A non-governmental organisation launched a media project named Munsalik — attached for Urdu — in Islamabad last week that aims to sensitise the media on gender and gender- based violence.

Information Minister Sherry Rehman was the chief guest at the launch attended by actor-writer Feryal Gauhar and senior journalists.

At the heart of the discourse was how media portrayed women, leading to the general conclusion that the fairer sex was hard done by in more ways than one: for instance, advertising where it was said they were used as little more than a commodity — to sell a commodity.

The talented actor in Feryal shone in a fine cinematic articulation where she pointed out how belittling women had become so ingrained in the Pakistani viewer’s mind that he or she is not even conscious of it.

The perpetrators, Feryal believes, are the male of the species though she resents that members of the fairer sex do not put up enough resistance to fend off what is a decidedly stereotyped depiction.

This, Feryal pointed out through video clippings, saw women assume the role of a vamp or merely serve as an angle to a story — obviously, nothing to be proud of.

Describing it as the ‘male gaze’, she spoke about how this gaze benefited commercially from the female frame.

Feryal’s suggestion to fight the menace was just as beautifully encapsulated. “There is a need to develop a female gaze and invent new dynamics to counter patriarchal domination in the cinema.”

But, of course, the male gaze goes beyond the silver screen. Few, if any, can deny the almost brazen exploitation of the female form for monetary gain. More the merrier seems to be the mantra.

This explains why even in commercials that should have nothing to do with the female form as a promotional subject still indulge them. One can reel off countless such ads. This is but one extreme.

The other, less savoury one, presents them as little more than sexual objects, ready to indulge the male fantasy. Such crass television advertisement abounds — from getting round to peppermint shapes to milk brands with the camera predictably going where all angles find the connect.

Of course, all such endeavour is put down to creative juices and the use of a certain poetic licence. It is another matter that this licence is as easily obtained — and abused — as a driving licence in this republic!

It was interesting to see Sherry Rehman wax eloquent on the subject, blending it with her own longstanding experience as a journalist.

Ordinarily, one would be inclined to think ‘enlightened moderation’ has taken creative libido to new heights but my stint with an advertising house in Islamabad more than a decade ago revealed how it is the same mindset ‘the male gaze’ that still rules the roost.

Even then, there was the embarrassing spectacle of a respected TV actor-model turning out for a milk brand in a way the-then single star probably, wouldn’t want her children to see. Fortunately, one did not have anything to do with the production of that commercial.

So Feryal has a point when she says there’s little body of evidence to suggest the female of the species offer resistance — or perhaps, required level of resistance — when they are typecast in a role they know might give them a publicity boost but not necessarily, for the right reasons.

Removed from this lack of resistance is the serious issue of the kind of portrayal that women victims of injustice have to suffer in the media, particularly the vernacular one.

At random, one can pick up any vernacular broadsheet or tabloid and easily figure out by its very contents the repulsive motive behind a story on say, a certain incident of rape: titillation.

Rather than protect the identity of the victim, the news story usually unfolds a graphic account of what happened to whom and where. A classic case of the victim undergoing a second assault to add to the trauma of the first.

Clearly, the media has a huge responsibility to public welfare, a small part of which is to devote itself to defending human rights.

It was a matter of some satisfaction that Ms Rehman singled out Dawn News for doing its bit at the launch. But as Robert Frost said in his beautiful poem Stopping By Woods: But I have promises to keep; And miles to go before I sleep.

The writer is News Editor at Dawn News.