"Mimpi saya adalah menciptakan kretek terbaik, tapi di dunia kretek, perempuan hanya boleh menjadi pelinting saja."
Every woman has a dream---and so does Dasiyah. However, being a woman in the 1950s is a different story. Gadis Kretek (Cigarette Girl), Indonesia's global sensation drama, has portrayed how women live under the glass ceiling, in which the domestic role becomes the sole role women can achieve. Dasiyah, as its main character, delivers her struggle to pursue her dream as the mastermind behind the kretek (tobacco) instead of only being a pelinting (roller). There is a long road to go, but should we trust the tobacco industry to pave along our way?
Torches of Freedom
Gender is a social construct. It was shaped by beliefs, expectations, and activities upon the social-cultural context (Fenstermaker & West, 2002). The tale of Dasiyah caters to the figure of a woman who has been embedded under the label of reproductive and non-economic roles. Being the mastermind behind the cigarette recipe and even managing the tobacco company has been what Dasiyah longs for. However, Dasiyah could never enter the forbidden sauce room to achieve any of her dreams solely because she is a woman.
The plot would differ if Dasiyah were a man. Under the label of 'masculinity', 'authoritative', and 'dominant', Dasiyah is preserved as a competent young leader that is able to manage the company. Also, living a life surrounded by tobacco and smoking will no longer lead her to any catastrophic events. Unfortunately, this negative stigma of women smoking is parallel to what happened empirically. Women are embedded as amoral, wild, and naughty if they're smoking. Thus, these so-called shameful activities were done almost behind closed doors for many years. Also, this dismissive image of women is spread around to massive media consumption. For instance, Indonesia's '90s and early 20s movies captured women who smoked as something defiant and as a symbol of prostitution.
On halt of breaking the glass ceiling, women in the 20th century have been promoting smoking as a symbol of emancipation. The first wave of feminism embarked on female smokers as women's liberation. It was motivated due to this action being very much masculine connotated and represented independent beings with the same rights as men. Even though the first wave of feminism targeted upper-class women, the influence of this movement later achieved its peak in the 1930s through the movement of torches of freedom.
How Advertising Works: A Behavioral Economic Perspective
Smoking is no longer a man's habit---it's presented as a feminine freedom. Derived from female independence, the tobacco companies consider this awakening moment as a chance to solidify their profits. In 1928, George Washington Hill, president of the American Tobacco Company, pursued a campaign by riding the wave that led women to smoke. Hired a famous advertiser, Hill communicates a marketing message that associates smoking with both losing weight and maintaining a youthful appearance. It's a massive success---the company's sales are hitting its roof.
However, Hill wouldn't stop there, it got to be more. He then approached Edward Bernays to fulfill his will. Taking the psychoanalytical view, Bernays transformed the identity of cigarettes into notions of freedom and rebellion. Bernays delivered it to all kinds of women and conveyed that it is considered stylish and rebellious for women to begin smoking in outdoor settings. On behalf of the Ninth Amendment, women during the Easter Day Parade in New York City marched through the parade with cigarettes celebrating their freedom to smoke publicly without any dread of judgement. Thus, tobacco items which equated with men, were started perceived as torches of freedom for women.
The "Torches of Freedom" stance gave the company a major success by making the company's share grow exponentially. Then, it raised a question. How could advertisement played a big role in people's decisions? This question could be answered from the behavioral economics perspective.