Gender Stereotypes Against Women In Advertising

The traditional image of “wife-mother-housewife” is now being changed to women being sexually assertive, confident and ambitious women who express their “freedom” through consumption, in advertisements.
Advertising and other mass medias started to recognise and teach consumers the cultural assumption that men are dominant whereas women are passive. In the advertisement, it shows male and female in identical situations but receiving different labels. For example the man is labelled as ‘persuasive’ when he is giving a public speech. However woman is regarded ‘pushy’ when doing the same thing. The way man and woman is looked at is really different - man taking control over a certain situation is a ‘boss’, and woman doing that is nothing but ‘bossy’. As the advertisement progresses, in the scenes, the characters are identical, the ways that they are behaving. This difference in perception is caused neither by the advertisement by itself nor by actors playing in it. The gender is the only thing that is distinguished.
Social gender stereotyping comes into play. Stereotype is normally socially acceptable. Masculinity is related with activity, the mind, and productive roles. In contrast, femininity is associated with passivity, the body, caring roles. The social roles for women are more connected with things like family life and motherhood whereas the role …show more content…
The way it is introduced to the viewer is very specific. The words arranged on a wall out of a casted shadow from the decoration hanging, have a strong effect as it implies that people are not aware, and has not enough interest as they should. Mother choosing work over her baby is ‘selfish’. Every human being must know to function properly in a society. In all the scenes, where the female and the male counterparts are doing the same thing; body language – set of gestures and movements. However they are interpreted