Alice Garrard
Alice Vivienne Garrard Context of Practice OUIL401 Illustration Level 4 AG260417
Alice Garrard
To what extent does Gender effect Advertisement? The role of gender in advertising has been a problem in society since the appearance of contemporary media and advertising strategies. Post-war images of women were “usually shown as being subordinate, passive, submissive and marginal, performing a limited number of secondary and uninteresting tasks confined to their sexuality, their emotions and their domesticity' (Strinati, 1995:184) Modern media uses strategies that fixate on stereotypical images and concepts of the roles men and women play as consumers. These approaches construct a social downside especially for women; that began in the sixties due to the stereotypical housewives who spent there days cooking, cleaning and looking after the kids; which theorist Gaye Tuchman refers to as an emphasis on “hearth and home” (1978;18). However today’s reflection has evolved into a new social problem, new advertisements are now exposing women in ways never before, everything appears to support the concept of materialistic and artificial values instead of emphasizing the equality values that women now have in society. It provides not only girls, but also boys a distorted notion that exotic feminine qualities hold priority in our society. The effects of these sexually overt advertisements and the way they are interpreted are having an adverse impact on society, it does not reflect a good image of ever-changing roles women have had within the twenty first century. Women are increasingly portrayed as decorative (empty) objects (Winship, 1980;8; Busby & Leichty 1993;258) Brands are also consistently depreciating females; they slander, mock their intelligence and demeanor the real roles of women in our modern community. The theoretical basis of this essay is derived from three main social theories; sex roles, social learning and social roles. The sex role theory was established in the 1930s when Terman & Miles (1936) claimed that masculinity and femininity have been constructed as two opposing personalities. Social learning theory accounts for how these sex roles are appropriated and internalized, being encouraged by society to repeat behaviors (Conditioning and reinforcement) and Social Role theory is based on Masculinity and femininity represents just a set of lines and stage direction in which males and females have to learn to perform’ (Edley & Wetherall 1996;100) Advertisement has been a prevalent phenomenon that is accessible to individuals from all over the world; it attains and maintains contact with
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people socially, culturally, politically and even psychologically. Through images, consumers can identify themselves with the benefit and significance of the advertised product in their everyday life. Since we are viewing the world through such a materialistic lens, it makes it difficult for people to derive decisions on rational. Its amazing how powerful advertisement is, a simple picture can persuade or manipulate your thoughts into thinking that you'll look just as good as the model from the magazine (who's probably been airbrushed, bronzed and even halved in size) thus liberal feminists began to campaign for more positive representations of women (van Zoonen, 1996:34). Who teaches behavioral expectations of male and female roles? Parents and other various caretakers identify what’s expected and what the cultural norms are. However influences even beyond home and school have contributed to shape, pattern and dominate the appropriate ideals of men and women. The mainstream and mass media have historically played a pivotal role in shaping how girls think and feel about their bodies, their lives and ambitions. The creation of a coherent self-identity is a process that is universal (Anthony Giddens) Stereotyping has become a big problem in our society, individuals are categorized by the way they look or by the way they do things. Janice Winship asserts that women are depersonalized and objectified because they are encouraged to 'use commodities to serve men; they use them on themselves to aid femininity; commodities replace them in their relation to men' (1980:9) these thoughts or beliefs may not actually reflect them in reality. Being told to act a particular way because of your sex, personality or nationality creates labels, labels that don’t define you. The Queer theory is a set of ideas based around the idea that identities are not fixed and do not determine who we are, It suggests that it is meaningless to talk in general about 'women' or any other group, as identities consist of so many elements that to assume that people can be seen collectively on the basis of one shared characteristic is wrong. Indeed, it proposes that we deliberately challenge all notions of fixed identity, in varied and nonpredictable ways (Judith Butler 1990) Stereotypes create a distortion of how every individual should be, what happened to individuality and uniqueness? We strive on looking like the people in the magazines or on the TV, however all that does is put pressure on us to fit into the criteria of someone who doesn’t even really look like that, although most women are subconsciously aware of this they still feel inadequate. "Advertising is not just about the objects' appearance, but about the personal appearances; how we look at others, how we think of ourselves" (Barthel,1988: 1)
