From Image Realities to Social Realities: Unpacking Pleasure and Procreation in TV and Press Advertisements of Sanitary Napkins and Contraceptives in Bangladesh

This research investigates the intersectional representations of gender and sexuality in relation to pleasure and procreation in TV and press advertisements of sanitary napkins and contraceptives in Bangladesh. It unpacks the connection of these representations with the social relationships of gender and sexuality that are influenced by the dominant gender and sexuality norms and discourses as well as institutional settings. The research contributes to a nuanced understanding of constructions of pleasure in relation to gender and sexuality in media representations. While I originally assumed polarized representations, objectification of women’s bodies and procreative capacities in relation to men’s sexual pleasure, the picture is not so clear cut. In fact female sexual pleasure is present in the ads, though within the heteronormative, marital relations; while heteronormativity is not a dominant frame of male sexuality. Furthermore, given that the advertisements target urban, middle-class audience, modernity versus tradition appears as a dominant frame of femininity, the former largely defining femininity within both domestic and professional spheres of life. The research does not claim that things are considerably better in terms of changing gender and sexuality relations. Rather, it points towards the need for further exploration to have a holistic understanding of the complexities surrounding gender and sexuality both in lived realities and institutional contexts; away from a singular representation of female sexuality as passive and procreative-which has been often considered as the definitive story of female sexuality. Relevance to Development Studies Sexuality, sexual rights and issues related to reproduction are the central focus of Millennium Development Goals. The main focus of this research that is to explore the connections between gender, sexuality, pleasure and procreation also contributes to understand how non recognition of sexuality may hamper people’s sexual rights which is the central focus of population and development. The research pays critical attentions on issues related to menstruation, birth control and HIV AIDS campaigns which also have received significant concerns among the recent development issues.