Gender Stereotyping in Media Advertisements Essay

The tremendous influence of the media as an important cultural vehicle on the preservation and reinforcement of existing societal norms, beliefs, and behaviors has been under increasing scrutiny from academics, scholars, and feminists in an attempt to understand the code and language within which the media operates and its impacts on various audiences. (Dines, Humez, Hoynes, & Croteau, 2003; Silverstein, Perdue, & Kelly, 1986; Gamble 1997) Lately, there has been a growing concern over the role of the media in helping to maintain the long-standing inequality between sexes in the way that it continues to exploit gender stereotypes overtly as in the case of television programming, to the subliminal messages conveyed by product advertisements, music videos, and other forms of visual entertainment which now include fashion spreads and magazines. (Dines, Humez, Hoynes, & Croteau: 336; Gamble 272) This concern comes amidst allegations that the media, specifically product advertisements, is somehow responsible for the proliferation and reinforcement of unhealthy attitudes and biases against women and women’s bodies, for instance, in warping the definition of physical attractiveness to that of ‘thinness’(Silverstein, Perdue, & Kelly: 519; Gamble 272) and of self-worth to being ‘pretty’ or desired by the male (Dines, Humez, Hoynes, & Croteau: 247). In its many forms, product advertisements, through graphic, in-text, and non-graphic representation, are guilty of exploiting the prevailing societal concepts of femininity and masculinity in their sole objective of increasing demand for the products which translates to increased profit margins. (Wiles, Wiles, & Tjerlund: 35) Product advertisements are also a cause for special concern in that they are easily accessible and are barely constrained by censorship and other legislation. The fact that they are ubiquitous in almost all forms of media—be it print, broadcast, video, and the internet—make them doubly powerful in molding, or warping, the minds of individuals young and old. Dines, Humez, Hoynes, & Croteau (2003) point out, for instance, how â€Å"elements of the pornographic can be located in advertisements,† (p. 336) referring not only to graphic sexual acts or innuendos but to specific representations of female and male constructs and of power relationships between and within these constructs that are seen in advertisements. It is argued that masculinity and femininity are always constructed in the â€Å"conventional† way: that the male is â€Å"bigger, stronger, and has the ability to hurt the women† (Dines, et. al. 336) or in a position of greater power over the women, who are always depicted or associated with the weak, delicate, and passive role. (Gamble 272) In the same manner, women are often portrayed as inferior to men through the use of the following graphic illustrations: â€Å"women appear shorter; men instruct women; women appear to be drifting in deep thought while men? Eyes are focused purposely; and women appear helpless. †(Wiles, Wiles, & Tjerlund, 36) Indeed, one need not look further than the nearest perfume advertisement to see how men and women are portrayed as predator and prey, respectively, signifying the women’s degraded position in the gender stratification. More notable is the apparent absence of ‘others’ in the gender spectrum which may not be totally accepted by societal standards: bisexuals, lesbians, and gays, who barely make it to product advertisements except for those products specifically intended for their market. Furthermore, results of Wiles, Wiles, & Tjerlund’s (1995) study of the portrayal of women in magazines in three countries which include the United States, the Netherlands, and Sweden supported the contention that â€Å"role portrayals presented in magazine advertising depict cultural biases and stereotypes† which tended to portray men in active roles and women as men’s sexual objects or in decorative, passive positions. If art imitates life and culture, this only goes to show the extent to which gender inequality remains as much a challenge to overcome in real, reel, and the simulated world of advertising. Works Cited: Dines, G. , Humez, J. M. M. , Hoynes, D. W. , & D. Croteau. Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text Reader. Sage Publications, 2003. Gamble, T. K. & M. W. Gamble, â€Å"Gender and Non-verbal Language. † Contacts: Communicating Interpersonally. Boston, M. A. : Allyn and Bacon, 1997.