To what extent does advertising construct ideas of gender? Does consumerism force us to accept gender constructs in order to create identity? It is impossible to quantify the effects of advertising on creating ideas of gender as there is no way to measure our exposure to adverts. One can only assume that we are all exposed to a wide range of adverts in our lives through a range of media including, television and print media. I will be focusing on the impact of these adverts when they are internalised by the viewer, specifically with regards to those consumed by women. Through this, I hope to explore the ways in which adverts, as a part of consumer society, reinforce our beliefs in gender constructs by presenting products as a means of self-expression. This is in order to maintain the woman and man as consumer and to continue to have them reaching for the future self; ‘It offers him an image of himself made glamorous by the product or opportunity it is trying to sell’ (Berger, 1977, p.132). David Gauntlett offers a wholistic view of media, that there are methods of communication other than advertising that collectively create a view of gender. This is supported by the views of (Carilli and Campbell, 2005) who present an essay by Catherine Gilottiare involved in the depictions of female stereotypes in popular film. The same limitations of creating a heteronormative view of women and marginalising groups based on ethnicity applies to adverts where women are seen ‘predominantly represented as white, young, glamorous, heterosexual, and less influential than men’ (Carilli and Campbell, 2005, p. 3). It is hard to know exactly from where ideas of gender are instilled in us, but it is even more difficult to claim that in such a consumerist society, advertising has no bearing upon it. How the ideas of gender are offered to us is dependent upon what gender is. Biologically, men and women are different, which refers to sex rather than the gender, as gender is linked to social factors such as ‘position, behaviour or identity’ (Mikkola, 2016). Writers such as Simone de Beauvoir acknowledged the concept of phenomenology, where we view the world from the frame of our own consciousness and experiences, (which will differ from men to women). As a result of this, she argued that women ‘must free themselves from the idea that they must be like men’ (Buckingham et al., 2011, p. 277) to be seen as equal. This was a move away from biological determinism and started to explore the relationship between society and its influences on women. As de Beauvoir claimed, ‘social discrimination produces in women … effects so profound that they appear to be caused by nature’ (de Beavoir, 1972 cited in Mikkola, 2016).
The differences in male and female can be argued to have been taught from a young age, becoming ingrained in children. Adverts for young children are gendered which conditions them to start thinking more about the differences between the two, this means that ‘Social learning of play styles … involves mass media effects, such as the portrayal of boys and girls in packaging and advertising (Schwartz and Markham, 1985, cited in Goldstein, 1994, p. 127). This has been found by Lever to ‘contribute to sex differences in adulthood in such areas as competition, leadership, and styles of human relationships.’ (Goldenstein, p. 114). On the other hand, Twitchell claims that ‘Women seem to gain potency as consumers after childbirth’ and that ‘Men seem to want stuff in the latent and post-midlife years’ (Two Cheers for Materialism in Schor, J.B. and Holt, D.B., 2000, p. 283). This position claims that consumer culture, and with it, consuming gender constructs, is something that is biological rather than learned, however, there is further evidence for outside influences that affect children’s construction of gender. The construction of gender also stems from the learnt behaviour that is started from childhood, where parents placed their gendered outlook onto children, when ’Sex-stereotyped play tends to increase with age’ as a result of parents’ influences even though ‘girls of 18 months spent as much time playing with trucks as boys did’ in a study by researchers Rheingold and Cook. It is the ‘willingness of parents’ which influences the acceptance of play that is not sex-appropriate, especially seeing as ‘the play styles of American boys and girls are converging’ and girls are ‘moving closer to boys in their idenitification with heroic figures’ and other traditionally masculine play (Singer and Singer, 1990, p. 80 cited in Goldstein, 1994, p.117). This is supported by further re-