Alice Garrard
This misconception of people being told how they should live is fuelled by no other than the media. “Stereotypes are created by continual, extended exposure of consumers and patterns of imagery” (Gender and Advertising, Erving Goffman) Not only is this a problem for adults but its affecting children in more ways than one. Girls are being reared into becoming housewives whilst boys are to occupy jobs. The highest good is keeping house and raising children' (Millum, 1975:74) our perception of gender is socially and culturally constructed from the moment we’re born. Women should have a feminine personality, be passive and look beautiful, they must also embody the role of mother and wife whilst men should be authoritative and responsible for the family economically. However British women of the 21st century are now increasingly exerting a powerful impact “on pace and direction of economic, social and cultural change” Women have improved their social and economic status between 1990 and 2000, they have remolded the fundamental changes in the law in relation to the position of the British women. (Bargelowska, 2001:2-290) The website -World Savvy Monitor (2011)- cites a report on “the global status of women” which suggests that, globally, media portrays women in one of four ways; “the glamorous sex kitten, the sainted mother, the devious witch, or the hard faced corporate and political climber”. In 2009 Pantene Pro-v released an advert in the Philippines, which quickly gained thousands of viewers nationally. This advert features a man and a woman
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in the same business scenarios whilst words ‘associated’ with them display alongside. The male was described as; Boss, persuasive, dedicated, neat and smooth whereas the woman was called; bossy, pushy, selfish, va in and a showoff. On the final clip it flashes, “don’t let labels hold you back”. The advert was created in response to a gender bias study in the Philippines; they also released a press release after airing the advert, to emphasize the truth of the advert. They used statistic that showed 70% of men believed women should “downplay their personality to be accepted” in the workplace. Without threatening their male counterparts' providing we can reassure them that, underneath the suit, we are still 'all woman', that 'no serious Gender defection has occurred' (Barthel, 1988:124-125; Davis, 1992:50). Following these two different studies by New Yorks University phycology professor Madeline Heilman stated, “women who are successful in industries usually dominated by men are often disliked and there success within the business is limited”. Referenced by sociologist Marianne Cooper (lead researcher for sand bergs Lean institutes) who also claims “High achieving women experience social backlash because of their success, and specifically the behavior that created that success violates our expectations about how we’re supposed to behave.” Although Pantene were trying to support the success of women in the business industry, some words used in the ad to describe the women didn’t have the same impact, for example “vain and showoff”, in trying to dispel female stereotypes, Pantene may have made women feel belittled and once again told to stay at home and focus on there features. Men and women have always responded to ads differently. Men are more likely to enjoy ads featuring humor, distinctive creative styles, and sexual imagery, While women are more likely to enjoy ads featuring children or “a slice of life” (WPP, Millward Brown, knowledge point) the average women responds negatively to ads with explicit sexual imagery, however it has been studied that women are less offended by these ads if sexual imagery is viewed in the context of a committed relationship. Whereas men 'typically men are portrayed as active, adventurous, powerful, sexually aggressive, and largely uninvolved in human relationships' (Wood, 1994:235). A study published in February 2009 found that women would respond more favorably if the product in the advert were described as a gift for a man or women. Kathleen D.Vohs reasoning behind this is that women have more risk when deciding to have sex, they have more sexual negotiating power and can hold out their conditions until met. "We took a cultural approach, which comes more from
