1. Introduction We live in the era of mass media, where advertisement is almost unavoidable as it is displayed in magazines, television, internet and radio. This, however, poses an issue due to an existence of gender stereotypes in commercials and these might have a negative influence on one’s self esteem (Daniels 2009, 401). Gender stereotypes are gender-based believes about appropriate appearance or behavior of a human. Current paper is aiming to investigate this issue, because gender stereotypes can be unfair and might convey a misleading message.
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.
The advertising industry has become a notable staple of marketing in the modern era. From oversized billboards to television commercial sessions, advertising has taken up a strongly dominant role in contemporary life, through which information is repeatedly broadcast and eventually embedded into the minds of potential consumers. Under the influence of such advertisements, consumers become more susceptible to emotional appeal and more receptive to the views expressed by these commercials, thus leading to a possible shift in their personal values and opinions. Therefore, although the main focus of these advertisements primarily falls upon the products themselves, it is the warped portrayals of the sexes and the concept of gendered marketing that
There is a consistent message that runs throughout advertisements that suggests that women are lesser than men, and that they exist solely for the benefit of men. Countless advertisements feature thin, beautiful women as either over-sexualized objects, or as subordinates to their male counterparts. The mold created by society and advertisers for women to fit into is not entirely attainable. More often than not, models are Photoshopped and altered to the point that they don’t even resemble themselves. W. Charisse Goodman suggests, “The mass media do not
Generally, the stereotypes that are rendered for women are housewife, sexual objectification, and that they are dependent on a man’s protection (Zotos). In marketing for certain thing such as dish soap, cleaning supplies, and kitchen appliances, women are generally the models. This may be because when people think of household chores being done they picture a woman, our brains have been trained to do so from seeing these portrayals so often. We are repeatedly seeing women posing for advertisements in a sexy way with very little clothing on, making people turn their heads and pay attention to the product. If women continue to be shown in advertisements in a negative way, they will not be able to become confident and grow in
How Femininity is Represented in Contemporary Advertising In this piece of work, I aim to address and analyse how femininity is represented in contemporary advertising. By doing that I must deal with representation. Representation involves standing for or symbolising something. Hall states that ‘It does involve the use of language, of signs and images which stand for or represent things.’ (1997, p.15). It is a form of communication that can portray an aspect of reality through a medium.
These media forms are extremely influential and can alter the way in which society perceives gender. The messages carried by the media about what is appropriate for males and for females also important influences on gender development (Calvert,1999;Comstock & Scharrer,2006;Pike & Jenning,2005;Purcheco & Hurtado,2001).A special concern is the way females are pictured on television. In the 1970s, it becomes apparent that television was portraying female as less competent than males. For example, about 70 percent of the prime –time characters were males, men were more likely to be shown in the workforce, women were more likely to be shown as housewives and in romantic roles, men were more likely to appear in higher-status job and in a greater diversity of occupations, and men were presented as more aggressive and constructive (Sternglanz & Serbin, 1974). Television networks become more sensitive to how male and female are portrayed on television shows, but researchers continued to find the television portrayed male as more competent than female
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.
With a world with more than three billion men out of the seven billion humans living on Earth, it is obvious that today’s world is still male-dominated (The World Bank). In fact, our society has created and put into place social norms and gender stereotypes where men are considered the superior, tough, independent, and intelligent leaders of the world, and women to be the inferior, fragile, uneducated, and dependent followers. On the other hand, over the past years, the idea of a person needing to behave a certain way because of their gender, known as gender roles, has been fading and transforming drastically. Today, men and woman are more susceptible and open to breaking the typical gender roles that has been programed into one’s head since a young age, such as men needing to be the ones who work and keep their family financially stable, and women to be the ones who cook, clean, and nurture the children. And although gender roles are still a major part of our society today, it is losing its significance rapidly, where the traditional roles of men working, going to college, and playing sports are now being accomplished by women as well.
Annotated Bibliography Introduction: Examine different kinds of advertisements and the problem at hand with how they perpetuate stereotypes, such as; gender, race, and religion. Thesis: The problem in society today is in the industry of social media. In efforts to attract the eye of the general population, advertising companies create billboards, commercials, flyers and other ads with stereotypes that are accepted in today’s society. Because of the nations’ cultural expectation for all different types of people, advertisement businesses follow and portray exactly what and how each specific gender, race, or religion should be. Hazell, V., and J. Clarke.