Gender And Gender Roles

The first advertisement I found was the “For the Benefit of Mankind”, Under Armour Ad. At first glance we see a very masculine male, with a chiseled body modeling his Under Armour briefs. But, if we take a closer look into the background we see a young, and beautiful woman loosely wrapped in a sexy gown. The setting of the advertisement looks like an expensive bachelor pad. The purpose of this picture is to advertise Under Armour’s new briefs, by making them look appealing to the directed audience. Along with the briefs, women stereotypes are also being advertised. Although the woman isn’t meant to be the main focus of the ad, she is added to show if a man wears these boxers, they can get with a beautiful woman. In the text below the picture the product’s features are being flaunted, but in the picture the only thing being flaunted is the masculinity of the man in the picture. One gender stereotype that is portrayed in this picture is that woman are physically weak. The man in the photo is very muscular and enlarged in the photo. The thin female model is posed in a delicate position in the background of the picture. This shows that she is less important, and just added to highlight the male model’s masculinity. A woman perceived as sexually active might be labeled as a slut while a

In many shops, there seems to be an obvious separation between boys and girls items, for example, the birthday cards, books, clothes, and toys. This is shown in a variety of ways the boy's items are mainly the color blue and the books have pictures of either action figures, superheroes or tools. Whereas the girl's items are mainly the color pink. The books show pictures of fairies, princess, and Bratz. The cards also have the theme of the color pink for girls and blue for boys. The girl's cards have a lot of sparkles and pretty pictures whereas the boy's cards are covered in camo kind of illustrations and also have action figures on the covers. The children's clothes are separated into sections where there are labels for the boy's clothes and labels for the girl's clothes. The girl's clothing is all pretty and pink, it is covered in sparkles. Whereas boys clothing has camo patterns, blue colors, and pictures of action figures.

In present day all around the world, society has certain expectations for the actions and behaviors of males and females. There are many factors in our everyday lives that contribute to the gender norms that society has set. This essay will discuss how situations in life can play a part in how people treat other people based on their gender. It is believed that males are the leaders of our world, but in present day woman can do as much as men can do. From The Journal of Marriage and Family, Hu states, “Differentiated gender roles in adulthood are rooted in one’s gender role socialization. In order to understand the persistence of gender inequalities in the domestic sphere, we need to examine the gendered patterns of children’s housework time.”(2015, P.1). Gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females that they must be taught. These roles define how females and males are viewed in society, their household, and workplace. In The Journal of Sports behavior by Hardin, he states, “Although gender role differences from biological and “Natural” exists in popular consciousness, research has long demonstrated that instead, many are long time socially constructed… Individuals understand their gender because they are given names and treated in particular ways, such as dress in pink for girls and blue for boys, that reflect social construction of gender. Bandura's social cognitive theory is key in understanding the factors in socialization”(2009, P.3). Bandura's theory of of social cognition is that behavior, environmental events, and cognitive factors are the main keys that shape attitudes and actions of an individual. Although, gender roles play a very big part in our society, specific genders are treated differently while dealing with peer influence, media influence, as well as employment.

Gender role bias in advertisements has been so prevalent for so long that the untrained eye wouldn't even discern it. All the same, these biases, for the most part, put women in subordinate positions and men in dominant ones. This assumption on both the genders is unfair and demeaning. These ads portray women as subservient and play toys for men. Not only do the models depict an image nowhere near close to reality, but their bodies are scantily clad and what few clothes they are wearing are very revealing.

Sexist ads show that society is dominated by the same masculine values that have controlled the image of women in the media for years. Sexist advertisement reinforces gender stereotypes and roles, or uses sex appeal to sell products, which degrades the overall public perception of women. The idea that sexism is such a rampant problem comes from the stereotypes that are so deeply embedded into today’s society that they almost seem to be socially acceptable, although they are nowhere near politically correct. Images that objectify women seem to be almost a staple in media and advertising: attractive women are plastered all over ads. The images perpetuate an image of the modern woman, a gender stereotype that is reinforced time and time again by the media. These images are accepted as “okay” in advertising, to depict a particular product as sexy or attractive. And if the product is sexy, so shall be the consumer. In the 1970s, groups of women initially took issue with the objectification of women in advertisements and with the limited roles in which these ads showed women. If they weren’t pin-ups, they were delicate

Most advertisements harm women by generating stereotypes, which later constructs problems in their life they have to face. Some of the problems that women have to face would be the lack of confidence, due to the differences in their bodies and what the advertisement display. “Women ought to be able to travel in an environment which doesn’t constantly demean them or present an unrealistic image of women’s bodies. Young women need support to be more confident about their bodies and their life chances. They need help to ensure they have the confidence to focus on their talents rather than their tummies” (Marks). When advertisements make stereotypes women are

Gender socialization often begins early once parents are shown the sex of their child; from then on, baby showers are planned according to gender “appropriate” colors, which are often pink for girls and blue for boys. Even differences in how children are spoke to can be picked up easily in Western cultures. Girls are called pretty and sweet, whereas boys are handsome and strong. Ultimately, the way children learn to identify with their gender culture is in part due to not only family and friends, media, schools, and religion, but also from the toys that may inexplicitly advertise gender expectations. Gender-typed toys may be bought for children as a way for parents to encourage and reinforce gender-appropriate behaviors. However, recent debates have engulfed toy manufacturers and major retailers, which has brought about changes in toy design and marketing in an effort to make reflect more realistic and gender neutral options.

