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Gender Roles In Advertising

Decent Essays

From magazines to television shows, and everything in between, the social construct of gender roles are present everywhere. Advertisers, like CoverGirl, reinforce gender stereotypes by creating a lack of realism in an attempt to sell their product. The techniques they use have become so normalized, we don’t even acknowledge them as unconventional. In the first CoverGirl advertisement, actress Katy Perry, was shown in a child’s dress, swinging on a swing, struggling to carry a large oversized flower. Each of the elements in this particular video advertisement, portrayed the actress as a childlike figure. She could be seen prancing around the screen, seeming weak and powerless, almost as if she had no control over her own body. She could also been seen standing on a ladder throwing flower petals, almost as if she were a flower girl in a wedding. By us women being infantilized in advertisements, it leads to the illogical stereotype that “women never leave girlhood behind” (The Codes of Gender). As demonstrated in advertisement four, actress Sofia Vergara can be seen partially hiding behind the satin sheets while submissively laying down. By doing so, she is being presented as a young child playing peek-a-boo and is therefore demonstrating how we as “grown women become equated with childhood” (The Codes of Gender).
CoverGirl continuously uses unrealistic body positions to portray the same weak and powerless theme. In all of the advertisements, women were shown laying

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