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economics than evolutionary psychology or sociology," says Kathleen D. Vohs, a University of Minnesota professor and an author of the study. Men weren't affected in any direction — as long as there was sex in the ad, they reacted positively. Sut Jhally asserts that gender is probably the social resource that is used most by advertisers… [they] seem to be obsessed with gender and sexuality. The reason behind that gender is one of our deepest and most important traits as human beings” Twitchell (1996) said, at a minimum, “sex doesn’t sell, but it certainly captures attention” (p.157) As Sexual imagery has been shown to have a stronger persuasive ability for men than for women. It may be because men normally have a selective criteria when admiring females, men traditionally tend to recognize that a women who are young, beautiful and healthy, which is understandable, therefore this is why many advertisers use sexually suggestive imagery to get a mans attention and then they will subconsciously associate buying the product with getting a mate, just like the one in the magazine (Taflinger, 1996) In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking is split between active male and passive female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly (Laura Mulvey 1973) Whereas women although admire a fit man, they also pay attention to the long term potential of a man; being a good father, provide money, power and prestige (Taflinger 1996) So minus the sexual imagery how do men and women respond to adverts? Men take a linear approach, they focus on the primary message and take little other information during the process, e.g. “buy this beer” whereas women evaluate not only the primary message but also look at multiple sources to weigh out the message, this is called a non-linear approach, this is thinking in terms of interrelated factors, not just straight lines e.g “buy this beer, you will be popular and trendy” (Popcorn & Marigold 2000) Stuart Hall also asserts that the reception theory provides a means of understanding media texts by understanding how audiences read them. He suggests that meaning is created by the interaction between spectator and text; Reception theory argues that contextual factors, more than textual ones, influence the way the spectator reads. Elvis Costello – ‘You can only control what the words look like, not what they mean’
Alice Garrard
Societies judgment of beauty is forever changing, in the early mid twentieth century; women would be seen as ‘beautiful’ if their complexion was pale and physique curvy. Having tanned skin was an indication that you spent too much time outside, which was associated with the working class. Having a full figured body represented a fertile and wholesome woman. Now we look at societies vision of beauty and it is near enough the complete opposite. Clothing bought nowadays are to eulogize the natural human form, which is a big contrast from the way people dressed in the 19th century, where clothes were created to conceal the body. Conservative clothes reflected and emphasized the respectability of the female body. Although women would have to squeeze into corsets underlining the hourglass figure, in the bedroom the naked body was not seen as a source of joy and beauty, it was seen as a the source of fertility therefore any sexual encounters took place in the dark. Above is an advert from the 19th century; there vision of the perfect woman was “decently developed, with a full, rounded bosom and sufficient flesh to hide her skeleton.” Betty Friedan studied the way in which women were portrayed in the forties and fifties. She found that in the late thirties women were seen as “autonomous heroines” but this representation had made way for the “glorified housewife” by the forties. Friedan concluded that manufacturers had decided to make women better consumers of home products by reinforcing the concept of total fulfilment through the wholesome role of housewife and mother. However Ernest ditcher one of the biggest market researcher and the focus groups around, viewed individuals as an “ocean of unconscious, primordial desires that surfaced with the right stimuli” You could say he was one of the first people to communicate sexual seduction in product advertisement. His businesses Betty Crocker and ivory soap consisted plenty of subliminal messaging with nudity or rather unsubtle hints of a sexual nature. However this newfound way of promotion quickly latched onto other companies. These suggestive hidden symbols became very popular and competitive. This then resulted in sexual imagery becoming a lot more open in society. The
Alice Garrard
notion that, in advertising, manufacturers try to create an image that will maximise the sale of their product brings up the question of causality. This looks at whether advertising merely reflects reality, or directly influences and shapes reality by providing role models. Goffman states that self-definition is guided and externally dominated; that advertisements try to convince us that this is how men and women are, want to be, or should be, in relation to themselves, and in relation to others in the arena of life (Goffman, 1979: vii) ‘Body loathing isn’t inherited, but it is contagious. You can catch it from others when you inhale social air that’s loaded with stereotypes.’ (Freedman, 2002, p. 286) As seen on the Betty Crocker advert - unlike previous adverts - they use models alongside the baked goods to reflect the ‘class and elegance’ of the cake. Whereas on the ivory soap advert they are using what looks like a pinup girl to advertise the product, when previous ads mostly consisted of young kids and babies.
