Branding Women’s Day: Hi-jacking the female narrative

I found myself growing viscerally angry yesterday, 9 August 2020, as I encountered more and more frivolous and celebratory social media posts about Women’s Day by individuals and brands alike. The superficiality, the joy and the light-hearted celebration felt insulting at a time when millions of women in this country grapple with the paradoxically sombre reality of what it really means to be female in South Africa.

At a time when femicide has gained the unfathomable status of a National Crisis in South Africa (it is estimated that a women is murdered every three hours); when over 110 women are raped every day; when South Africa has one of the highest gender wage gaps in the world; when most women live in circumstances of adverse poverty; when about 40% of South African mothers are single parents etc. etc., it seems a bit premature to indulge in celebrations to do with freedom, upliftment and progression.

Not only this, the lightening and brightening of Women’s Day diminishes its origin and hence significance. The 20 000 women who marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria in 1956 did not do so because they felt empowered and festive, they marched against the darkness of oppression. They marched for their basic human rights. They marched for their dignity and humanity.

While it is important and constructive to acknowledge and credit individual South African women for achieving incredible things, collectively we are not yet at a point to forget that the struggle for equality and freedom has not ended for most. To name a few, until every woman can walk safely on any street at any time; until women can trust the masculinity of fellow South African men; until women have equal opportunities to each other and men, and are rewarded as such; and until women can share the tremendous responsibility of raising promising new generations, then they, we, are not free.

It is with this in this in mind that I consider many brands’ attempts to capitalise on Women’s Day lazy, uninsightful and self-serving. While brands are at least indulging women in slightly more empowered narratives these days, I do question how many of these brands are tangibly empowering those very narratives they advertise?

When it is argued that our country is at war with its women, should we not think twice before we force-fit idealistic and unrealistic branded narratives into the public consciousness? Perhaps, start by acknowledging that the South African female narrative is far from #GirlPower and then take the time to question whether your brand has really earned its right to contribute to this unfolding story.

It is a brand like Carling Black Label with their ongoing #NoExcuse campaign-come-movement (and the accompanying team of people who are shifting and evolving the brand’s narrative) that I have more respect for and tolerance of when it comes to speaking to and on behalf of women. First, Carling Black Label acknowledges its role in the female story. Second, the brand has given women a voice and is igniting necessary dialogue and conversations. Last, It is making impactful and lasting interventions and it is using its clout to challenge one of the most oppressive forces standing in the way of women and their true power, freedom and equality.

To claim the female narrative, brands need to be part of it, but are they ready for everything that it entails?

Sources: United Nations University Uni-Wider; StatsSA; ILO Global Wage Report 2017/2018; Human Sciences Research Council

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