Analysis of Erving Goffman´s Gender Advertisements Essay examples

Gender can be defined in many different ways based on the opinions of the person you are asking. To me, I believe gender refers to the behaviors and roles that our society deems appropriate for men and women. Although gender roles have changed over time and males and females have become more equal, a certain stereotype of behaviors and tasks which are acceptable for men and women still exists today. For example, cooking and cleaning, home repairs, and being the ‘breadwinner” in the family are all tasks which we as a society usually perceive to be done more often by one gender over the other.

Jean Kilbourne’s film, Killing Us Softly 4, depicts the way the females are shown in advertisements. She discusses how advertisement sell concepts of normalcy and what it means to be a “male” and a “female.” One of her main arguments focuses on how women aspire to achieve the physical perfection that is portrayed in advertisements but this perfection is actually artificially created through Photoshop and other editing tools. Women in advertisements are often objectified as weak, skinny, and beautiful while men are often portrayed as bigger and stronger. Advertisements utilize the setting, the position of the people in the advertisements, and the products to appeal to the unconscious aspect

Gender is a huge aspect of society that influences much of how people act, regardless of age. According to Oxford Dictionary, gender is the state of being male or female

A commercial is one of the advertisements that we could see in life. When you turn on television, you could see a lot of commercials before programs start. In Men’s Men and Women’s Women, Steve Craig, an author, claims that “advertisers seem quite willing to manipulate … fantasies and exploit our anxieties, especially those concerning our gender identities.” However, Stan Hope disagrees since he assumes that “the ads he describes are just light hearted to stories designed to entertain, rather than exploit. Consumers are way too smart to be so easily manipulated in any case.” Advertisements could just describe stores for entertainment like Hope said. However, advertisers should think carefully about gender identities because men and women’s favors are different.

3) In this essay, Bordo discusses how and where one is positioned, as subject or object, and in the moment of vision. The section, “Rocks and Leaners”, Susan Bordo presents an argument that the gaze and position of men in advertising give off a message of masculinity. She describes the gaze, and how it can show dominance. The male models are the objects in the advertisement and meant to create a certain reaction depending upon there position. There is the “face up, face down, and stare down” (182). She also discusses how often in advertising, the lean is used in a seductive way. The angle of the camera is used as a powerful tool in advertising to capture certain moments and feel that the product is trying to convey. Whether it is a seductive lean with a face of stare, the male model is trying to get the viewers to remember and focus on him, therefore selling a product.

Throughout the years, advertisements have influenced and supported the cultural myth of gender roles to society. Advertisements that demonstrate men and women in their traditional roles can affect an individual’s perception. First, they might focus their products on individuals that still believe in traditional gender roles. Second, they might have society talking about the modern approach that the product is being advertised. Various cultures have made men and women believe what roles they should be doing. Unfortunately, many advertisements still show the idea that men are the providers and women are the housewives. However, since today we are gradually adapting and beginning to live in a modern world, the gender role myth is starting to slowly change in advertisements as men are beginning to take on traditional female roles that are considered less masculine and women have adopted male roles. The Le Creuset advertisement supports and rejects the traditional female gender role myth by demonstrating a father and a daughter both taking the position of a traditional female.

Gender tends to be a delicate subject. Some people think your gender directly involves your sex, while others think that gender is a social construct. Some people think that your sex determines what a person can do in life. What job they can have, what kind of work they can do- if they can fight. Gender does not determine what a person can do.

Gender roles are defined as "socially and culturally defined prescriptions and beliefs about the behavior and emotions of men and women" (Anselmi & Law, 1998). Gender roles are not biological. They are learned through social interaction (Baur & Crooks, 2014). They are the behaviors that society deems appropriate and acceptable for men and women in a society; and from a young age, people are taught by everything and everyone around them how they are supposed and expected to act (Baur & Crooks, 2014).

Gender can sometimes be seen as biological characteristics humans have, when in fact it is the social characteristic ones society deems either masculine or feminine. Sex, on the other hand, is the biological differences in humans, for example, hormones and sex organs. People usually play gender roles in society, otherwise known as gender ideology. Gender ideology is when men and women have certain attitudes regarding their ‘fixed’ roles, responsibilities and rights. Throughout history men and women have been socialized to play these expected roles that have been placed on them due to their sex. In my own personal life I have encountered many instances where I have been socialized in relation to sex and gender.

Gender is the “normal” or average way male and females are supposed to act or function. Men and women have to perform a certain way to be considered average. According to Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler authors and researchers of “Keywords for American Cultural Studies” Judith Halberstam believes gender is “a bodily performance of normativity” (118). In other words, gender is a roles that men and women are expected to portray to be considered normal. For instance, being athletic is a normal gender trait for men while being nurturing is a normal trait for women. Men usually perform in sports, while women are usually helping and caring for others.

Gender is an identity based solely on how an individual is evaluated by society. Individuals adopt social expectations for gender norms and behave accordingly. Gender is similar to race and social class in which you can socially classify a person. Also like race and social class, gender can also to lead to discrimination and prejudice. Based on social construction the view on gender looks far past classifications and categories. Society scrutinizes the nodes of several characteristics and observe the thin lines between essentialism. Sex is more of an ascribed status. Its social roles and expectations are based on genetic and biological behavior. Social construction strives to find that thin line between the male and female which are so often acknowledged as essential. Describing one’s gender is never relatively stable. An individual is always deviating or coinciding with the socially conventional form of stereotypes based upon gender. These performances normalize the essentialism of gender categories. As

Gender is the state of being masculine or feminine based on the biological characteristics of a person; it depicts the inner identity of an individual. In this context, I will allude to the social practices, exercises, and qualities that a given society considers fitting for men and women.

Gender is the state of being male or female typically used with reference to social and culture differences rather than biological ones. In psychology, gender is defined as a set of characteristics or traits that are associated with a certain biological sex (male/female). According to the definitions related to sexual orientation and gender diversity in APA guidelines, “Gender refers to the attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex. Behavior that is compatible with culture expectations is referred to as gender-normative; behaviors that are view as incompatible with these expectations constitute gender non-conformity. In our psychology book gender are of masculine or feminine. While looking from outside we know only male or female. But people have different characteristics that know their gender is masculine or feminine.

Erving Goffman’s study of gender in advertisement in the 1970’s was reviewed in this study. This study is also one of the most cited works on the subject. Goffman (1979) drew similarity between the reality of social interaction, and the ‘hyper- ritualization’ of advertising from the study of individual posture, facial expressions and the interaction between models in advertisements. According to Goffman (1979), what happen in every single daily status of communication and human behaviour, is what makes advertising understandable. He also interprets that how women and men are interacting in advertisements with techniques evaluated and encouraged by society. Goffman (1979) terminated that women are usually lower than men in many different situations,

Representations of men in media have a different approach—they tend to focus on strength, power, physique, independence, etc… The first ad portrays a clearly athletic, strong, male individual. His expression is one of determination and focus—He’s not going to let anyone get in his way. He is aggressive, and overflowing with testosterone. It is unclear what the product is, something to do with athletic performance. The next image is fitted with the caption “Always A Champion”, making it simple to realize this ad is all about the male ego. This man has a very intimidating expression, one of strength and—almost anger. His positioning shows off his clearly muscular arms and his aura is almost overpowering. In both images, the idea that a true man should be strong, aggressive, etc… is presented. For any normal male individual viewing this ad, he would feel like that is what he should be—if he was a “real man”.