Feminism isn’t for sale
By Agranee Singh
In an age of collaborations and collabs, the female voice risks becoming just another campaign. Beneath the glamour, the question persists if it is an expression, or endorsement?
Lately, it feels like the entire discourse around women is a chaotic group chat on Instagram, since that’s where the entirety of the world sums up. Half the women are sending Maya Angelou quotes, the other half are selling bathwater for men’s soap commercials. And somewhere in between, the rest of us are left asking, do we even
have a voice anymore, or is our only microphone a brand collab waiting to be signed?
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With her signature blonde curls, Sydney Sweeney has ventured into new territory, ‘bottling her essence’ for a men’s grooming brand, a curious take on empowerment, where lathering with a hint of bathwater seems to do the talking. And while the internet raged, memed all over it, and ironically bought it, because capitalism loves irony, one can’t help but wonder. When mainstream women keep lending their bodies, fluids, and brand equity to patriarchal gimmicks, what happens to the actual feminist voice we’ve been trying so hard to craft?
This isn’t just about Sydney. She’s not the first, and tragically, she won’t be the last. Megan Fox once declared she was reclaiming her sexuality after years of objectification in Hollywood. Soon after, she fronted a campaign for Frederick’s of Hollywood, a lingerie brand known for its provocative designs. Posing in lace lingerie, garter belts, and stockings, the shoot was framed as empowering. Yet, it looked strikingly similar to her 2010 Emporio Armani campaign, one that arguably catered to male fantasies.
When asked about her opinions on this topic Saswati Parida, 21, a fashion design student at NIFT, Patna thinks Instagram models with surgery or heavy makeup are judged in an instant, hate comments typed without pause. When the 2024 VS comeback happened, inclusivity advocates were heard calling for the old Victoria’s Secret to return. Double standards were exposed, advocacy shown only when convenient, outrage performed when trending, and empowerment reduced to a display of wokeness.
And don’t forget Kim Kardashian, arguably the most influential woman of our time when it comes to body politics. In 2018, she proudly marketed appetite-suppressant lollipops to her massive teenage audience, all while preaching body positivity, and empowerment. Nothing screams solidarity like telling girls they’ll be freer if they’re skinnier.
Sonal Thakur, a fashion influencer, with 1,10,000 followers on Instagram talks about how influence holds power. “Everything today is packaged for sale, products, services, even empowerment. As someone who lives in this ecosystem, I’ve learned to question whether my beliefs on what I’m indulging in are truly mine or just algorithm-fed. Influence isn’t just reach, it’s also responsibility. And maybe the real flex is choosing conviction over convenience”.
And then, of course, came the Met Gala in May 2022. To slip into Marilyn Monroe’s iconic “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” dress, Kim Kardashian admitted to losing 7.2 kgs, in just three weeks. It was hailed as a fashion moment. But what it really spotlighted was the persistence of impossible beauty standards, rich, coming from a
woman who also runs Skims, a billion-dollar shapewear empire built on sculpting bodies into submission. If this is the voice of empowerment, it still sounds uncomfortably like dieting instructions set to a glamour filter
What’s the takeaway? These celebrities dominate culture and sell feminism, and yet, often, they trade in images that perpetuate objectification rather than dismantle it. Their influence becomes a commodity, easily absorbed into consumer culture. The optics shift from resistance to resonance, with the brand economy.
And sure, the defense always comes, it was their decision! Isn’t feminism about freedom? Yes. Autonomy matters. But when the only decisions that get conventional airtime are the ones that make women’s bodies consumable, objectified, and commercialized, what does that say about the cultural and influential script we’re still trapped in?
