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how are women portrayed in media
media's influence on gender roles
how are women portrayed in media
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If you turn on a TV or open a magazine, you most likely would end up looking at some type of advertisement, even if you do not notice it. According to Media Matters, an average person sees over six hundred advertisements a day, even if they do no not notice the advertisements themselves (2). Just because they do not notice it, does not mean it does not affect them. Stereotypes are everywhere, even when you least expect them. Women especially are overcome by many stereotypes, like how they are treated as housewives and should stay at home cleaning. Women are also portrayed as super moms, where they are shown that they can do anything from balancing kids and cleaning the house, to keeping the husband happy and working full time at a successful job. A majority of advertisers show these common stereotypes in their ads. This causes many women to start thinking that this is the “norm,” that they are expected to be at home and at the same time have a flawless house and family with the perfect job.
With today’s society, many people, especially women, are finding that this is not right. Women do not always have to balance everything by themselves and make it look easy. They do not have to always be the one to stay at home to watch the kids and clean; men can have the same responsibilities that women are given. Men are either successful with the perfect wife or they are lazy with the perfect wife. Either way women are always shown as someone who has to be perfect. There was a time when these stereotypes did not exist, but they had to evolve somehow and they are not always the same stereotype. Women are stereotyped in advertisements, showing what is “expected” of them, but it took many factors for these stereotypes to evolve, and they ar...
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Advertising has become a means of gender socialization because it is a way for people to learn the “gender map” that lays out the expectations for men and women based on their sex.
Stephenson, T., Stover, W. J., & Villamor, M. (1997). Sell Me Some Prestige! The Portrayol of Women in Business-Related Ads. Journal of Popular Culture, 255-271.
Advertising, whether criticized or celebrated, is undeniably a strong force in American society. Portrayals and Images of women have long been used to sell in published advertisements. However, how they have been used has changed enormously throughout the decades. Women have fought to find a lasting and prominent position in their society. Only in the span of twenty years, between 1900’s and 1920’s, the roles of women changed dramatically here in United States.
This phenomenon suggests that all women are required to remain loyal wives and stay at home mothers who aspire to achieve perfection. In “Mirrors of Masculinity: Representation and Identity in Advertising Images,” Jonathon E. Schroeder and Detlev Zwick claim that “highly abstract connections are made between the models, a lifestyle, and the brand” resulting in a need to associate these products with a specific way of living (25). Instead of simply displaying these luxurious bracelets and handbags, the ad creates an elegant environment through the incorporation of sophisticated items. The women are dressed elegantly in dresses and blouses, adding a conservative element to the ad. The ad presents a rather stereotypical image of the very successful heads-of-household type mothers who have brunch with other elite women in an exclusive circle. Everything from the merchandise they sport to the champagne glasses down to the neatly manicured fingernails provides insight into the class of women presented in this ad. The body language of the women strips the image of the reality element and instead appears to be staged or frozen in time. This directly contributes to the concept of the gendered American dream that urges women to put up a picture-perfect image for the world to see. Instead of embracing individual struggle and realities, the American dream encourages women to live out a fabricated
Our society is a complex collection of institutions, status, roles, values, and norms, and the best way to understand and learn about them is through the use of cultural artifacts. These can be anything from music to art to literature, or as in the example of this discussion, the modern day creation of advertisement as seen in women's magazines. As Homo Sapiens moved from the hunter - gatherer way of life to industrial society , it was necessary to construct a framework for living so that such a concentrated number of people could exist together. This framework as come to consist of a myriad of expectations based on values and norms in the form of roles status and institutions. Desirable behavior is sought by people throughout the country based on how one is brought up and the expectations one is bombarded with on a daily basis. These expectations are reflected in every part of our culture and are used by people so as to know how to act in any given situation. The main examples are: the family, education, health and medicine, religion, and the law. I have found that certain mediums reflect the expected roles in these institutions better than others. I originally focused on gender roles as a depiction of stereotypical behavior as reflected by advertising especially the portrayal of women, but I discovered that there were other stereotypes being perpetuated as well that were just as institutionalized if not just simply less noticed or studied. Therefore, although this argument will focus on the depiction of females and the female role in advertising. It will also mention the general use of American values , norms, and institutions to influence consumers.
