The Stereotypes Of The American Man

In the 1950’s, women were working and being transformed into the American housewife, while their husbands went off to corporate careers. In Ingalls and Johnson, women were said to have careers however, could only succeed at “motherhood substitute jobs” such as teaching, nursing, administrative assistive, and social work (I&J, 51). This culture portrayed woman as only being capable of household jobs. When looking for the perfect suburban home, General Electric said women would head straight for the kitchen because this was where she would be spending most of her time. General Electric’s Wonder Kitchen made it even easier for women to save time, space, and work, allowing for wives to have more leisure time. The Chase & Sanborn advertisement reinforces the culture of women having to do everything to please their husbands. The picture on the ad depicts a man spanking his wife across his lap because she disappointed him with flat and stale coffee. Not only are women conforming to this domestically pleasing life style, but men also had

All American Boys reveals racism and stereotyping are not specific to black verses white, people of color can also be conditioned to have prejudices against their own. Rashad’s father is quick to doubt his son’s innocence, “if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck” he continues “What they see is what he presented himself as just another—” thug (Reynolds and Kiely 49). We come to find that Rashad’s father, David knows from experience how easy it is to assume someone’s guilt, to stereotype someone based on the color of skin. All American Boy describes a situation in which Officer Butler and his partner respond to a call, on scene, two boys, one white, wearing a sweater and jeans and one black, wearing a hoodie and sagging low, they were

If it wasn’t apparent the ad was targeted towards men, it becomes clear at this moment. The women cease to seem human and transform into object that seem to be putting on a show. The ad has quickly veered away from any relevance to the beer itself an instead uses the objectification of women to sell the ad. Sitting at a pool in impossibly revealing outfits the women argue over the calorie count and how non filling the beer is, because there’s no such thing as too skinny right? Even these models are still counting calories as if to make a statement that all women should be. This kind of objectification and unattainable image of women is damaging to the self esteem of normal woman and heightens the expectation of men. Not many real women wear low cut shirts and have the perfect body and beautiful underwear, it unrealistic and causes women to feel inadequate. This feeling acts itself as an oppressing force to women, causing them to never fell good enough or confident with themselves. Not only that but this paints the picture that these two women in the pool only exist for men’s

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.

I had the opportunity to attend the “Why do the police think I’m a thug? Stereotypes of African American males in the media” event. The event opened up with a video clip titled Black Men in America and then we had a chance to have a discussion panel with an African man named Nicholas Peart, who has been stopped and frisked numerous times by the NYPD.

This is suggested by the fact that the image is completely styled in light colors, with both characters wearing shades of pink. The entire situation is given an aura of femininity, distancing itself from where a man would be. Presumably, he is working instead, raising money for his wife to pay for the groceries. The advertisement presents a lesson that a husband’s job is completely separate from keeping kids healthy or doing household chores. These roles within the nuclear family are exactly what was depicted in the 1950s. These ideals support that “a woman would be immature ‘if she wants all the advantages of marriage’ but resents doing housework, and a man would be less-than-grown-up if he shirked the bread-winner role” (Ehrenreich 17-18). The threat of being perceived as less mature than other adults is pervasive in the modern advertisement, and carried over from 1950s ideology.

David Lowenthal’s fourth idea in Stereotypes of America, “formless”, fits perfectly with my picture above. This photo was taken from the balcony of my home in Wolf Point, MT. As you can see, we have a fenced back yard and directly behind the fence is farmland, where our neighbors bale hay. As Lowenthal said “edges of towns are blurred with farmlands”, that is exactly the case in my neighborhood, and directly in my backyard. I also agree with his statement that “America is a process”, because if Wolf Point was ever to grow dramatically in population, I believe that the farmland in my backyard, would be the first place that our community would expand on to.

Upon a quick glance, the advertisement published in 2015 by Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa appears to be abundant in color, joyful and fairytale-like; at least when I first saw it a year ago. However, after reading about the different variations of objectification in advertisements I no longer see the ad as an innocent take on fairytales. Advertisements are meant to be geared to a public, or a specific public, in order to sell a product. Still, some ads showcase women as the product or at least a way to get people to purchase the product. Although any gender, culture, religion, or group can be victims of objectification in advertisements, women are mainly targeted.

