Bring back infomercials

How come our mothers wore mini skirts in the 70s and didn’t get harassed on the streets of Sri Lanka? Our mothers used public transport and they weren’t in the receiving end of lusty male eyes.

Why does adolescent boys think it is okay to hares women in public? How come a women driving a car wearing a short skirt get howled from a bus.

It’s because they don’t know any better. There’s no one to tell them what the appropriate, socially acceptable response is.

Remember when we were small, there was this infomercial of a man missing his stop because he was flirting with a woman on the bus. Then he returns home drenched to his loving wife. The message was simple. Similarly, infomercials helped to successfully fight back against big conglomerates to educate the general public on the health concerns of smoking.

Back to the street harassment example. What young adults see on television these days are corny tele-dramas with ආහ් නංගී lines.

Instead of a teacher or parent explicitly teaching what’s right and wrong, infomercials can send a subliminal message to everyone. Setting a status quo which is socially acceptable.

Recently I saw a friend of mine sharing a screenshot of Instagram post of 50 year women wearing a swimsuit. The comments were appalling. More on sexual frustration of Sri Lankans (note I didn’t said men) to a later day.

Later I’ll share my thoughts on why our mothers were able to wear mini skirts without a problem and how it became a problem now in Sri Lanka.

Anyways, I don’t bring back infomercials. People need to be educated. Fan pages like Be Like Bill or Be Like සිරිමල් are pretty good jabs at this. But mass media still plays a major role in Sri Lanka. In the time an advert of milk powder is shown after news headlines, show something that will make a change.