The term “gender roles” refers to the how the images used in advertisement depict certain stereotypes within men and women. Gender displays are used heavily in advertising in order to establish the role of one gender in relation with the other, some people even believe that advertisers are obsessed with gender. In this essay I will be giving an overview of how gender roles are portrayed in advertisement by examining three images of my choice.
Since the beginning of time, men have always been said to be much stronger and superior than women, even though that is not the case by any means. Physically maybe, but when it comes to emotional strength and stability women are much more capable. Although this is a known fact, the roles offered to women are limited, involving a woman’s restraint to the domestic sphere – bearing children, caring for them as well as the husband, shopping for groceries, cleaning the house etc. Therefore, role restrain is exhibited in many situations in advertising. Women have been portrayed as people who can’t make significant decisions and are dependent on men. Times have changed drastically and this theory has taken a turn for the better nowadays as many women are breaking the stereotypical scenarios and showing the world that women are more than just mere domestic providers or essential sex objects.
When it comes to gender roles/stereotypes in media, the ‘masculinity’ or ‘femininity’ of the cultures have been considered. According to some psychologists, ‘masculine’ cultures emphasise assertiveness, physical strength and achievement, whereas, ‘feminine’ cultures highlight cooperation, modesty and care. Generally, women are more likely to be sexualised than men, meaning that advertisements would consist of women in seductive clothing, more attractive than the men accompanying them in the ad. “The media – and advertising specifically – have been slow to reflect the changing shape of gender identity and often depict, at best, a current view of society, and sometimes a backward view,” — Unilever.
The cleaner you are, the dirtier you get.
This advertisement is a perfect example of gender stereotypes considering the ‘masculinity’ or ‘femininity’ of cultures. You could say that this is a take on the 1950’s ads just in a modern appearance. This is an advertisement for Axe shower gels, on the left we can see a man using the shower gel with the caption “the cleaner you are” and on the right there is a woman covering herself with whipped cream in the same position that the man is using the shower gel captioned “the dirtier you get”. The ad is directed towards a male target audience since it is a shower gel for men, therefore the colours are dark and there is a touch of sensuality in the font and imagery also. As for expressions, the male seems to have a content expression whereas the female has a more sensual expression. Hygiene advertisements geared towards men usually include confident men surrounded by women, or implying that “the cleaner you are the dirtier you’ll get” literally. The man doesn’t look embarrassed or worried like women are tend to be portrayed in hygiene ads, it’s almost as if it’s expected of them to be dirty, but if they want to be surrounded by women like in the ads they need to purchase that particular product. These advertisements are extremely biased with regards to gender because the ads aimed at men are about building up their confidence and making them desirable, whereas, the women’s advertisements lead her to buying the product by making her feel insecure.
You mean a woman can open it…?
This famous 1960’s advertisement quite distinctively manipulates gender stereotyping, targeting women in the household. It is an eye-catching advertisement, with it’s use of vibrant colours such as yellow and red that grab attention within an instant. The advertisement seems appropriate, a woman holding a bottle of ketchup possibly advertising a particular brand of ketchup, that is until we read the caption. The caption outlines the fact that even a woman can open this bottle of ketchup, implying that someone as weak as a woman is capable of opening it. Even the delicacy of the way in which the woman is ever so slightly touching the bottle and is so amazed that it may only take a touch implies this. If we take the image alone, and maybe add a man into the image the advertisement would not be as stereotypical. The objective of this advertisement may be for husbands to buy their wives a bottle of this ketchup so they will not be pestered by their wives to open it for them, or simply just to indicate that a woman can’t even open a bottle by herself. Advertisements in the 1950’s were commonly about wives who were completely controlled by their husbands. Therefore, they may feel the need to impress their husbands with feminine products, cleaning products, endless cooking and references to the benefits of staying in the kitchen. Some of these ads include the phrases such as “Don’t worry darling you didn’t burn the beer!” and “Christmas morning: she’ll be happier with a Hoover!”.
How to be gorgeous VS. How to be clever
Gender stereotypes are not just regarded as something that happens in advertisements for adults, it is equally if not even more emphasised in ads targeted at young children. Social roles and skill sets that are expected of boys and girls are highly conventionalised. This particular image , shows the same book but for different genders, for girls on the right with the pink background and the beautiful girl in the foreground and boys on the left with a red background and an image of a happy boy surrounded by starts captioned “get better grades”, “speed up your reading” and “ improve your memory”. This plainly indicates that girls should learn new ways to look and feel fabulous, possibly for a man to fall in love with her, marry her and then make her a house wife where she can look after the kids and do house work, whereas boys should be more academically involved which will help them accumulate better grades leading to a good job. Ads targeted at young boys encourage them to be creative, powerful and active, where on the other hand, ads targeted towards girls focus more on beauty, cosmetics and domestic work. This gives young girls the sense that their identity is purely image driven and later may lead to low self esteem also discouraging creativity and imagination. Children pick up things from what they see around them, they are highly perceptive and are mostly likely to be impacted by these social indications. It teaches girls and boys to adhere to this structure from a very young age.
In conclusion, people have accepted gender roles or stereotypes as a normal thing nowadays and it is found in all advertisements one way or another. It’s evident that there is a bias in how men and women are presented in media. The structure of advertisements is clarified in order to be understood by various target audiences and stereotypes are often used as a technique of persuasion. Though these advertisements carry sexist remarks, they are a way of catching the eye and grabbing attention. “If we become aware of the stereotypes and teach critical viewing skills to our children, perhaps we will become informed viewers instead of manipulated consumers” — Debra Pryor and Nancy Nelson Knupfer (1997). Gender stereotypes have created the roles that people feel they must follow to be considered one gender or the other. People form the opinion that the society expects them to act a certain way after seeing these advertisements, particularly when it associates the ideas of being more desirable or powerful.