However as time goes on even men are being more objectified by the media. Men’s bodies have been used more in advertising, depicting a similarly idealized body image to that portrayed of women. Research suggests that men feel social pressure to endorse traditional masculine male models in advertising (Martin and Gnoth 2009). Other men and women are increasingly objectifying men and women, however the problem is the double standards that come with that objectification. Erving Goffman’s perspective on advertisements is that they do not necessarily depict how men and women actually behave, but that they are
Alice Garrard
a good representation of the way we think they behave. Print advertisements, therefore, do not offer an exact snapshot of real life but instead offer a perspective on a certain aspect or aspects of life; they conventionalise our conventions, and stylise what is already a stylisation (Goffman, 1979: 84). Celebrities are key idols of what women like to look at in magazines, people love to track what they’re wearing, where they’re going and what they’re eating, they are always in the public eye. Anthony Gidden’s asserts how we create and shape our identity in modern societies and how the media might feed into this. The impact of late modernity where all activity is the subject of social reflection, on social actors, relationships and institutions. These women are admired and idolized by not only women, but young girls too. The media carves this perfect image of what girls are expected to look like, however this major issue can lead to even bigger problems like eating disorders, low esteem-levels, even depression. A new study has been released by Dove claiming two thirds of women suffer from low confidence about their bodies because of models in magazines. Dove questioned 1,000 women who said that the advertising industry is having a real negative impact on there lives, 96% of them felt that the models used in beauty advertising are not a realistic representation of women today. 20% said they were less confident in there every day lives, 28% said they felt inadequate and 40% said they feel self-conscious about their appearance.
Alice Garrard
Dove five years ago had previously done another similar study when they first launched their “real beauty campaign” in 2004 74% of women wanted to see “real women” used in beauty advertising, by 2009 it raised to 94%. Author and psychotherapist Dr Susie Orbach said on behalf of the campaign: ''On a daily basis women are bombarded with impossibly perfect images created by artifice, which they will always aspire towards, but can rarely achieve because these images depend on serious transformation by photographers. The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty was conceived to address this problem by using real women of varying shapes, sizes, races and ages to mirror the diversity of beauty in society.'' The women concluded that they would like advertisers to be honest about the extent to which they airbrush or digitally manipulate images. Although some women have still reviewed that Dove aren’t just using women off the street, it is clear why this campaign has continued to resonate with millions of women worldwide.
Alice Garrard
Bibliography • http://www.wpp.com/wpp/marketing/advertising/do-men-andwomen-respond-differently-to-ads/ • http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6662958/Women-sufferpoor-self-esteem-due-to-airbrushing-in-advertising.html • http://www.livescience.com/7687-sex-sells-buying.html • http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/electric-viagra-howadvertising-shaped-australia-from-the-early-19th-century20150210-13149w.html • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_advertisement • http://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upmbinaries/57153_Chapter_7.pdf • http://www.eonline.com/news/625563/amy-schumer-posts-sexytopless-pic-in-response-to-critic-who-slammed-her-looks-andweight-in-trainwreck • http://womeninads.weebly.com/bibliography.html • http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womenslife/10880647/Topless-women-campaign-to-Free-The-Nipple-whyon-earth-do-women-want-to-walk-around-topless-in-public.html • http://www.adassoc.org.uk/news/women-in-advertising-whatschanged/ • http://www.theory.org.uk/mistry.htm Books • Goffman, Erving (1976), Gender Advertisements, London & Basingstoke: Macmillan. • Gender with other eyes – Gill perry • Barthel, Diane (1988), Putting On Appearances: Gender and Advertising, Philadelphia: Temple University Press. • Giddens, Anthony (1991), Modernity and Self Identity, Cambridge: Polity Press. Cited in Warde (1994), pp. 880-881. • Jhally, Sut (1987), The Codes of Advertising: Fetishism and the Political Economy of Meaning in the Consumer Society, London: Frances Pinter. • Mulvey, Laura (1975), 'Visual pleasure and narrative cinema', Screen, vol.16, no.6, p.18. Cited in van Zoonen (1994), pp.88-89. • Barthel, Diane (1988), Putting On Appearances: Gender and Advertising, Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Alice Garrard