Gender And Advertising Essay, Research Paper

In the context section I looked at Erving Goffmans study of

Gender and Advertising and his coding categories, in order to prove that his

research is still evident today I carried out my own research by finding

advertisements which fit into his categories.?

I was a selection of magazines from Sunday supplement magazines. I chose

this because these magazines do not have such a specific target audience as

specialised women?s magazines, so I am not limiting my findings.Relative Size (Appendix _ _) This Advertisement for ?Dannimac? shows men leading the way,

sheltering and protecting women from the weather. This advert is not explicitly

sexist but it does have connotations of sexism and agrees with Goffmans theory

of relative size.The Feminine Touch (Appendix_ _) This advertisement for Orange E-Mail services supports

Goffman?s theory that women?s hands are often pictured in advertisements. The

Orange logo is in the centre of the woman?s hand, showing that she is nurturing

it and protecting it, exactly as Goffman suggested. Function Ranking (Appendix _ _) Goffman discussed advertisements that belittle women by

showing them being instructed by men. In my Context I made the observation that

since Goffmans study this has actually turned full circle and an advert will

generate a lot more interest if the roles are reversed. Obviously the reason

for there being more interest is because the roles within society are still not

totally reversed. However the advert pictured here certainly does reverse the

roles. These men are pictured in a skip, typically a mans job with a washing

machine in front of them, this suggests that the woman has instructed them to

do the washing, explaining the blank and confused look on their faces.The Family (Appendix _ _) This advertisement shows the mother and baby, a very

stereotypical image displayed throughout the media. The woman is looking

perfect and the baby looking happy. This is the kind of advert that I believe

generates negative social effects because of the image that when you have a

baby you should be able to still look your best and keep baby content.

Goffman?s study 100% supports that this advertisement exists and that the

effects of it are only negative to society.?

It is a stereotypical image which does not exist, yet the media portray

it as the norm putting women under tremendous pressure.The Ritual of Subordination (Appendix _ _) This advertisement, reinforces Goffmans claim that adverts

exploit women?s sexuality to sell a product. The amount of skin and the lingerie

shown in this advertisement certainly show hat sex sells. The product is a

muscle toning product, so it could be argued that it is necessary to show the

midriff of the woman. Licensed Withdrawal (Appendix _ _) Goffman talked about how women are often pictured as being

disconnected from a situation and become excited about menial things, in turn

making them and their lives seem very insignificant on a larger scale. This

advertisement shows the woman with a dreamy expression on her face, there is

nothing real or powerful about this image, it simply reinforces the

insignificance of a woman in the medias eyes.These categories outlined by Goffman are still relevant

today and these recent advertisements only go towards proving this. These

advertisements were found amongst only three magazines showing that there is a

significant amount of derogatory messages in advertising. Advertising is a

large part of the media and often considered the mist powerful because of the

messages it conveys. There was one area of improvement which I found in

?Function Ranking? however the message is only so strong because it is so

controversial which takes away from the whole point of presenting women in a

different light.Comments From Questionnaire Question 10 in my questionnaire asked if their were any

further comments about the portrayal of women in the media these were the

results of that question. I found that many thought that the pressure on men is

not as much as that on women but that it definitely exists however it is not

based on such a physical sense and is not portrayed highly through the media.

There pressure on men lies more on their personality, it is important to be

funny, to have a good car, to be good at sport etc. Another strong comment that

came out was that too much attention is paid to celebrities bodies and not

enough to their personalities and this is what causes negative social effects.

They are successful and they have good bodies that is all we see of them,

therefore in order for us to be successful we must have nice bodies.There was a definite vibe through the comments that the

media?s portrayal of women needs to change, they need to start representing

?real women?. Women?s true achievements are not focused on enough either.

Apparently women?s sport is not highly covered and when it is it concentrates

on people such as Anna Kornakova, who is glamorous but a far less talented

tennis player than say Venus Williams. Some believe that almost as if the pressure begins to ease

off women it is focusing on men. These comments are very valid because they give me a deeper

understanding of the way people actually feel, reinforcing that the problems

with images of women is not just another media hype, which in itself would be

very controversial.

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