GRSJ224- Gender Inequality Within Advertisements
An advertisement may only last a few seconds, but they are powerful and persuasive in shaping the attitudes and behaviours of consumers. This page will be focusing on the gender inequality that can be witnessed through advertising agents. Whether that be television commercial advertisements, magazine prints, and others. Gender inequality is the concept and term that acknowledges that men and women are not treated the same. They are not treated the same in their personal environments (i.e. home, school) and professional environments (i.e. work, institutions). This causes women and men to face or be apart of different experiences in life. This is also different depending on the geographical location, the culture, and the race the individual is apart of.
In Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice in Literature class, we discussed intersectionality in our very first week. Intersectionality was defined by the author of this Wiki page as "a complex system of characteristics and factors that create advantages for a certain group and disadvantages for others" (Randhawa, 2019)
The term intersectionality is perfect as all these factors intersect in an individuals life through the structures in society. These structures are structures of power because they have the ability to enforce and regulate people’s lives in some form, for example, laws and governments that create regulations and rules of what people can and can not do. Some of the factors that are within intersectionality (but not limited to) include race, gender, age, sexuality, and class.
Intersectionality is a very important part of gender inequality. The intersections of gender, sex, and race deeply affect the amount of inequality individuals face.
For the purpose of this wiki page, the author will be focusing specifically on gender inequality witnessed in advertisements.
Gender Inequality In The Media
In the image posted, retrieved from VARIETY, it displays clear gender inequality. It shows the man on top of the seesaw. His weight is supported by countless boxes. On the other end, the female is seen at the bottom with no hopes to get higher due to the structure in-enabling her to do so.
This image was one of the many animations created by CalArts (California Institution of Arts) for their HeForShe initiative. The animations were created by students, Pia Borg, the CalArts experimental animation program teacher, stated that "most students have conducted independent research, choosing subjects that resonant with their own lives...it was important that the works extended the student’s own individual voice" (Carras, 2018, p.1)
The link to the website and the animation trailer video are provided below. [1] (Variety Website) and [2] (Trailer).
This animation images were created in 2018, therefore showing that this type of gender inequality still exists and still is very prevalent in today's world, even though, we (first world countries) believe that we have come ahead and moved passed this.
Gender Inequality On Social Media
Social media is one of the biggest communication platforms in the world.
- Twitter has 330 million active users [3]
- Instagram has 1 billion active users [4]
- Facebook has 2.41 billion active users [5]
And there are countless other social media platforms that are not mentioned (i.e. Youtuber, Reddit, Snapchat etc.)
With the users of these platforms easily exceeding 1 billion, that means there are a lot of eyes on what is posted and shared to these online forums. There was a research study conducted by The National Research University Higher School of Economics that viewed the gender inequality of social media post that were posted online by parents. They analyzed sixty-two million posts by Russian parents and came to the conclusion that sons are mentioned far more than the daughters. Posts of achievements, celebrations, and just simply love and affection were higher for sons than for daughters. Ivan Smirnov, the co-author of this research paper stated that this "imbalance could send a signal that girls are less significant than boys. The fact that posts about sons get more likes only enhances this effect" (Sivak & Smirnov, 2019, p.1).
Gender Inequality in Countries
Gender inequality between children is very common, in many cultures around the world. In China, when there was the one-child policy, parents had a preference for sons, therefore, there were countless female children in orphanages. If there was a boy in these orphanages it was usually do to disabilities they had, not due to their gender. In other parts of the world, such as India, the female's are married off at a relatively young age whereas the males are sent to work and attain an education. There are countless more cases that occur every day, where a male child is favoured over another. In my own personal experience, I have had family members celebrate the birth of a son by throwing lavish events and handing out sweets, yet when they had a girl, there was no celebration. This occurred because in the Sikh culture it is a tradition that the female will change her last name to her spouse's name after they wed. Therefore, her children will carry the father's name. If you have a son, you essentially have a legacy. When the son will wed, his children will have the family surname, carrying their name on to the next generation.
Gender Inequality In Advertising
An advertisement may only last a few seconds, but they are powerful and persuasive in shaping the attitudes and behaviours of consumers.
In the beginning...
In the beginning, women were seen as a traditional homemaker’s, someone whose life revolved around their home, their husband, and their children. To be a “good” homemaker was their main goal, and to attain this goal they had to make sure everything was taken care of. Therefore, the advertisements portrayed women at home, using items for the home such as cleaning products. Companies knew that women are the ones at home buying these houses keeping items, therefore, directing the product towards them is the best idea.
