Gender Stereotypes in Advertisement

Gender Stereotypes in Advertisement 

Stereotypes are defined as a social perception of an individual, in terms of their group membership or their physical attributes. It can be a positive or negative generalization made about a group and then attributed to the members of that group. It is a form of social categorization that can often end up affecting the person being stereotyped emotionally, and in turn affect their self-image and behaviour.

Sometimes, stereotypes can be good. It is a sort of defense mechanism, where we make quick assumptions about people and categorize them in order to protect ourselves or behave accordingly. For example, if you were walking at night and you see someone standing in a dark alleyway, you would naturally stereotype them to be dangerous or have criminal intentions, and tend to stay away.

But other times, and this is quite often, we tend to generalize certain traits of a person to an entire group, and that can end up affecting the person as not everyone is the same. For instance, if someone was loud and talkative, and you generalize everyone from their culture or country to be equally loud and talkative, that is considered as stereotyping and is a hasty generalization.

One type of stereotype that is common through most societies is gender stereotypes. Throughout history and media, we have seen a lot of gender stereotypes in advertisement. These stereotypes are often used to categorize people into groups and appeal to these groups more easily, and even appeal to viewers based on the certain mindsets that are often commonly held by people, with or without their consciousness of it.

Here are some examples of gender stereotypes published within the last ten years. 

1.) 

The stereotype being depicted here is that having acne equates to being unappealing and ugly, and that leads to not having a significant other. This targets and even secludes boys with acne, making them seem undesirable. This type of stereotypical advertising can have negative affects on a person's self-image and self-esteem. 

2.) 

This poster reinforces the stereotypical gender roles of women always being the ones to take care of the house, clean and look after family. This picture stereotypes women to only be cleaning and cooking, insinuating that this is the only thing women are capable or good at doing. When in reality, both men and women can be equally interested in performing these activities. While this stereotypical targeting helps advertisers shorten down their target audience, it creates a negative impression towards women.

3.) 

This advertisement here appeals to their target audience by sexually objectifying a woman. While the woman has no direct relationship to the car (which is presumably being advertised here), her clothing and positioning is intentionally sexual to possibly be attention grabbing. 

Some commonalities I see here is that society and advertisers commonly targets our insecurities or vulnerabilities, and rigidifies the gender roles that are often embedded into our community and our minds. By focusing on things such as beauty and self-image, advertisers tend to target our insecurities, so that we are encouraged to buy their products and as a result, improve our self-image. Things like acne, or even our bodies such as body fat or skin color is targeted, and society's expectations of having a perfect body also comes into play, which can psychologically affect people to meet those expectations. Gender roles categorizes people's behaviors and interests, and these can end up being sexist as people cannot always confine themselves to these stereotypical behaviors. These type of gender stereotypes are often attacking a person's identity, as it demands people to conform to a set of rules and behaviors, when in reality, each of us is unique in our own way.