search where ‘Zammuner found that the sex-role beliefs of European children resemble those of their parents.’ (Goldstein, 1994, p. 115). These roles directly affect interaction with people in everyday life. The bias that children have towards gender roles is a result of this learned process. Claudine, a male-to-female transsexual, noted that when she was perceived as female, her hand would often be taken by children, whereas when she was perceived as male, she would be kept at a distance. Although it is only a singular observation, this shows that the link between male/female and their gender roles is one that is developed from an early age. In some ways, advertising constructs gender in the minds of young children, but this is through the filter of a parent’s influence on their child, and the parent’s beliefs about gender rather than directly from adverts to the children themselves. Germaine Greer (cited in Gauntlett, 2008, p.85-6) asserts that ‘Magazines financed by the beauty industry teach little girls that they need make-up … establishing their lifelong reliance on beauty products.’ On the other hand, it is parents that facilitate these requests for consuming gendered products, as they are also part of the cyclical presentation of gender constructs. Social learning theory (Catherine Gillotti, cited in Carilli and Campbell, 2005, p. 37) informs the way in which children develop their views of gender through interaction with people and responses to their behaviour. However, those that they are learning from are also engaged in a cycle of consuming various forms of media that offer ideas of gender, and its associated expectations. Children will look at social cues and acceptable behaviour in others which translates to a learned behaviour, as Shell and Eisenberg (cited in Goldstein, 1994, p. 125) noted that children express a ‘desire for peer approval’. Gauntlett counters the argument for gender as a construction from childhood by claiming that nowadays, there is equality between views of gender offered through films and other popular media; that young men today have been brought up with women as equals. However, he also asserts that ‘there is formal equality and real inequality between the sexes’ (Gauntlett, 2008, p.17) which shows the effects of disparities between the gender roles shown in the media and those encountered in social interactions. This view identifies the way in which media confines women into narrow gender roles that are indifferent to the actual ones assumed by women.
SOURCE 1
The effects of advertising force women to fit into narrow gender roles to form their own identity as, ‘Ads ask us to choose and construct our identities out of our consumption choices. (Goldman, R. Advertising in the age of accelerated meaning in Schor, J.B. and Holt, D.B., 2000, p. 85). John Clammer takes this further, to say that ‘Shopping is not merely the acquisition of things: it is the buying of identity’ (Clammer, 1992, p. 195). This is supported by Berger (1977) who argues that ‘The publicity image steals her love of herself as she is and offers it back to her for the price of a product’. However, advertising does not provide a diverse and representative range of gender roles, so the identities offered are unrealistic. This reinforces the narrow confines of gender that are given, and shapes them further by covering a range of consumer products, so that women can “buy into” their gender roles and expected behaviour in order to be accepted in society. This is reflected in adverts like Source 1 (top left) where the woman’s focus is on becoming the subject of desire. The advert fragments our view of the woman by drawing attention to only her face, so that we do not see her as a whole and the woman is, as Mills (1995) says ’depersonalised, objectified and reduced to its parts’ so that ‘the scene cannot be focalised from her perspective’ (Mills, cited in Carilli and Campbell, 2005, p. 4). In this advert, all aspects of the woman are controlled by the man; her appearance is based on her being an object of male desire, and her thoughts are explained away
with the phrase “Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired” written by a male poet, and accompanied by the line ‘Desire is on’ to describe further, the woman’s purpose. From this advert we can see that women are portrayed as being willing submit to the expectations of their gender in order to be accepted into society, by becoming an object of desire. This reflects a common presentation of women in adverts, as seen in other images in Source !. This supports modern feminist theory of fashion being another form of control over women as the gender roles offered are narrow. Although there is the ‘belief that nature was superior to culture’ as it does not constrict us into gender roles (Schor, J.B. and Holt, D.B., 2000, p. 295), this view does not take into account the opportunity to alter identities - ‘We create ourselves through things. And we change ourselves by changing our things.’ (Twitchell, J. Two cheers for Materialism in Schor, J.B. and Holt, D.B., 2000, p. 282). This idea has been used in the work of illustrator Sally Nixon in Source 2 whose vignettes of women and girls show them surrounded by their belongings. The views are not airbrushed and glossy, but personal by showing small aspects of their life through what they consume (Fulleylove, R, 2016) when they are alone.
