of
the product and the cultural mindset of Javanese people, Javanese men tend to
choose the manly thing so that they would not be called as the same as women.
It happens because women, according to Javanese culture, is associated to home
and economic chores. In other words, it can be said that Javanese women tend to
be passive and related to the domestic things. While men here having the higher
status as the one who is active in the family and the one who has
responsibility to fulfill the family needs.
If we look back to the
advertisement, it indirectly invites the men to buy the product to proof that
he is a “real man” based on the Javanese culture and point of view. Javanese
men have a big ego that they do not want to be called girly or weak. Men, for
sure, will feel shame if they still using a product that is not manly because
the advertisement offended others as feminine. And this advertisement has
already succeeded in persuading the readers that the product is masculine. Therefore,
the objective of the advertisement to advertise the motorcycle based on the
culture and nature of the product is successful.
If we compare the
Pulsar’s advertisement to other masculine motorcycle’s advertisements, it would
be far different in the way the advertisers use the language sensitive. Other
advertisements only use the masculine words to attract the readers’ attention
in selecting things. As if in the “Honda New Tiger” advertisement that tends to
use the manly words only to attract the readers. “New Tiger Revolution Cruiser.
Legendary Ride. New Spirit.” becomes the tagline of the advertisement. It makes
the man who rides it feel pride just because it is a man product, not more than
it. It does not use women as the comparison of the motorcycle’s strength. The
series of words “Say Ladies First to Other Motorcycles” in Pulsar’s advertisement
is more than usual in terms of advertisement. It brought the gender sensitive
to attract the men, as the target, to choose the motorcycle.
All in all, the use of gender
sensitive language in Pulsar’s advertisement can be analyzed by three ways:
anthropomorphism, socialization, and culture point of view. The first is
anthropomorphism that shows the humanization of motorcycle as if it was a man
and other motorcycles are women. The second is socialization in which media
should consider the nature of a product as the indicator of success in
marketing. The last is the culture set in the society that affects the readers
mindset in which Javanese people tend to choose the masculine thing than the
feminine one and the possibilities of being shy if Javanese men select a
product that naturally women. Thus, besides the advertisement is using the
offensive words towards women, but it is successfully made a provocative and
good advertisement. In other words, the language use in Pulsar’s advertisement
is gender bias.
REFERENCES
Goddard, Angela and Mean,
Lindsey. 2009. Intertext Language and
Gender. Routledge, New York.
Brown and Levinson’s Proposal.
1982. Language and Gender
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/gender-sensitive-language/
http://www.mindrelief.net/gender_issues_in_languages.html
http://my.englishclub.com/forum/topics/what-is-the-secret-of-this?groupUrl=questionandanswers&xg_source=activity&groupId=2524315%3AGroup%3A137383&id=2524315%3ATopic%3A137676&page=2#comments
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