Since I was a little girl, my mother always made it clear that a husband was unobtainable if a woman could not properly tend to his needs. I learned how to cook, how to clean, how to do laundry, and I even learned how to take care of my younger siblings all because, according to my mother, these responsibilities were a woman’s duty; it was her job. For centuries, this has been the mindset of every woman, which has been passed down from generation to generation. A stereotype that has influenced a culture and defined a human being. In this 1930’s Kellogg’s PEP Cereal advertisement we witness yet another stereotype defining women into this sexist housewife persona. Through the use of clothing and appearance, text and audience the ad conveys a
According to an essay by law student, Divya Bhargava, Bhargava believes stereotypes start at infancy when a potential mother tells friends and family she’s pregnant, they immediately want to know the sex so they can buy clothes for the unborn baby and start with all the stereotypes about how pretty she’ll be if she’s a girl, or how tough he’ll be if he’s a boy. These stereotypes start out harmless but continue on through out the children’s lives into adulthood and get worse, especially for women. Women’s stereotypes especially in the workplace more often than not have a negative connotation to them. For example, in the workplace men often think that women are irrational and aren’t able to think straight to make important decisions and that’s why women don’t have jobs higher up in the corporate ladder, according to men. Even in marketing and the media, women subject to negative stereotypes. In a Goodyear commercial from 1960, the ad opens with a women stuck with a flat tire and how she needs to a man to come change the tire for her instead of her just changing it herself. Even in today’s society in a 2008 DiGiorno commercial, a husband and his friends call his wife on the phone asking for food as if they’re ordering a pizza and ordering her around as if she is the hired help. In ads like this it shows that all women are good for is making food and that they
The documentary Killing Us Softly 4 discusses and examines the role of women in advertisements and the effects of the ads throughout history. The film begins by inspecting a variety of old ads. The speaker, Jean Kilbourne, then discusses and dissects each ad describing the messages of the advertisements and the subliminal meanings they evoke. The commercials from the past and now differ in some respects but they still suggest the same messages. These messages include but are not limited to the following: women are sexual objects, physical appearance is everything, and women are naturally inferior then men. Kilbourne discusses that because individuals are surrounded by media and advertisements everywhere they go, that these messages become real attitudes and mindsets in men and women. Women believe they must achieve a level of beauty similar to models they see in magazines and television commercials. On the other hand, men expect real women to have the same characteristics and look as beautiful as the women pictured in ads. However, even though women may diet and exercise, the reality...
"Don't worry darling, you didn't burn the beer" (Schiltz Beer) ; "You mean a woman can open it"(Del Monte 1953), “Christmas Morning: She'll be happier with a Hoover"(Hoover Company). These quotes from vintage ads of the 1950’s and 60's give clear proof of the existence of sexism. Most American’s are very well aware and acquainted with the conflict residing with advertisements that are sexist toward women. As we know women were and still are expected to fill the role of a childbearing machine, twenty-four hour mother and wife, household maintainer and cook for the family. In the present time in society women are still expected to fill the roles previously mentioned and are now being portrayed as extremely attractive sex symbols by the media. What about men? Are they not victims of stereotypical advertisements as well?
“Make me a sandwich woman!” During the past few years especially during high school the saying “woman make me a sandwich,” has become a very popular phrase used by teens. Although the phrase is mostly referred to as a joke, the literacy of the saying still has meaning. Kids today joke about gender roles, but what is the true meaning behind all the joking? Could it be because they don’t believe in gender roles, thus justifying the right to joke about it, or is it the hope of expectations becoming reality? No one can truly say that they believe in gender roles, because when it comes down to the reality, we are all “hopefully” taught the basic necessities of living, to cook, clean, and provide. The expectations of certain genders based on “gender
I believe advertisements convey the ways we should act. Although sometimes it may not be how we prefer, it is crucial to act accordingly to maintain constancy within hegemonic ideas (Ravelli and Webber 2016). I may be trained from a young age to take responsibilities for household tasks, I never preferred it, but it was necessary to maintain constancy. This is considered as emphasized femininity (Ravelli and Webber 2016), not from the physical aspect, but the anticipations for women. It has become the alternative way to be submissive – instead of knee bend, women serve the men by doing chores for
Side-by-side are two advertisements, each showing a picture of a car and two family members. The ads demonstrate the amount of power allotted to women in the times they were made. The differences in these ads far outweigh the similarities. The ad from a 1954 Good Housekeeping shows a woman being reprimanded by her husband for wrecking their car. The otherfrom a 2003 Redbookshows a wife and mother holding her daughter with one hand and an umbrella with the other. One woman is ignorant, irresponsible, incapable, and not in control; the other is competent, responsible, and in control. The evolution of advertising reflects the changes that have taken place in the way American society views women. The ads use body image, body language, and text to encapsulate the stereotypical women of each era; in the 50's, women needed to be controlled, but now women can be in control.
Since I was a little girl, my mother always made it clear that a husband was unobtainable if a woman could not properly tend to his needs. I learned how to cook, how to clean, how to do laundry, and I even learned how to take care of my younger siblings all because, according to my mother, these responsibilities were a woman’s duty; it was her job. For centuries, this has been the mindset for every woman, which has been passed down from generation to generation. A stereotype that has influenced a culture and defined a human being. In this 1930’s Kellogg’s PEP Cereal advertisement we witness yet another stereotype defining women into this sexist housewife persona. Through the use of clothing and appearance, text and audience the ad conveys
During the 20th and 21st century, women have been given relatively more rights due to feminist movements, education, awareness and technological connectivity. Despite this, sexism, far from being eradicated is still alive and well (especially in the advertising sector). The purpose of advertisements in the 50s was to sell products using sexism to manipulate the target audiences using humour, puns etc. Today advertisers use sexism in a more attractive packaging in keeping with the jet age….. but women still remain targets of sexism.
Gender is a large part of our identity. Those differences are reflected in many gender stereotypes (Iowa 2015). People are expected to act according to their gender. Most aspects of our lives are based on these specific gender stereotypes and can mold our futures. Gender stereotypes make us believe that we all have to follow a specific role in life. These stereotypes make us believe that we have to fit into a certain mold. It starts from an early age and is pushed onto us throughout the years. Culture does have some impact on the stereotypes also. Certain cultures still believe that women need to stay home and take care of the children while the men work and pay the bills.