SOURCE 2
Barbara Kruger has explored the relationship between the way in which we consume to fulfil the gender roles that are offered to us. In the first instance, ‘You become what you consume’ (Source 3, top left) refers to the ways in which women can be restricted by the expectations of their gender. This refers to how women can buy into the respective products for their gender, along with gender sex role expectations. This is mirrored in the UNESCO report on women’s status around the world, where women are portrayed in four ways, ‘the glamorous sex kitten, the saintly mother, the devious witch, or the hard face corporate and political climber’ (Sheehan, 2004). This is a view echoed by de Beauvoir who recognises that the ‘myths of woman as mother, wife, virgin, symbol and so on trap women’ (Buckingham et al., 201, p. 277). Another instance of this is the ‘four modalities - body image, girlhood vulnerability, pleasure and motherhood’ that are identified and fought against by women who engage with contemporary zine culture (Piepmeier, 2009, p. 89). As adverts use interpellation to help the viewers identify with portrayals of gender this means that the gender roles are exaggerated in order for the adverts to be targeted to a specific audience (Woodward, 2004). As Goldman argues, advertisers ‘must engage the attention … of consumers by hailing them with images of their own “alreadyness” (Goldman, R. Advertising in the age of accelerate meaning in Schor, J.B. and Holt, D.B., 2000, p. 96). These narrow expectations create a view that women are decorative and simply available for aesthetics, such as in magazine adverts - where the adverts showing women as ornamental were seen in a much higher percentage in womens’ magazines as in men’s (Reichert cited in Carilli and Campbell, 2005, p. 110). Similarly, in Abhik Roy’s analysis, he found that there was a trend of women being observed and admired for their outward appearances in ways that did not necessarily relate to the actual product (cited in Carilli and Campbell, 2005, p. 15). The idea of women as ornamental is one explored by Berger, who argues that women are seen through the lens of the male gaze; there is ‘the surveyor’ and ‘the surveyed’ (1977). Anyone falling outside of the gender expectations shown in adverts is seen as inferior, and their status in society is reduced as they do not fall in line with gender constructs. This was found where there is ambiguity or uncertainty between gender recognition as it creates a tension in the viewer they cannot accept the lack of information. This dimorphic view of gender is, in itself one that is challenging to accept as there is no concrete way to define it. Basing gender on physical attributes does not allow any flexibility for grey areas (Mikkola, 2016) and there is a tendency toward seeing male gender, even in cases of ambiguity (Griggs, 2003). This creates the need to “play the role” and use gendered behaviour as a mask. Society has constructed expectations of behaviour and appearance attributed to different genders, but also boundaries between the two. We consume to fit the roles that are defined by society in what Gayle Rubin calls, a ‘socially imposed division of the sexes’ (Mikkola, 2016). Gender is presented as being performative in order to fit into the roles defined in advertising, supported by what Berger describes as the way in which ‘she has been taught and persuaded to survey herself continually’ from early childhood (Berger, 1977). This is evidenced in the advert for eyeshadow in Source 1 (top left) where the male is standing behind the shoulder of the actress who is advertising the product. She accepts her position, under the watch of the male gaze, and is aware of herself being seen, just as the model is in Source 1, top right. This presentation of gender pushes women to develop different identities - the public and private persona which is identified by the ‘public identity’ and ‘subjectivity’ noted by philosopher Linda Martín-Alcoff and fought against by zine makers who want to ‘“try out” various forms of identity’ rather than be stuck in the ‘layered fictions produced by others’ (Piepmeier, A, 2009, p. 90). In the Revlon advert for nail polish (Source 1, bottom) the model holds a mask from her face, in the process of revealing or concealing herself. The way in which she holds the mask not only emphasises the nail polish that she wears, which is the main intention of the advert, but also appears to the audience as a measured and calculated behaviour - even though we appear to see her revealing her off-stage self, she is still performing. This is a result of her view of herself through the lens of the male gaze (Berger, 1977). It is in this way, that the portrayal of woman as wearing a mask is an accurate one. Hoffman (1959) essentially viewed interaction as dramaturgical performance with on-stage and off-stage behaviours. Wilson supports this argument by offering the view
that we ‘live in socially constructed cultures.’ rather than natural ones, so women ‘create a false impression, somehow to deceive the world’ (Schor, J.B. and Holt, D.B., 2000, p. 295). The continuous bombardment of adverts promotes in women that to be seen outside of the traditional confines of femininity, they must appropriate ‘male’ behaviour, reducing their femininity but making them “less desirable” to the heteronormative viewer. This is countered by the view that butch and femme identities can also serve to highlight the false nature of gender, as they are presented not in relation to an ‘original’ heteronormative masculinity, but as an independent identity, meaning that ‘the origin is understood to be as performative as the copy’ (Butler, 2004 p. 209).
