Sexist Gender Roles

Ever since its emergence in the early twentieth century, television has been used to manifest cultural and societal values. In the United States, television has become the prime method for advertisers to illustrate and emphasize social norms to an ever growing audience. Such ads, characterized by unrealistic beliefs often related by social ties and their development in a recurring environment, establish the gender roles which appear in American society. For this reason, many American ads rely on the embracement of persuasive appeals as a means of adjusting to the imbalanced social and psychological concern that arises among diverse populations (Lecture 09/20/2015).
Despite television’s goal on targeting the general public, the representation …show more content…
Unlike the father figures dressed to go to work, for every ad where a mom is present there is no mention or representation of work outside of the home. Such portrayal appeals to the desire for recognition that requires a conformity to the domestic role of women and dependency on men for financial support. In fact, in every commercial where a mother was made worthy of recognition, it was her smiling duty to raise and provide nurture for her family, and thus, further embracing both the concept of the “trophy wife” and “housewife”. Similarly, the level of attractiveness that is associated with recognition further appeals to the desire to be physically and sexually attractive. With much emphasis placed on her youth and beauty, these trophy wives, in return, also become glorified status symbols for their husbands. When main attributes are centralized around a woman’s appearance and marriage, she becomes an ornament that adorns any husbands life. Her positive characteristics beyond her physical features are largely ignored and she is objectified, becoming nothing more than a pretty