Research Project
While watching television, playing a game on your phone, or going on social media, advertisements are unavoidable, rampant parts of everyday life. These advertisements effect how viewers see the world. Of course, sometimes it is possible to skip the advertisement, but from the advertisements that people see completely, it affects how people view themselves. People look towards others in order to learn how to behave. Therefore, when advertisements teach people how to act it is very important. The impression that the media leaves people is very impactful. Gender is often depicted through these ads. Gender is defined by social differentiations between being male or female. Gender roles are how society dictates how females or males should act. The theory of gender schema theory provides an explanation of these gender roles. It explains that gender is a result of how society influences how gender and gender roles should be and how male and females should behave. While advertisements influence viewers, society as a whole becomes affected from years of looking at these images. The portrayal of gender in advertising affects how people view gender roles in society.
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The way that gender is displayed in the media affects how society perceives gender roles. Advertisements often use women in order to market their products. These commercials use sex in order to broadcast their products by using women as the object to be desired to show the object’s value. Half naked bodies and showing off women’s mid-sections is a common form of advertising seen on screen. The study Gender Representation In Advertisements states that, “Over the past decade, there has been increasing evidence describing the ways in which women’s bodies are depicted sexually, the visual as a manifestation of consumer and male desire, the magnitude of advertising’s influence, and gender in the political realm.” (Bratu, 2013) The female gender is shown in advertising as solely being sexual beings. Recently, more and more brands are displaying women’s bodies to show their sex appeal to appease the male gaze. Brands are not seeking to show the diversity of women or their capabilities as a gender. Corporations are looking to grab the attention of viewers through a sexual perspective for their own personal profitable gain. This sexualization of women gives the audience the idea that women must exist for sexual pleasure. When women are demonstrating themselves for a political campaign their advertisements for their political run includes their gender as a part of their appeal. Studies show that “Women are more likely to run as “women” because they are outsiders.” (Bratu, 2013) Women candidates use their gender role as a method to grab the attention of voters because the women are aware that the public does not see women as a typical
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form of politician. These politicians tend to “focus more on femininity”. (Bratu, 2013) These women, although running for a political role, need to show the public that their feminine gender roles are still in tact. These ideals confirm that “Cultural messages reinforce traditional gender roles and limit t he consumer body to conservative forms of femininity.” (Bratu, 2013) Through the representation of objectifying women and displaying them as always being feminine, it causes gender roles to be strictly unchanging. Displaying women politicians as feminine shows the audience that women are not typically political and are unfit for the job. Exhibiting their femininity is straying from the politicians sole purpose to make a change through their legal power. The portrayal of women in advertisements as sexual and purely feminined shows the viewer that women are limited by their gender roles; women must only adhere to the feminine gender roles that are expected of them.
The perspectives of gender roles can be altered by how advertisements display how gender roles should be. The research titled A Study of Gender Advertisements explained this phenomena. In the 1970’s, advertisements displayed the stereotypes of gender in six groups, which were, “relative size, feminine touch, function ranking, family, ritualization, subordination, licensed withdraw.” (Signoretti, 2017) During this period of time, advertisers displayed their commercials in these different ways. Through this era a study was conducted that showed how
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these groups affected the societies surrounding it. The group of relative size was a way of saying that women were seen as smaller and of a shorter stature in comparison to the male. This only changed when the advertisement showed the women having more money or power resulting in the advertisers showing the women to be taller. The group of feminine touch meant that women were displayed holding something loosely rather than having a tight grip on the object. The group of function ranking meant that when there was an announcement that featured a man and a women working on a project together the man had to be the decision maker of the project. Through the section of the family women were exhibited to have a close bond with the children rather than men who were shown to have a more reserved relationship with their kids. The category of licensed withdrawal meant that the women were never revealed to be completely involved in an action. In other words, women would follow what the man would be doing, or would be exhibited as only looking at the man, but not doing an independent act on her own. The study compared those stereotypes of these groups carried on from the older advertisements from 1976 and to a more modern day 2006. The study concluded that the influence that the stereotypes that were displayed 30 years earlier was so significant that gender roles did not change throughout that time. Despite there being a 30 year gap between the ads, these gender roles
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displayed in 1976 were still deemed to be the norm in 2006. Years later gender roles have been proven to be affected by previous advertisement.
