Sunday 24 July 2011

The influence of TV advertising on gender identity


Television advertising is still one of the most common forms of general television advertising that still does perpetuate traditional gender stereotypes. A great contrast in the depiction of different gender roles can be observed in the kind of advertisements that are aired on television. A common complaint among viewers and professionals is the fact that television fails to portray the World as it really is but as the producers deem it (Niemi, 1997).
Common examples of daytime advertisements tend to portray men as authoritative and patriarchal figures in the social set up while at the same time, the women are portrayed as motherly and homely figures. It is for that reason that the advertisements will generally relate women to house work while men to office work (Niemi, 1997). The women have no defined skills or roles outside their homes or houses (Taflinger, 1996).
            In addition, common day time advertisements assume that the women are insecure and guilty thus concentrate on showing them “the best way” to do this and that. Such advertisements may include use of beauty products and other cleaning agents that are supposed to help them maintain the perfect bodies and houses. Such advertisements portray the woman a conservative being that is completely dependent on her family and is always ready to serve everyone else and especially the men (Niemi, 1997).
The advertisements may commonly show the woman cooking, cleaning and even catering to a child (Craig, 1992). Advertisements that encourage women to use this and that cosmetic in order to be beautiful have the effect of creating a negative stereotype amongst the female population. The women may be led to think that they are not beautiful unless they use cosmetics (Stephens, Hill, Hanson, 1994).
            Hardly do men ever appear in such roles unless they are husbands, celebrities or professionals in specific fields (Craig, 1992). Put side to side with those of women, such advertisements have the power to subconsciously affect the women to an extent. The women may be left to feel that they are not meeting the required standards to an extent that the men are taking over their roles (Stephens, Hill, Hanson, 1994).
Evening or nighttime advertisements are not left so far behind in propagating stereotypes though they are more heterogeneous. The women may be portrayed preparing meals for their families or for those that work rushing home to do their homely chores. At this time the advertisers may take the opportunity to advertise products that they claim will help the working woman achieve her “personal” duties without seeming to neglect any of them (Ruth, 1995).
In addition, advertisements have a habit of peddling petite, young skinny women as the ideal woman size. They act as the S.I unit or the standard that all women should attempt to achieve if they are to be considered genuinely beautiful (Stephens, Hill, Hanson, 1994). In truth, women do not have to be like this if they are to be considered beautiful. However, such ideas have managed to get into the heads of most women. It is for this reason that the women do feel that they have to diet and use other means to maintain their body sizes (Niemi, 1997).
In such advertisements, men will only be portrayed observing or commenting about the petite women. This gives the notion that the men are the dominant figures in the set and what they say goes (Welch, Huston-Stien, Wright and Plehal, 1979). In such a case, the men watching may be influenced into preferring skinny models and as a consequence, if women hope to end up with men, they have to maintain model-like figures. Sitting by the beach with a drink in hand while whistling at models lying or running along the beach is a common example of such stereotypes.
A close study of the early evening advertisements, it is evident that not so much of stereotyping is portrayed in order to avoid offending any of the sexes involved. However, the same cannot be said of the late night and weekend advertisements. These advertisements are the epitome of stereotyping in the TV production industry (Welch, Huston-Stien, Wright and Plehal, 1979). For the reason that most of television viewers in the weekend are the men, then the advertisements are set to their tastes. This is why such advertisements may portray the women as sex objects at the disposal of men (Craig, 1992). These advertisements are male oriented intended for the male eye (Taflinger, 1996).
However, it should be noted that some of the sexual advertisements are a target for the womenfolk. Whereas the message may be the same throughout both groups of advertisements, the target is what greatly varies. While male target may be motivated by sex, the women targets are all about getting the man (Taflinger, 1996). In such a case, men are always portrayed to be heartless and emotionless beings with sex on their minds. Emotions in such a case are the forte of women.
Finally, the use of advertisements on television starts from childhood and nurtured through to adulthood (Taflinger, 1996). Advertisements that involve children, it is common to see common attribute assumed to be held by the different genders being portrayed. Girls in advertisements are portrayed to be shy, gentle and naïve while the boys are taken to be aggressive, playful and daring. It is such characteristics that shape how the society portrays the different genders within it.









References
Craig, Stephen (1992). The Effect of Television Sex Roles. A journal of research, 26:208-210.
Niemi, Paula (1997). Stereotypical images of Mothers in Nappy Advertising. Retrieved from
http://www.uta.fi/ote/media/muut/pindex.html.
Ruth, Sheila (1995). Issues in Feminism. California: Mayfield Publishing Company.
Stephens, D., Hill, L., Ronald, P. & Hanson, C. (1994). The beauty myth and female consumers:  the controversial role of advertising. Journal of Consumer affairs, 28.
Taflinger, Richard (1996). Taking advantage, you and me Babe: Sex and Advertising. Retrieved  from http://www.wsa.edu:8080/~taflinger/advant.html.
Welch, L., Huston, A., Wright, C. & Plethal, R. (1979). Subtle sex-role cues in children’s’ commercials. Journal of communication, 29.

           
           
           
           

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