#5 Post - Gender and Advertising

1. What sort of images of women and men dominated advertising pre-1970s? Why was this the case?

Pre 1970’s commercials stereotyped women as household figures who stayed at home and looked after the children. Women were mostly shown in commercials for bathroom and kitchen products. Men were shown to be the powerful figure that also controlled the voice over. Also when shown in paid work environment men were shown dominant in suits and top hats whereas women were always seen as subordinate to men. Authority roles were dominated my males.

2. How did the advertising of the 1970’s continue to perpetuate the stereotype of women, despite depicting women in a greater range of roles?

Women were still shown weaker and less important than men as they were only shown in beauty, cleanliness, family adverts.

3. Can Gaye Tuchman’s quote regarding under-representation and the ‘symbolic annihilation of women’ still be applied in 21st Century advertising? If so how?

Yes this can still be applied in the 21st century; women are still being “symbolically annihilated” an example for this day and age is the way women are shown as the “sex object”.

4. Do you agree that adverts, such as those for the 1990’s Boots No. 7, ‘It’s not make-up. It’s ammunition.’ campaign, are post-feminist (thereby representing women as better than men?). Explain your answer

The words “It’s not make-up. Its ammunition” gives as sense of power towards the advert. The word “ammunition” sounds like a manly word denoting guns and bullets. This shows that women have decided to show men they can also become powerful and confident with them and not always be subordinated by the male sex. Women in this advert are shown to be controlling and dominant. On the other hand women could be seen as surrendering themselves to men and trying to be like them when talking about “ammunition”.

5. Is the representation of women by the media accountable for the results of a survey in which ‘women were up to ten times more likely than men to be unhappy with their body image’?

Yes the media is accountable for these results. Now a day’s women in the media are shown as beautiful, toned, glamorous people covered from head to toe in cosmetics. This creates a negative impact on women in society as they look at women on the tv and are drawn in by their good looks. Women become depressed and try so hard to achieve “the perfect” look. Women aspire and feel the need to look like these women and feel ashamed with the looks they have already.

6. Is the contemporary representation of men in advertising perhaps also a negative one where they too are treated as sex objects?

There is a rise in males being depicted as sex objects in advertising commonly in perfume adverts; this is a negative representation because males are supposed to be strong and connote power and dominance.