Richard Dyer's The Role Of Stereotypes

Just by flipping through a magazine, watching television, surfing the web, and even driving down the highway on the way home from work, we are constantly being exposed to thousands of different advertisements in our everyday lives whether we are aware of it or not. Sometimes advertisers use stereotypes in their ads. These advertisements can have negative and positive influences on us, depending on what is being portrayed and how. Richard Dyer in his writing of The Role of Stereotypes explains the way stereotypes work as an “ordering process”, a “short cut”, a “reference”, and an “expression of values and beliefs”. Not all advertisements use men and women to sell their products and/or services, but when they do, advertisements usually depict them in

Although men and women can do similar activities and perform roles typically associated with the opposite gender, advertisements still portray gender role stereotypes which can negatively influence societal beliefs in how specific genders should act.
Men and women are known to be biologically different. With the help of advertisements and their use of gendered stereotypes, these sharp boundary definitions between men and women are maintained. Richard Dyer points out in his essay how “we make a fuss about – and produce stereotypes about – the difference between women and men, yet biologically this is negligible compared to their similarity” (Dyer 18). In their role portrayals within advertisements, they are shown to not only be different biologically, but in their abilities as well. According to Supriya Khaneja, “Seventy-five percent of all advertisements