Advertising is displayed all around the world for everyone to see and it sometimes gives a bad message to the viewers. Advertisements tell us that there is only one dominant way to be feminine and only one dominant way to be masculine and if you do not conform to these gender codes that is not considered normal. Unfortunately, I have caught myself following these gender codes that are shown in advertising, it has affected me with the way I see people and myself. By using a sociological perspective I have started to look into the advertisements that I see and understand how women are portrayed as helpless and weak while men are portrayed as powerful and dominant. I also looked into how advertising supports hegemonic masculinity, which is the idea of masculinity being dominant.
Gender stereotyping continues to boom in society today. The advertising and media world play a chief part in perpetuating the nature behind gender roles and it is society as a whole who choose to receive it as a norm. A wide scope of portrayals of men and women exists in advertising, however masculine imagery traditionally depicts athleticism, strength, activity and competitiveness whereas feminine images suggest submissiveness, beauty, dependency and sensitivity. The Britax Decathlon’s car seat advertisement and the Californian beach-estate property advertisement both exemplify the stereotyped representation of gender roles in society: the female toddler dresses up in pink, is only concerned with her accessories and plays inside, where as
This can be seen in figure 4. Gender remains a vital and viable marketing positioner; gender can no longer be the only positioner or the most vital positioner in the marketing toolbox. As an industry marketing tries to show children their target customer as an in-action photo on the packaging, excitedly played commercials, clumped with similar children in paint or digital ads. The advertising of toys allows every child to imagine themselves as the target audience. By removing gender roles from the toy aisle aids the removal of the customer or user of the product.
Media Influence on Gender Identity Introduction The media dictates how the ideal woman looks like. The deliberate control of women by the media is taken up by the society and passed into generations. By using, digitally enhanced images, and exceedingly slim actors, the unattainable image of the ideal woman is generated, and for the average woman who does not match the mold, pressure is build for them to change their appearance accordingly. Gender is a cultural and psychological and term while sex pertains to physical and biological features. Sex is determined by the X and Y chromosomes, where XX denotes female while XY denotes male.
GENDER AND THE MEDIA The media has a very powerful effect on culture, shaping societal structures and operations. Dominant media forms have heavily assisted in constructing gender and genderalized norms. Advertising and mass media forms display codes that are associated with representing male and female attributes. These gender codes shape the way in which society views gender and assists in determining what is acceptable gender performance. It is through media’s reinforcement of gender stereotypes, codes and gender displays that shape the way in which society perceives and constructs genders.
Moreover, stereotypes are the media predators that exist whether we’d like to admit it or not. We are all a subject to messages presented on the television, Internet, and publications. Stereotypes involve ethnic, racial, and even gender-based stereotypes. We cannot deny the fact that media stereotypes have influenced the way we think one way or another, and has implemented some thoughts that has left us doubtful towards their credibility. This is a crucial worldwide issue that affects many people around the world, yet a lot of people are not aware of.
It is at the discretion of advertisers to undertake more moral responsibility in relation to the portrayal of females in advertisements. Consumers are often unable to view the product or service being advertised as the focal point centres around a semi naked female protagonist. It has been proven that sexual advertising grab’s consumer attention and marketers will push the boundaries to sell a brand. The investigation discovered that young, educated women accept the objectification of women, where previously this demographic was the most critical of such practices. Objectifying women has become socially acceptable and most consumers will not find these adverts surprising, alarming or dangerous (Zimmerman and Dahlberg
2 Mar. 2015. 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.
Advertisements: Exposed When viewing advertisements, commercials, and marketing techniques in the sense of a rhetorical perspective, rhetorical strategies such as logos, pathos, and ethos heavily influence the way society decides what products they want to purchase. By using these strategies, the advertisement portrayal based on statistics, factual evidence, and emotional involvement give a sense of need and want for that product. Advertisements also make use of social norms to display various expectations among gender roles along with providing differentiation among tasks that are deemed with femininity or masculinity. Therefore, it is of the advertisers and marketing team of that product that initially have the ideas that influence
In the media, women are often portrayed in a condescending way as having more negative qualities than other traditional social groups, such as white males. This representation presents viewers with ways of thinking and acting towards people of this particular group, therefore affecting communication and perception in reality. Dolf Zillmann and James Weaver looked into the study of horror films and the gender stereotyped behavior. They concluded that “girls and female adolescents [in horror films] who are witnessed displaying fearfulness and protective need in the face of terror on the screen are more favorably evaluated by male and female peers and non-peers than their counterparts who are witnessed displaying no distress” (p. 87) The illustration of fear is merely only one example of women stereotyping in that viewers