During World War II
After World War two began there was a huge difference that occurred in society, socially and politically. Due to the war, all the men were sent abroad or at sea, the only people left at home were women and children. Factories needed workers so they started making advertisements to encourage women to join the workforce. The famous “work incentive poster” of Rosie the Riveter, that had the slogan “We Can Do It!” helped encourage women to join. This poster was made to “[encourage women] to take wartime jobs in defense industries, they became a celebrated symbol of female patriotism.” (American History Museum, 2018, p.1).
Post World War II
When the war ended, men started coming back home and wanting to take their jobs back, women didn't approve of this, they finally had attained some freedom from the private sector of life. To encourage them to go back to the traditional house-wife lifestyle, advertiser's made the house-wife lifestyle more appealing, painting it as luxurious. Although many women did return home, many didn't, therefore the advertisements during this time always portrayed the women in subordinate role to the man. According to Gerbner, one of the most common findings from media and cultivation studies is that increased television viewing is associated with more stereotypical views, especially of gender (Allan & Scott, 1996). Therefore, creating advertisement depicting females in lower workplace positions increases the inequality of men and women in the public sphere and reinstated that the primary purpose for women at work was to help men succeed, not succeed themselves.
1960's and on
During this time, second-wave feminism began, this was the time when women “broadened the debate to include a wider range of issues: sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights” and more. (Wikipedia, p.1, 2018) This is also when the change from traditional women to a sexual woman was seen throughout advertisements. On one side, we can witness women fighting for their own freedom and own voice so that they can make their own decisions. The decision to work, the decision of starting a family, the decision of taking birth control, the decision of not fearing their sexuality, and most importantly, their decision of becoming equal to men. And on the other side, we can see advertising agents selling sexuality because “sex sells". Despite women’s gains in the real world, the media world still depicts women as sex objects even in media targeted to women.” (Nelson & Paek, 2005, p.371)
Sexualizing females had begun to become normalized in advertising. Not only were women (the primary consumer) purchasing products that displayed sexualized females, but men were doing so as well. “The use of sex as a means of selling is probably as old as advertising itself and advertising has long been indicted for contributing to the silencing of women’s desire by presenting women primarily as objects for male consumption and pleasure” (Gill, 2008, p.4).
Advertisement Analysis
The advertisement that will be analyzed is the Enjoli Perfume Advertisement (Video here [6]). TheEnjoli perfume’s advertising slogan was "bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan and never let you forget you're man. Because you’re a woman! Enjoli, the new 8-hour perfume for the 24-hour woman” (YouTube Herman, 2014).This was created to tell the women three different things. Bring home the bacon is connected to bringing home wages by working in a professional setting. Fry it up in a pan is stating to come home and cook for your family. And lastly, never let you forget you're man, this meant that although you are a working woman and you come home and do household duties, that does not relinquish your husband's needs, whether that be sexual needs, comfort needs, attention, or others.
Why Gender Equality In Advertisement's Is Important
Women have been portrayed as submissive objects to men and this is concerning. When a human being is turned into an "object" or "thing" it makes it easier to justify violence against that human being. Domestic violence, sexual harassment, and sexual violence are a real-life concern for women that are rarely voiced in media. When Jean Kilbourne was presenting at TEDx Lafayette College she said that “men don’t live in a world where they are likely to be raped, harassed, or beaten, but women do. When women are objectified there is always the threat of sexual violence, intimidation, and the possibility of danger.” (Ted Talks, 2014) This threat to life is not only from others but from themselves as well, during her presentation Jean stated that “when girls continuously see sexualized female advertising, whether that be on magazines, television, or billboards, they begin to sexualize themselves and see themselves as sexualized objects and this causes real harm to real people". She further states that “girls prone to sexualized images at a young age are more prone to eating disorders, depression, and low self-esteem.” (Ted Talks, 2014) The detrimental effects of false advertising or sexualized advertising can have on younger people, male and female.
Connection to Class
Intersectionality
Gender inequality is heavily intertwined with intersectionality, intersectionality focuses the intersecting relationships in an individual's life. The relationship they have between their gender, their sex, their race and many others. And how these mix and match with organizations, institutions, education, and others. The advertisement agency is essentially a large organization, worth millions of dollars. It benefits off of gender inequality because in many cases that is what sells. The portrayal of gender within magazines, billboards, television, along with other forums is very important. Why does this happen? Is it due to their gender, male or female? Due to their sex, heterosexual, homosexual, LGBTQ? Does it have a connection to their race, is it considered exotic. What is the message they are trying to send by creating these advertisements is what the viewer should think about. How are they portraying individuals, is there a gap seen, what is the underlining message in this advertisement.
