U.S. Take on Different Cultures

In Sanjukta Ghosh’s article, “Con-Fusing” Exotica, Producing India in U.S. Advertising” she presents the issues of an ever so common portrayal of the India race in the media. In the majority of popular American magazines such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan etc… it is evident that the majority of the advertisements lack the portrayal of any sort of race or if they do, they portray races is in a misinformed way. Ghosh writes, “This chapter examines how media, in general, and advertising, in particular, produce a commodified and an Orientalist vision of India that simultaneously erases indigenous peoples out of the landscape or puts them in the background” (275). In this article, not only does Ghosh look at the issues concerning the lack of ethnicity in the U.S. media but also that when there is the portrayal of another culture, it is usually a misinterpretation. One example that really stuck out to me in this article was the fashion advertising spread in Vogue magazine.

In this photo spread Vogue portrays two people traveling when they run out of gas. The two people in this ad are a tall, blonde, model and the other is a taxi driver. At the beginning of the photo spread the taxi drivers body position portrays him to be praying and is wearing a turban. The woman happens to be wearing white, a very innocent color. While the woman is looking at a map for directions the native taxi driver relies on traditional methods. “As maps signify him as incompetent and traditional and perhaps serve as a reminder of India’s backward status” (227). Ghosh describes this photo spread/scenario to be a mockery to the native India, taxi driver. “The binaries used in this fashion spread poist the Sikh as a backward, unenlightened, lustful, irrational, driven by primal urges, left behind, both untouched by modernity and comically ill-equipped to handle modernity” (227). In this article, it is apparent that fashion spreads can misinform and portray different races in an untrue and misleading light, while also diminishing their heritage and culture through advertisements.

In conclusion I believe in most of Ghoshs arguments, concerning the fact that in modern media and advertisement, different cultures are not always portrayed in a truthful and correct way. Closing her argument Ghosh writes, “Media needs to stress the heterogeneity of Indians in America – their differences based on class, gender, age, sexuality, and religion” (280).