This ad is multidimensional in the way that it demeans women. The first layer is equating the women with inanimate objects. The women are being scaled down to the size of beer bottles as though they were barbie dolls, meant to be played with and molded by the hands of the viewer. The model lays with her legs spread and her chest pushed out in a hypersexualized submissive pose. She looks up at the viewer with a coy smile. Ads like these are meant to sell to an adult male audience. They are made by men with the intention of making money and the understanding that if you offer a typical American male the idea of sex with a physically attractive woman and equate that to a product, he will buy almost anything. This type of imagery also affects how women feel that they should act. Viewing images of women as sex objects in these submissive poses causes women to feel that they are only valuable if they fit the ideals put in place by the heterosexual male gaze.

The 1952 Schlitz advertisement that is shocking to most modern day feminists, was trying to normalize the “imperfect woman” by advertising beer. The printed ad states: “Don’t worry darling, you didn’t burn the beer!” After WWII, women were slowly gaining independence as most of the male population was away at war. The women had to fill in the spots of males in society, transcending from the private sphere, being confined to the home, to the public sphere, where they would work for wages. Once the men returned home from war, so did the women. The women became confined to their homes and became what we know as the stereotypical housewife: caretakers of their children, caterers to their husbands, and makers of the home. The media continued to build upon the ideas of the perfect housewife, and while perfect housewives were ubiquitously depicted in their ads, they strategically used women as bait to conform to the development of the dramatic consumerist ideologies.

Long gone are the days when women were expected to stay at home and play “housewife”, cooking, cleaning, and making sure the kids got off to school, while their husbands worked a 9 to 5 in order to make ends meet. Today, women are no longer viewed as weak and incapable. A “superwoman” is the new woman. Men as the “breadwinners” have been replaced by “Ms. Independent.” The traditional male role has diminished as women fulfill bigger roles in society and exceed the expectations of their male counterparts in the household, workforce, and within social settings. We have abandoned old rules; no longer is it a “man’s world,” we now live in a shared world.

On television commercials, billboards, the radio, public transportation advertisements, planes, the internet, and almost everywhere people go there is always directed broadcasting of advertisements for companies to sell their product; a product that is never promoted for all of the general public to use, but instead to emphasize on specific categories of consumption . Whether it may be categorized in the decadent, the money saving, health, cleaning, cooking, automotive, or whatever sub category it may be; and bigger roles that play in to commercialism are gender roles . Men and women have very different lifestyles, what they buy, do, consume, and produce. As stated in Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes, “Popular conceptions of femininity

The advertisement speaks to the reader in a soft, familiar, enticing language as though she (and it is a female) is alone in the room with you. Although the advertisement mentions as an aside that the product is also patented for men, we receive the strong impression that it is the female who has been targeted as prospective market. This is due to the picture used, as well as colors, words, and situation. The colors are mostly lilac consisting of soothing pink, cream and purple all feminine associated colors. The picture is of a seductive woman, vibrant with health, hair falling into eye, bra straps peeking out, who smiles flashing her pearl teach at you, appearing the picture of health.

There are countless stereotypes placed upon men that are nowhere near the truth. For example, men are supposed to be strong, messy, independent, outdoorsy, and the dominant gender. However, there are rarely any men that have these characteristics. Society has presented many stereotypes throughout countless of religions, races, and genders. And it has created an expectation for men to be something they are not. These expectations have made men carry the heavy things or be independent so they can take care of themselves. Or to say that it is okay if their room is messy because it is the norm. There are many stereotypical characteristics of men that aren’t true or apply to woman as well.

Society can put unrealistic expectations of reality into individuals from a very young age. As soon as a child can begin to comprehend what is going on around them, they are shown movies of perfect society’s and perfect marriage. So, as they grow older, this is what they expect life to be like. Then, when they finally reach a certain age they begin to wonder why life isn’t going the way they thought it was going to go. The picture that the media and movies portray of life and how one is supposed to look can make individuals put outrageous expectation on themselves in order to be “normal”. Nobody feels those expectations more than females growing up do. Women are oversexualized and kept inferior to their male counterparts and this can affect