JEDDAH, 13 October 2006 — Saudi businesswomen, housewives, teachers and university lecturers gathered recently to discuss issues related to the negative effects of advertisements that have developed a materialistic Saudi society in which people end up bending over backward to keep up with the Joneses.
“After moving to Oman, I saw the huge difference in lifestyle between people living in the Kingdom and Oman. Life is much simpler in Oman and people tend to be more materialistic here than there,” said a housewife in her 40s.
It was this issue that inspired Lubna and Lama Ghalayini, founders of Orbits of Development for Enrichment Consultants (ODEC), to invite Saudi women from all walks of life to an interactive meeting entitled “Living for the Picture” recently. “There has been a dramatic change in social attitudes caused by the media with people striving hard to create a fake image just to please and show other people,” said Lubna and Lama.
Lubna and Lama want to enlighten people who live, shop and dress with an aim of projecting a materialistic-image. “There are people who are looking to gain appreciation from other people and in turn they end up becoming merely a reflection of what the status quo wants and not what they want,” said Lubna, adding, “This needs to be stopped.”
Around 20 Saudi women attended the meeting where five related topics were opened up for discussion: Self-exhaustion, pleasing others, narcissism, the problem of looking for a mirror and the media’s role in marketing a fake utopian image.
The subject most discussed were issues related to the role of the media in sending messages to impressionable youths. “Through the media society has been pushing us, especially women, to present a fake image of ourselves. Women should fight against this,” Lubna said, adding, “We need to ask ourselves whether the image we are projecting is making us happy or weakening us?”
Discussions were intense with women contributing to issues from different perspectives. Lubna posed a question, which found confirmation immediately, “How many times have we disapproved of someone who was in a mess or simply did not look glamorous, neat and in style?”
Lama continued, “Wearing brands and undergoing plastic surgery could be considered as being the first steps toward following the desires of the advertisement industry. It could be easy and affordable in the beginning but this will not last and this sort of behavior ends up becoming quite self-exhausting.”
Sawsan Al-Shadli made some interesting points about designer clothing. “Everyone now wants to wear branded gear from head to toe, because only then they believe they would be able to feel good about themselves. Those who can afford branded designer clothes are in competition and those who cannot afford end up looking for replicated ones. That’s how marketing for replicated brands here have flourished hugely due to that specific reason,” she said.
Middle-aged housewife Muna Al-Isaiee interestingly recommended that any serious discourse about the topic needs to take three things into consideration: Businessmen who are happy with such advertisements because they are good for their own interests, mothers who have grown up following the latest fashions and buying all kind of brands and are unable to stop themselves in the earlier stages and impressionable teenagers who need guidance in stopping such materialistic behavior.
