A Gentleman And A Consumer Analysis

It is a common (and one would consider normal) sight in most American preschools or day cares, a little girl will be playing with her baby doll, rocking it and crooning lullabies, while a few feet away from her a little boy is waging an epic battle with his toy solider. The concept of nature versus nurture is a question that has plagued sociologists and psychologists for centuries, what causes a person to act a particular way? Sex influences how society expects a person to behave and think, in accordance to what gender role the person is expected to fulfill. These social expectations permeate into every aspect of a person’s life, from what color a baby is to be enshrouded in (pink for a girl or blue for a boy) when they are born to how an adult is expected to respond to an obstacle or conflict. Brands like Degree and Secret have become adept at identifying and …show more content…
Author Diane Barthel confirms this social gender expectation in her essay “A Gentleman and a Consumer,” “[T]he masculine model is based on exactingness and choice… There the keywords are masculine terms: power, performance, precision” (Barthel, 117). When this concept is applied to the copy of the Degree advertisement, immediately the viewer can observe the words “performance” and “intense” in bold text, followed shortly with the phrase “made for men.” The use of these masculine terms help to support Barthel’s observation that in order to sell grooming products advertisers use “overt reference to masculine symbols, language, and imagery…” (Barthel, 120). By using a comic book theme and traditionally masculine keywords, Degree distances its product from the perception that body care is reserved solely for women, it gives its deodorant a masculine appeal and leads the audience to believe that the deodorant is a source of power and