SOURCE 3
The idea of there being a public identity and a personal subjectivity is explored through the use of zines, where women are able to merge the two together and feel able to allow this untraditional view of femininity to be shared. This means that women can attempt to subvert gender roles by presenting alternative ones when creating their own media. This is seen in the work of the Guerilla Girls who create images using a D.I.Y aesthetic that allows them to challenge the inequali-
ties of women in the art world and beyond (Source 3, bottom half). Such attempts can be seen as a more direct way of confronting exaggerated female gender roles in advertising, rather than a less-publicised movement of zine culture. This movement challenges what Akita calls a ‘multi-toned masquerade, which can be subversive and non-subversive’. Women can show themselves to be accepting of the gender roles that they are offered through adverts, or they can reject them, but as long as they are seen to be conforming, they will be perceived as submitting to their inferiority as imposed by society. They become ‘implicit in their own commodification’ (Akita cited in Carilli and Campbell, 2005, p.48). Both the public and private self are altered by this male gaze, but the private one is seen to be a much ‘truer’ self. However, in more recent times, since the rise of social media, women are attempting to reveal more of their private selves into the public sphere. This sees the two performances of women converging and becoming more singular; an even more staged version of the ‘behind the scenes’ ‘dramaturgical’ self described Akita (cited in Carilli and Campbell, 2005, p.46). Changing societies’ expectations of gender roles through zine culture and reworking advertisements like the Guerrilla Girls could be the way to confront gender roles head on. In order to present gender in advertising as outdated, these ideas must be dismissed and challenged, and this has taken place through forms such as social media, as well as art (Source 2 and 3). It is in this way that people who choose to dismiss widely accepted views of fashion can be seen to be subverting the roles as Wilson identifies that ‘the disaffected use bizarre dress to thumb the nose at consumerism and to create jeering cartoons of society’s most cherished conventions.’ (Schor, J.B. and Holt, D.B., 2000, p. 302) Overall, there is solid evidence that gender is a socially constructed idea, however that may not be solely due to the influence of adverts. Gender expectations become cyclical - parent’s influence feeding into children’s social learning are then being reinforced by gender portrayed in adverts in order to help viewers identify with the products. Although adverts are only one method through which gender is presented to us as an idea, they reinforce exaggerated gender roles about women by becoming fixed on showing consumer’s “alreadyness”. This future self advertised is unattainable as it exists on a basis of continual consumption, where Berger argues the ‘publicity image steals her love of herself … and offers it back to her for the price of a product’ (1977). Adverts do this by appealing to a range of different desires in us, according to Packard (2007, pp 86-94) who identifies eight different desires that are addressed by advertising. We are aware of the differences between man and woman, but the differences between roles based on the construct of gender are perpetuated by adverts as a way of categorising people and creating more specific markets to target and sell to. This is the way in which advertising constructs ideas of gender; in order to maintain its own continuous cycle of production and consumer culture, gender is a construct that must be upheld by adverts which offer the consumer products as a form of self-expression; but they can only do this by strengthening their position in the confines of an unequal gendered society by repeating gendered roles.
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