The girl & the woman

We all have seen many examples of women being targeted or depicted for communication by brands. Be it Surf’s lalita ji or Dettol’s mother, most of the brands have preferred to portray a woman (suitable for their product categories and target audience) or the journey to becoming a woman. Very few have focussed on the girl or on the “feeling of being a girl”. The girl here means the mental make up of a girl rather than only her age. A female has two sides to her personality; one is that of a girl and the other of a woman. We shall come to the differences later, but both are not always mutually exclusive. The two sides are like the two faces of the same coin, with the decision to show which side of the coin to display resting in the hands of the person and depend on a number of factors.
When we talk of a girl, the first word that comes to mind is ‘carefree’. It’s a state of mind for her and an attitude that makes her different from a woman. This carefree attitude is reflected in the choices she makes about her social circle, hangout places and her topics of discussion. The girl would hang out with her friends (both male & female), talk or gossip about random things like clothes, friends. Two brands that have beautifully captured this carefree attitude are TVS scooty and Nokia, which feature Priyanka chopra in an ad, which talks about the things the girls do and are important to them. It makes me sad when brands limit the definition of a girl to that of a seductress looking to attract boys. It again brings the focus to her dependence on the other sex rather than showing her as an independent girl. A girl derives her sense of belonging from her friends & by being accepted by them, Where as a woman would derive her sense of belonging from her family (read husband, kids, in laws & parents). The feeling of being a girl is an ‘innate’ feeling which makes it difficult for her to explain how it feels to be a girl, where as the feeling of being a woman is a learnt feeling and can avail of a vocabulary ( has husbands,kids & in laws to look after) to be explained. There are mainly three parameter age, marriage and responsibilities that explain the transition (the transition here is not permanent and merely reflects a tilt from one state to the other) of a female from a girl to a woman. The state of being a woman will have two out of the above three characteristics most of the times. For example: my mother became a woman when she got married at the age of 21 and gave me birth at 22. Similarly a female who is 31 years old, lives with friends & has no responsibilities (my boss in my previous organisation) would think of herself more as a girl than a woman.
The inclination to go into details is a female characteristic, common to a girl as well as a woman. A girl would go into the details of her immediate surroundings & events, where as a woman would think in a more elaborate fashion about her and her family’s future, their expectation, tastes, likes etc. This does not mean that a girl would go against her family; rather it means that instant gratification and freedom are values that appeal more to a girl. She would circumvent the lines or conditions set by her family rather than breaking them. This again is showcased in one of the virgin mobile ads, where the girl plays clever to go to goa with a male friend by telling her parent that she has no interest in boys.
The state of being a girl also makes her louder in her appearance, gestures, body language which again is a function of her carefree and independent attitude. A woman in comparison is likely to act in a more sophisticated manner which gets reflected in her choice of dark & sober colours, less use of hands and a more composed body language.
When I referred to two sides of the same coin I meant that a girl would also sometimes display (though subdued) the characteristic of a woman, which the girl learns by watching her mother or other women in her family. For example, on a recent trip to trade fair I witnessed a girl of age around 5 years coming to her younger brother’s rescue from a dog approaching him and she said “ main hoon na, don’t worry” to her brother. This brings out her caring attitude which she probably learnt from her mother. Similarly, a woman would also show her girlish side at times. This would be most visible when she is put back in her old set up (among same old friends, in same situations). She would sometimes also use her kids as an accessory to live back the feeling of being a girl, for ex- a bicycle trip. The ads of brands promising wrinkle free skin or slim figure can also been seen to be exploiting this urge to relive the experience of being a girl.
Whether it is the feeling of being a girl or a woman, she brings consistency by constructing a world around herself using self symbolism (to bring internal consistency) and social symbolism (to project to others around her).