Gender Advertisements Erving Goffman Analysis

In Advertisements R Us by Melissa Rubin, she analyzes how advertisements appeal to its audience and how it reflects our society. Rubin describes a specific Coca-Cola ad from the 1950’s that contains a “Sprite Boy”, a large -Cola Coca vending machine, a variety of men, ranging from the working class to members of the army, and the occasional female. She states that this advertisement was very stereotypical of society during that decade and targeted the same demographic: white, working-class males- the same demographic that the Coca-Cola factories employed.

The studies of this article examine the images of men and women that advertisements perpetuate. Mass media is a widely accessible resource that presents positive and negative portrayals. In today’s society, the traditional differences between genders are constantly reinforced. The male figure is usually characterized as the strong, successful, dominant gender. When advertisements create a target message for men, they exploit the male ego. This means that men are thought provoked to look or be

Advertising is critical to building business in a capitalist society like the United States. In fact, today, the U.S. spends over 220 billion dollars annually on internal and external advertising (“Statistics”). A market as large as this has a significant impact on the American population. This impact results from the cultural trends that advertising exposes and highlights to the general public. However, advertising has only been a major component of the American business scene for the past hundred years. It was during this time in the 1920s that the ad industry saw a major boom that launched it into prominence on the American stage as a crucial part of

In the Sixties sexism was a widely accepted part of society but not in modern times. Commercials still stereotype women today but not nearly as much as in the Sixties. In the 1960’s Folgers Coffee commercial, the husband’s attitude towards the wife, Papa Eddie’s interaction with the woman, and the woman’s reaction to the men reveal the sexist attitudes of the time period.

In his article, “Men’s Men and Women’s Women,” Steve Craig describes how sellers differentiate and analyze sex by trying to use the buyers’ fantasies to match the expectations of ones’ age and sex which allows them to use their marketing funds more efficiently. According to Craig, we are living in a patriarchal society, where the man are the ones placing these advisements in society and creating trends. His analysis of four distinctive television advertisements is going to still try to largely uphold a patriarchal social structure. Although, on the surface these advisements may appear to be empowering both genders, it is still copying culture’s ideology of gender.

Throughout this paper I will be talking about how advertising makes gender codes and if they affect how I view individuals, and if they affect the way people view me. I will also be addressing if there are different codes, like class codes that may affect the way others and/or I view individuals. Lastly, I will be explaining how using a sociological perspective can help to think outside of gender codes and realize that it is not something that should be seen as normal.

number of advertisements seen everywhere on a daily basis. “Sex in advertising is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women …” (Kilbourne, 271). The objectification of women in our society is more prevalent than many would like to believe. Women being portrayed as passive, easy, innocent, needy, submissive and dependent beings create an understanding that women are less human than men. “Turning a human being into a thing, an object, is almost always the first step toward justifying violence against that person” (Kilbourne,278). When advertisers continuously use women as sex objects in order to sell their

In "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt," the author, Jean Kilbourne, talks about how women are sexualized and mistreated in the public eye by advertisements. She contends that men and women in the media are distorted as sex images and instruments: Women are portrayed as mediocre in contrast with men. For example, she states that the woman is “rewarded for her sexuality by the man’s wealth.” The media has aimed towards promoting either women or men particularly. In one advertisement, she clarifies how a tie organization publicizes ties by having ties laid in a botched up bed — as though showing that this brand of tie will help you get laid. This, likewise, sends out the wrong message to men that a tie will ultimately help them score with ladies.

Teal Pfeifer in her short story “Devastating Beauty” discusses the effect of portraying skinny ladies/models that are wear dress size 0 or 1 as the ideal body size in most advertisements. The author points out the fact that,this can be damaging to most women, especially young women who view these adverts. The young women who see these adverts begin to feel displeased with their bodies, and a vast majority of them venture into different kinds of diet. She further emphasized that adult females are not the only ones affected, but also young girls (Pfeifer 2). According to Slim Hopes, about 80 percent of girls below the age of ten have either been on a diet before and have stated that they want to be skinner and more pretty. Now people equate skinny

Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), presents several controversial yet realistic themes that can be linked to many social justice issues in today’s society. One central point that is highlighted throughout the novel is the objectification of women. In Atwoods novel women transition from normal citizens in society, to baby birthing machines. Women no longer acquire the respect, authority, freedom, and power that men have in the world of Gilead. This objectification that the handmaids are exposed to can be seen all throughout our environment, and there is no limit to where it can occur. At work, schools, on television news, in magazines...women are enclosed in this ideal image and set of standards that is far off from the average

Figure 2 and 3 exemplify women presented in a submissive and docile image. In figure 2, there is a direct eye contact to the camera which conveys a personal address to the reader. It allows the audience to be captivated in the seductive qualities of her body. However, the use of black around her eye helps to accentuate salacious look upon her face. Furthermore, white fur and jewelry in her costuming portrays this ideal of wealth and affluence that women should be aspiring for to attract the ‘right man’.

This advertisement includes four men and one woman who are all wearing Dolce and Gabbana clothes. Two of the men are shirtless with oiled bodies, showing off their muscular body type, which is considered to be the ideal male body type. This causes the men viewing the advertisement wanting to be like them. Beauty standards are just as important in the male society as the female society, just that it is more emphasized in the female society. The other two men are fully dressed, but still fit into the ideal male body type of muscularity. The man in the center is positioned over the woman which further enhances his muscles, but also portrays his dominance over the woman. This is shown by the woman’s hands pinned down against the

Advertisement two: Calvin Klein is a dark-full colour advert, for Calvin Klein Jeans advertisement (Figure II). Nudity combined with the body position and body language make this a highly sexual ad and a solid reason for its inclusion in the study. The Calvin Klein advertisement features a woman with a nude torso positioned on top of man with a nude torso. The visual elements presented in the second ad by Calvin Klein create visual texture; the ocean/rocks surrounding the human figures creates a frame focusing the eye on the bodies in the centre. The woman’s fixated body pulling away from the male model attracts the viewer down her arm, to her waist pointed at the logo at the bottom of the page (right-hand-side). The females almost exposed breast in the centre of the ad is positioned under the man’s arm. This juxtaposition

The objectification of women contains the act of ignoring the personal and intellectual capacities and potentialities of a female; and reducing a women’s value/worth or role in society to that of an instrument for the sexual pleasure that she can produce in minds of another. The representation of women using sexualized images that have increased significantly in the amount and also the severity of the images that’s been used explicitly throughout the 20th century. Advertisement generally represent women as sexual objects, subordinated to men, and even as objects of sexual violence, and such advertisements contribute to discrimination against women in the workplace, and normalize attitudes which results in sexual harassment and even violence

From deodorant advertisements to clothes, women are shown as constantly running behind these hunky men as though they are a prized catch. This shows women in the worst light, that they would fall for the smell of a perfume or for a well dressed man. Men are barely portrayed as doing housework or taking care of children, since it has been stereotyped that this is a woman’s job. When sexual imagery is used, advertisements often consist of nonverbal cues as a signal to show that women lack control and authority than men. Women are shown as relatively smaller in height and their body language as being submissive, whereas the men stand tall and strong. This places men in a position of power and rank. The only similarity between the portrayal of men and women in advertisements is their perfect physical appearance. Men have perfect skin; heads full of thick hair, a square jaw line and six pack abs. Men are also falling prey to the cultural ideals of beauty.