Advertising & Gender Flashcards
What does Berger (1972) say?
“men do, women appear”
Shows that women are passive and men are active when portrayed in the media.
Goffman (1979) found that…
He found that women were overly sexualised and objectified in the media.
In particular, he studied women’s body language and noticed what he called the ‘female touch’, the way women touch themselves seductively and when they touch other things they barely touch it at all and other aspects such as laying down.
Analyse perfume adverts in terms of gender.
Perfume adverts often tell the story about attraction between a man and woman, focusing on the sexual aspects. Women are often sexualised, they wear very little clothing and are sometimes even completely naked.
“sex sells” - perfume adverts want to make a woman feel sexy, why should sex be the main focus?
Examples of adverts that do this:
Tom Ford Perfumes
It isn’t just perfume adverts that objectify woman for sales, the popular American clothing brand, American apparel has an extremely controversial and pornographic advertising campaign.
Mulvey (1975) introduces the theory of…
‘The Male Gaze’
She noticed that camera angles were manipulated and camera shots lingered on certain aspects of female characters as if the viewer is watching the narrative through the eyes of a heterosexual male.
Kaplan (1983) argues that…
The gaze is not male, calls Mulvey’s theory into question and argues that gender roles can be flipped and subverted to portray gender differently. She says that female oppression is not created by this proposed ‘male gaze’ but by the construction of binaries, i.e. the opposites of man vs woman.
Give an example of ‘gender flipping’ in contemporary advertising narratives.
The money supermarket advert subverts traditional gender roles and stereotypes, it breaks the boundaries of gender traditions and transgresses the realm of ‘normality’. It shows a man dressed in heels and denim shorts dancing in a particular feminine and ‘sexy’ way.
What did Sweney (2016) find?
Found that the money supermarket advert was the most complained about TV advertisement in 2015 with over 1000 complaints being sent to the advertising standards authority, calling the ad ‘offensive’.
Interestingly, the 5th most complained about advert in 2015 was Protein World’s ‘Beach Body Ready’ posters which were also called offensive for their portrayal of bikini-clad women and their unhealthy body image.
Therefore, we can see that audiences disagree with the sexualisation and objectification of women, yet are still offended by subverted genre roles.
What can be considered acceptable? What do people want? Should gender be removed from advertisements all together?
Give an example of a gender neutral advert…
The John Lewis advert is one of the most well-loved and well-anticipated adverts in the UK. It shows a complex and emotional narrative and does not appear gender focused or at all stereotypical of genders.
Butler (1990) explains that…
Gender is performed, she believes in gender fluidity and so gender flipping and subversion are 100% possible and can happen every day.
An extra example if needed is…
The Dove real beauty campaign - Combats stereotypical body image, yet still commenting on the importance of beauty and appearance.
