Gender and sexuality in advertising
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广告与社会essay代写 Traditionally, gender has been equated to biological sex, male and female. However, in recent times, gender has become diverse and fluid.
Introduction 广告与社会essay代写
The advertising industry has immensely evolved as equally as gender roles. In the early years, gender stereotyping was prominent in advertising; however, we have witnessed significant changes in gender roles regarding advertising in recent years. However, gender stereotyping remains a challenge that has been disguised in the name of agencies trying to comply with gender equality laws. This paper will examine two advertisements, 2021 DKNY women perfume and Parents Magazine Kids Edition April 2021, to demonstrate that gender stereotyping is inherent in advertising.
Problem statement 广告与社会essay代写
Traditionally, gender has been equated to biological sex, male and female. However, in recent times, gender has become diverse and fluid. Over time, gender has been a social construct cutting across cultural, religious, and ethnic practices. Men and women have played their specific roles, with masculinity being regarded as solid and powerful, whereas femininity has been portrayed as weak and timid (Timke & O’Barr, 2017). The advertising industry has not been left on gender stereotyping. In the early years, masculinity was used in advertising to demonstrate power and leadership, while femininity was used to illustrate nurture and care.
The new trends and changes in gender diversity have brought an evolution in the advertising industry. For instance, the industry has evolved into gender-themed advertising, including femvertising, manverstising, and dadvertising. Femvertising is used to demonstrate women’s empowerment and thus promote gender equality (Tsai et al., 2021). Whereas manvertising challenges the dominant, strong man while advertising represents ideal masculinity using caring fathers (Leader, 2019). However, some critics argue that most companies use gender-themed advertising for their gains rather than genuinely advocating for gender equality. Despite the efforts to fight for gender equality over the years, it is evident that gender stereotyping is lurking silently in the advertising industry.
Gender stereotyping examples 广告与社会essay代写
Initially, women played the gender role of serving as exciting subjects to men; similarly, in today’s case. Images of women on cover magazines were used to depict them as objects of desire or sexual submissive objects to men (Timke & O’Barr, 2017). Similarly, this is the case today. On the other hand, one could argue that women in these ads depict power and bravery. Additionally, current trends in women campaigning for acknowledgment and appreciation of different women body types have seen companies using gender role ads. There are hardly any advertisements showing campaigns advocating for the appreciation of different body types for men.
Advertising agencies use gender roles to their advantage to make profits from sales. In the wake of campaigns to achieve gender equality, companies have been forced to comply with gender equality laws. In this manner, most companies have adopted new trends in advertising, including femvertising, dadvertising, and manvertising. In femvertising, companies use feminine imagery and pro-female talents to demonstrate empowerment. Femvertising is gender-themed advertising that aims at promoting gender equality by empowering women (Tsai et al., 2021). However, in some cases, femvertising silently incorporates gender stereotyping and, at the same time promoting gender equality.
For example, the DKNY women perfume 2021 ad demonstrates the use of gender roles.
In this ad, the man is demonstrated to sexually desire the woman because of the perfume that she is wearing. Further, the woman is depicted as an object of sexual desire. Furthermore, this is a women’s perfume ad targeting the women’s audience. There is a masculine image in the ad, which adds some strength and power characteristics to the image. In agreement with Timke & O’Barr (2017), femvertising in the early years incorporated the masculine image to add the touch of strength and power to the picture. This way, the woman is demonstrated as an individual who cannot do without the strength of a man. Gender stereotyping is inherent in advertising. 广告与社会essay代写
Figure 1: DKNY Women’s perfume 2021
Gender stereotyping in advertising has been demonstrated in gender separation ads involving babies over the years. Usually, most ads use pink and blue to represent girls and boys, respectively (Timke & O’Barr 2017). A concept that has been put into practice by people in society. For instance, the colors have been used in gender reveal parties and in buying children’s clothes. However, there have been some changes observed, especially with the emergence of the gender fluidity concept. Ad companies have diversified the use of colors as a way of inclusivity of gender-diverse individuals. In this case, colors such as purple are used to represent the non-binary gender.
Although ad companies have evolved and readjusted their policies to include gender diversity, the issue of gender stereotyping remains in the background.
For example, in the Parents magazine, kids edition April 2021, it is evident that the color pink has been used to identify the children on the cover as girls. Society firmly maintains the color pink and blue relates to the binary gender. Not everyone in society conforms to the idea of gender diversity and inclusivity. Consequently, this could be the underlying reason why ad companies still use pink and blue to identify with the binary gender (Timke & O’Barr 2017). Because the color-coding practice to differentiate binary gender is a socio-cultural barrier that will be pretty difficult to break. Therefore, this imposes a challenge to ad companies and society to overcome gender stereotypes. Thus, the latter remains inherent in advertising.
Figure 2: Parents Magazine April 2021 Issue
Conclusion 广告与社会essay代写
Gender stereotyping in advertising has been an inherent challenge over the years. In the early years, gender roles played a crucial part in promoting stereotyping. Usually, women were depicted as weak and inferior, and subjective to men. Further, women in advertising were tasked with roles that matched the feminine roles in society, including nurturing and cleaning. At the same time, men in advertising were given roles that demonstrated power, strength, and leadership. With the evolving trends in gender, advertising became flexible and embraced gender diversity and equality.
Moreover, ad companies have learned to adapt gender-themed advertising as a way to empower women. However, despite the changes that have come with the new trends, gender stereotyping is persistent. Future research should focus on the empowerment appeal of advertisements to keep abreast of stereotyping cases.
References
Leader, C. F. (2019). Dadvertising: Representations of fatherhood in Procter & Gamble’s Tide commercials. Communication Culture & Critique, 12(1), 72-89.
Timke, E., & O’Barr, W. M. (2017). Representations of masculinity and femininity in advertising. Advertising & Society Review, 17(3).
Tsai, W. H. S., Shata, A., & Tian, S. (2021). En-gendering power and empowerment in advertising: a content analysis. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 42(1), 19-33.
http://www.kiddealz.com/2019/11/free-2-year-subscription-to-parents.html
https://cargocollective.com/acreative/DKNY-BE-DELICIOUS