Juno
Juno is a 2007 film about a situation a young teenager gets herself in. Juno gets pregnant at the age of 16 with Paulie, the boy who impregnated her. She starts off the film wanting to get an abortion. However, Juno decides not to get an abortion after discussing it with a classmate. She then decides to put her baby up for adoption. In this movie, it is not only Juno that shows gender inequality, instead, I believe it to also be the adopting parents. Vanessa and Mark are the childless couple waiting to adopt Juno's baby. In this movie, Vanessa is portrayed as a super maternal figure, she is excited and worried about the unborn child, yet Mark on the other hand, doesn't have the same emotions. Juno and Vanessa are the two female leads yet they are vastly different from one another. Yet both of them are still portrayed as the stereotypical female. One is the teen mom that isn't educated in sex and doesn't know how to take care of child, therefore she is uneducated and promiscuous. Vanessa, on the other hand, is the "proper female", she has her life together, everything except having a child. Which in this movie, she is yearning for, she has such maternal feelings. This shows gender inequality as it portrays women as the victim, one to becoming pregnant and one is victim to childlessness.
The Handmaid's Tale
Gender inequality is portrayed throughout the book and the television series because the women in Gilead are all submissive and subordinate to the men. Gilead, is, in my opinion, the exact opposite of what women would deserve. A world where there is no gender equality whatsoever, where women, specifically the handmaids, are seen as reproduction machines that are to continue to bring children into the world. Women that have no say on their own freedoms and liberty, no say on their own life. Instead of being seen as humans they are seen as objects in a large machine. The theme in the book is overall oppressing women, and even now in the 21st century, this is the same theme in certain areas around the world. This is gender inequality.
Today's Society
In today’s society, we have various spectrums of advertising and advertising itself is larger than anything ever before. ‘The dominance of advertising in our lives and its ability to persuade and shape our beliefs give it power over our society and the influence of our basic thoughts. Advertising attempts to put forth an image of ideals to be obtained by society”. (Thurm, 2001, p.3) Due to globalization and the reach of mass media, advertising agents have the ability to make the world their audience.
Advertisements from different parts of the world are also depicted in a different way, based on what that countries beliefs, values, and ideals are.
- “High-masculinity countries (e.g., the U.S.) show an emphasis on achievement, which results in hierarchical relations and inequality, including between the sexes."
- "Feminine countries (e.g., Denmark) display a people orientation and concern for the quality of life, which result inequality among individuals, including the sexes.”
stated by Nelson & Paek, 2005, p.5)
Conclusion
In conclusion, advertising is a key part of popular culture and a reflection of social norms. The progress that has been made in our advertising of the portrayal of women mirrors how society has developed. Women and advertisements have had a complex and long history, women have gone from being merely seen as just housemakers to being depicted as empowered and independent individuals. There is still a lot of change that needs to occur to desexualize women in advertisements and to close the gender inequality gap, but progress, although slow, is still occurring one decision, one choice, and one voice at a time.
Works Cited
- Allan, K., & Coltrane, S. (1996). Gender displaying television commercials: A comparative study of television commercials in the 1950s and 1980s. Sex Roles, 35(3-4), 185-203. 10.1007/BF01433106
- Gill, R. (2008). Empowerment/Sexism: Figuring Female Sexual Agency in Contemporary Advertising. Feminism & Psychology, 18(1), 35-60. doi:10.1177/0959353507084950
- R. (2014, January 29). Enjoli Perfume Commercial, 1970s. Retrieved July, 29, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLZEpNAaN9Q
- Nelson, M. R., & Paek, H. (2005). Cross-Cultural Differences in Sexual Advertising Content in a Transnational Womens Magazine. Sex Roles, 53(5-6), 371-383. doi:10.1007/s11199-005-6760-5
- Sivak, E., & Smirnov, I. (2019). Parents mention sons more often than daughters on social media. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(6), 2039-2041. doi:10.1073/pnas.1804996116
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/282087/number-of-monthly-active-twitter-users/
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/253577/number-of-monthly-active-instagram-users/
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/
- T. (2014, May 08). The dangerous ways ads see women | Jean Kilbourne | TEDxLafayetteCollege. Retrieved July 29, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy8yLaoWybk
- Thurm, N. J. (2001). The Portrayal of Women in Advertising: Reflection or Creation of Values? 1-26. doi:https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3409/7adfe46b4abee371b4965b760246d966b214.pdf
- http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2013/10/women-should-ads
- “We Can Do It!" (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2018, from http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_538122
- https://variety.com/2018/film/news/calarts-united-nations-film-partnership-gender-inequality-1202904875/