Commercials are a vast option available to the media when it comes to stereotyping of gender as they are focused on specific ones, either they are for male or female oriented and are to quite extent the reflection of the recipient. The modern commercials not only aim to satisfy the needs but they are meant also to satisfy their creation.

Gender roles or ideologies have a significant impact on a societies fertility rate. The article shows how Ghana's population is increasing at an alarming rate, and how the government attempted to solve the issue.In Africa, ideologies and marriage traditions make the men dominant over choosing when to have children. The way marriage currently is in Africa can be said to be a transaction, the man pays the family a tribute so that he has a sense of ownership and dominance over his wife.

Every day people get targeted by companies and their advertisements, the way they manage to reach out and clutch your attention is easily achieved through television, Internet, driving down the street, listening to your favorite radio station, or at any kind of retail store. Some sort of advertisement will clinch your attention that’s certain. These ads hook you on by establishing a certain type of message; the ads can manipulate people’s attitude and opinions. “The ads industry affects people’s lives by shaping or reshaping their opinions, attitudes and beliefs.” Marshall McLuhan (1964) these ads are the greatest resource to look at gender stereotyping, because they are adjusted to the specific target either male or female. The aim of modern advertising successfully reaches its target audience not only and sometime not even by fulfilling the needs of the individual but by directing their creation.

In the marketer’s eyes, in order to attract people’s attention on what they want is to first segregate the commercial in to which type of person the product is going to be sold to, then break it down in an obvious way – showing major differences in the general public’s interests, sorting ‘the consumer’ down to a more focused group of people; as if one were looking past a continuous stream of red squares, then notice’s a blue square, he or she will notice the blue square standing out from the red squares; the blue square being the advertisement that fits to that person’s personality. For example if there was a commercial for a truck produced by a typical American organization, the advertisement shows masculinity and manliness in extensive ways, with mud, heavy weights, and other things. With a Victoria’s Secret advertisement, the milieu is very sensual and scandalous, showing light colors such as pink or white, all while having a soft, fluffy tone to it. There is no escape in gender roles and profiling when it comes to marketing; people who want to sell their product will use the most effective means necessary, no matter if it is morally sound or not . If companies were to have general broadened commercials, then summarize a product and ends up not narrowing down to specific consumer needs, then in most cases it would not interest the customer and could quite possibly render the purpose utterly useless.

The roles of males and females in society have significantly changed, as opposed to the predominant roles in our history. In the modern culture of today, women have begun to break out of the mold that which society has placed her in. This much can’t be said when it comes to modern gender representation in mass media advertising. It can be safe to state that woman are seen as sexual, fragile, exotic—whereas men are portrayed as tough, in control, and aggressive. This trend can be one seen as an inhibitor to the advancement of our culture, because especially for women, it is hard to pull away from the stereotypes that are continuously represented. As examples of the given trend, the following

Firstly, it is important to be aware of the impact that advertising can have on stereotypes. It cannot be denied that stereotyped advertising brings numerous troubles. For example, in some local and regional advertising and in specific product categories, like beer and sports promotions. Many advertisements fail to realize the external effects of their advertising and they may maintain the stereotypes of male and female without even being aware of it.(Arens/ Schaefer, 2006, p36) In addition, most advertisement on TV illustrate too sexualized for women and always portray them as submissive people. These are unrealistic things in real life. However. These guidelines are constantly being pushed to women at a very young age. It is difficult to get rid of the

Gender issues are reflected very heavily in today’s advertisements. Often, these advertisements will propagate a number of negative stereotypical practices, including overtly sexual portrayals and violence against women. The way the media attempts to convince women to act is often outright dangerous to their wellbeing, and focuses on training them to be appealing to men. As stated by Jean Kilbourne, a noted activist, these kind of advertisements “dehumanize and objectify people, especially women”.

In this climate, “femvertisng” ads are well-received: 51 percent of women polled like pro-female ads because they believe they break down gender-equality barriers, and 71 percent of respondents think brands should be responsible for using advertising to promote positive messages to women and girls. The survey also showed that femvertisng pays off for brands – 52 percent of women polled had purchased a product because they liked the way the ads portrayed women.