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. This research work will demonstrate that the most vulnerable groups of population are adolescents as they have not formed their self-perception to the full extent; at the same time, gender stereotypes influence females more as their image in advertisements tend to be highly biased and oversexualized. In the following assignment, main sources and types of gender stereotypes will be discussed along with the breakdown of its influence on various age groups, followed by the description of existing controversies on the subject matter.
2. Identification of main sources
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As for example, commercials on American MTV channel tend to portray women having fit bodies in 77.4% of cases and wearing suggestive or extremely revealing clothing in 53.8% of cases compared to 93.5% of neutrally dressed male characters (Signorielli, Mcleod, and Healy 1994). Furthermore, women in advertisements fall into younger age category than males and they are 3.5 times more likely to be portrayed in home environment compared to men portrayed predominantly in work environment (Prieler 2015, 280-281). It is possible to assume that advertisements on American television in many cases place emphasis on attractiveness of a woman and her role of a housekeeper, while men are stereotypically assumed to be examples of corporate
The average American will spend around a year and a half of their lives watching television commercials (Kilbourne 395). Presently advertisements are controlling our everyday lives. In Jean Kilbourne’s article: “Still Killing Us Softly: Advertising and the Obsession with Thinness”, she discusses how advertisements negatively portray women. This negative portrayal leads to self-hatred and a negative self-image for women. A major point of this is the idea of excessive thinness for women, which the advertising industry is dominantly influencing how women need to meet this standard.
Nowadays, not only in the advertisement industry, but everything has sexy appealing and everywhere. For example, on television, the internet, magazines and poster. In the article, “ master of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising” Jack Solomon agreed, “ Sex never fails as attention-getter, and in a particularly competitive, and expensive era for American marketing, advertisers like to bet on sure thing” (172). The aspect of advertising can be anything and there are no limits.
Whether we are realizing it or not, we are almost always surrounded by advertisements. The most used influential tools of advertising in today’s society are women. However, women are not viewed as models or actresses rather in these ads they are just objects for people to use, look at, abuse, and much more. In the fourth installment in a line of documentaries, “Killing Us Softly 4,” Jean Kilbourne explains the influence of advertising women and its relationship to gender violence, racism, sexism, and eating disorders. The advertisements emphasize the ideal female body.
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.
Position of Women in Advertisements The average American will spend around a year and a half of their lives watching television commercials (Kilbourne 395). Presently advertisements are controlling our everyday lives. In Jean Kilbourne’s article: “Still Killing Us Softly: Advertising and the Obsession with Thinness”, she discusses how advertisements negatively portray women.
The majority of modern society’s advertising conveys an oppressive message to American women. In advertisement campaigns, women are typically only considered and marketed as beautiful if they fit a very specific mold that society has created. Women who don’t fit this mold of being feminine, thin, and pretty are shamed and encouraged to change. However, it isn’t just the “ugly” women who are shamed in the media. 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.
According to Lippmann, “stereotypes are ‘pictures in our heads’ that we use to apprehend the world around us” (16). Stereotypes can be formed due to effects of media, as Wood describes media as pervasive, powerful and influential (31). Hence, stereotypes can be defined as inaccurate perceptions towards a group of people or community that is strongly influenced by the media. Whether positive or negative, stereotypes are usually false as they are formed based on personal judgments, which are biased or exaggerated. When stereotypes are consistently portrayed in media platforms, they subconsciously form and maintain assumed identities for the stereotyped groups.
“Advertising contributes to people’s attitudes about gender, sex, and violence,” states Jean Kilbourne in her article, Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt With advertising agencies standing by the notion that “Sex Sells” it isn’t uncommon to find sex tied into a 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.
Advertisements sell values, images, love and sexuality. Over the years advertisements have attempted a wide variety of advertising approaches like humor, sex, emotions. Advertisers use one of these appeals to ensure that the targeted audiences receive their message. The media’s framing of women in highly restricted and negative ways is a global phenomenon that cuts across all cultures and has endured a long passage of
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.
Media does not capture the world the way it is, but rather tends to emphasise and support the values and ideas of those who create the message they want people to hear. These are often changed because of commercial considerations and advertising, which plays a large part in media. This results in the perspective of some to be ignored or showed in negative ways. Ideas and representations about gender have been influenced by the media. In media such as advertisements, newspapers, magazines, popular music, films, and video games, women and girls are more likely to be shown in homes, doing domestic chores (e.g. laundry, cooking, ironing, vacuuming, etc.).
Growing up as a child in the early 21st century I, had Power Puff Girls, Dora, Winx and Angelina Ballerina forced down my throat. That is until my brother came along and Astro Boy, car racing, video games, and Teenage Mutant Ninja came to my attention. Today I will be sharing my views of people on the cause of gender stereotypes in texts, throughout the many years of modern age. Throughout the years, gender stereotypes against females and males have been lessening. These are still present in the modern social age; this has happened through social media, children books, ads, and movies.
Yet, in the realm of advertisement, there seems to be a fundamental difference in the way men and women are portrayed. The women are portrayed as a sexual object, fragile, and exotic whereas men are portrayed as dominant, powerful, physique, tough, independent, and aggressive. The advertisement today 's plays very important to influence the customer decision, and through various research evidence that gender, sexuality, and advertising are
Stereotypical Ads: Clorox Bleach Television ads have been around in the U.S since 1941 and have aired all around the world ever since. Most of these ads seem harmless and try to convince the viewer to buy the company 's products, but some companies take their ads a little too far. In 2007, Clorox Bleach aired a commercial called, “The Laundry Timeline.” This commercial was extremely stereotypical towards women, mentioning how women are the ones who do the laundry in the household and made the assumption that the woman 's’ parents and grandparents did the laundry in the family. In “The Laundry Timeline”, women are portrayed as house cleaners and useless in the working world, through the use of symbolic items, using the word “your” as an idea that the watcher is in the ad, and the idea of pathos to catch to the viewers attention, in order to get people to agree with their statement and to buy their product.
The representation of gender in mass communications has been a hugely debated topic for years and will continue to be one for many more years to come. The media plays a big role in how they want to portray a gender to the public. They create certain stereotypes through the role of a gender in order to attract a large audience and interest to sell a product, brand or image. Media is so important in today’s society, people spend hours and hours each day watching TV, browsing the Internet and reading magazines. There are so many images of men and women in the media today that it certainly has an impact on the viewer’s thoughts and sense of identity.