Gender Stereotypes

When we look at television, commercial, and advertisement what do we see in regards to the ideal female or the ideal male? In Media, Women and men have been strictly stereotyped for years dating back to the beginning television and advertisement. Men and women play major roles in identifying the different gender stereotypes within society. From the choice of color in a newborn room to the type of movies selected for viewers are all results of gender stereotyping within television and commercials. When you look at commercials of the past and today. You’d see that when identifying or promoting sales of certain items those who are in charge of promoting those items selectively use specific people to identify for specific things. For example, when you look at this 1950’s ad you’d see the advertising promoting the sale of a refrigerator. However, instead of having a male as the face of the advertisement there is a picture of a female instead. There stands a woman in an apron in front of the fridge. This woman gives off a very home-like look portraying a stay at home wife, or a mother of 3 as the representation of mothers to attract the motherly, home-wife type of buyer. According to Chris Baker’s Cultural Studies Theory and practice, Baker states that womanhood may be defined as “passive and subordinate, that is being tied to housework, husband, and children… most women (34) were depicted as housewives.”(318) there is this sense of a woman in pertaining to being motherly, and submissive that would attract other women in that role to purchase a refrigerator. Just like this ad nothing had entirely changed. Woman are still being referred to as submissive and nurturing. However, for men this is totally different. For men, in advertisement and television, men are seemed to be portrayed as more dominant and powerful. Most of those who are placed in male ads are seen a masculine lacks emotion. 

When looking at this next picture of a modern male ad you may see a gentleman who seems to have been working very hard. The man is caring tools, wearing a hard hat, who is promoting the sale of boots. Now, the question that may arise is why can’t women promote the sale of these boots? When looking for the sale of hard-core heavy duty boots most of the time the PR’s main focus is to gear towards the hardworking man. In this case promoting a hard-working male who seems powerful and dominate will attract just that. There is the promotion of masculinity which can be identified as “strength, power, stoicism, action, control, independence, self-sufficiency, male camaraderie/mateship, and work amongst others.”(Baker 312) Why is it that we and media place a specific perception of the male and female population in reference of negatively stereotyping by gender instead of making things as a natural base? Why can’t men sale refrigerator? Why can’t women sale boots? It is in fact that they can, however, many will probably not see it as convincing due to a pre-conceptualize idea of what is selectively accepting and what’s not. Has society’s idea of genderlect stereotyping changed? Maybe. 

There are now multiple ads that promote gender equality within the commercial, television, and ads production. In this particular video listed. There is a promotional video that points out the idea of conceptualizing the idea of a girl in attempts to change media’s perception of the definition of a girl and making their audience aware of the unknowingly stereotyping of the idea of what a girl looks like. This video may not only bring aware to the gender stereotyping of females but attacking those ideas starting at a young age to skew the idea of the conceptualized idea of what a girl may be defined as. According to a CNN article by David Perry entitled for strong daughters, stop with the sex stereotypes, It states that our culture should fight this idea by “working against the grain, resisting gendered language and emphasizing the internal over the external”.

Perry, David M. "Opinion: How Sex Stereotypes Harm Girls - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 29 May 2013. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.

Baker, Chris. "Cultural Studies Theory and Practice." Cultural Studies. N.p., 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.