Interpreting the research of how people view advertisement demonstrates that viewers have an idea of gender roles prior to the viewing of the announcement. The study When Does Gender Count? Further Insights Into Gender Schematic Processing of Female Candidates Political Advertisements i nspects how the onlookers of the political candidate ads react to the gender roles that were displayed. Through gender schema theory, a theory that explains how gender is learned through society, researchers in the study analyzed the female and male political candidates and sought out to see how the viewers reacted to the gender roles that were shown. Many advertisements attempted to disprove of the female candidate by presenting the women as a dangerous choice. Viewers were shown to think that “male candidates are more capable of handling – including national defense, crime, the economy, and agriculture” (C. & J., 2004) The watchers of these ads believed that men are naturally inclined to handle political tasks more effectively when the men are seen as stronger and more direct. To comply to this, some politicians attempted to show a degree of “masculinity” through acting rugged and strong. Additionally, when viewers saw how the women candidates were going against their feminine gender roles viewers were quick to dislike those candidates. Additionally, “research
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demonstrates, people seem to associate some issue (e.g. education, welfare) with female candidates and others with male candidates (e.g. defense, agriculture).” (C. & J., 2004) This means that viewers already have an expectation of what issues related with the gender roles of each candidate, whether it is a man or a women. Issues such as education and welfare are associated with nurturing, therefore viewers often see females fulfill their typical feminine gender roles. Men, however, correspond to issues of defense and agriculture, which means that viewers assume that men will satisfy their male dominant, strong gender roles in politics. The study also indicated that female and male candidates needed to present their gender roles in order to show their ability to aid opposite sex issues. For instance, “Female candidates who would like to set an agenda that includes men’s issues should emphasize their concern about these issues and show their competency in campaign vehicles, such as advertising, direct-mail brochures, and so forth. Otherwise, voters will probably assume that they are not as capable of handling these issues as their male counterparts are.” (C. & J., 2004) When the study examined how female candidates went about to address men issues, the strategy that was most successful was using gender associated actions such as direct mail brochures and through advertising. When women were shown using a tough, direct manner of addressing men’s problems, voters did not respond well. Men were also shown as having to display themselves as capable through their demonstration of keeping their male gender roles while conversing women’s issues. In this
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study, gender roles were changed in some examples and in some examples they stayed fixed. Through these examples, it exhibits how the theory of gender schema states that gender roles are greatly influenced by the society surrounding it. Since these voters already had a preconceived notion of gender roles due to their upbringing that entailed advertisements, and their communities, it proves gender schema theory. Society affects how people see gender roles.
How gender is portrayed in advertising has affected many countries around the world. The Advertising Standards Authority organization has expressed their own opinions on this dilemma through the study Depictions, Perceptions and Harm: a report on gender stereotypes in advertising. A s a result of the study, the evidence proved that showing gender roles in these printed advertisements caused damage to public. The advertisements enforced the ideas that “it’s a mum’s sole duty to tidy up after her family, who’ve just trashed the house.” (Parker, 2017) These recent advertisements continue the assumption of gender roles and rely on exhibiting mother’s as the primary at home maid of the family home. These commercials reinforce the stereotype that men cannot clean the home, but mothers are required to clean despite modern day women having jobs and hobbies as well as fathers do. When these images show gender norms it gives the assumption to viewers that gender norms cannot be changed and must be rigid. The research of A Study on Gender Portrayal in Advertising through the Years: A
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Review Report c ompared advertisements from different countries such as the United States of America, Australia, Philippines, Mexico, Italy, Spain and Denmark from 1971 to 2011 proved that there has not been a large advancement of the appearance of gender roles in the media. (S.& S., 2012) This study examined how women were shown in these ads being feminine, mothers, and being submissive. The research found that throughout the years and the many samples that were provided in the research the gender roles continued to be portrayed in the on screen advertisements of products. These stereotypes create a society of people who believe that in order to be their gender, whether male or female, they must comply to how their gender is displayed through these on screen and on print messages.
Gender roles are depicted on advertisements as unaltered and constant. Through the research titled Gender Representation in Advertisements t he passage proved that women were being sexualized in the media. Women were shown in these adverts as being objects rather than humanizing them displaying the talent that women can possess. A Study of Gender Advertisements exhibited research that broke down these images into six main groups, which concluded that after thirty years gender roles are still being stereotyped and shown to society. When Does Gender Count v erified that political candidates are expected to act within their gender roles; when political candidates stray from the viewers expectations the candidate is
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scrutinized. Additionally, Harmful Gender Stereotypes a nd A Study on Gender Portrayal in Advertising through the Years concluded that years later the illustration of gender roles in these visuals continue to affect how people believe that gender should be. Advertisements have a large impact on their audience. The method of how gender is displayed in the public influences how society believes that gender roles should be.