Transcript Gender Representation in Advertising

Gender and Race
Representation in
Advertising
Seeing ourselves in media
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Ask yourself before we begin our
discussion:
◦ Who has the power?
◦ Who is dominant and who is subordinate?
◦ Are there parallels between how minorities and
women are portrayed in media?
Let’s begin…
Media often use codes and conventions
that represent people in stereotypical
ways to suit their needs.
 Keep it simple to convey their ideas and
actions to the audience better, then
showing the real complexities of life
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◦ Ex: 30 min sitcoms require that the conflict is
resolved before the show ends
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Will use stock characters
◦ Over protective mothers, bumbling fathers, and
problematic teenagers
FORMAT
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How the media tell our stories says a great
deal about our values as well as our hidden
desires and fears.
◦ Ex: our concern for law and order is reflected in tv
shows that feature lawyers exposing shady deals
and injustices. OR Forensic shows give us faith that
science will find the answers
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Media also feeds on our love for visual
images by showcasing the current hot actors
and models who personify the ideal body
type
Content
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To be successful, media professionals must
know how to please their audiences. (Hence
the use of predictable ways of
communicating, such as stereotypes and
formulas)
BUT, these methods are not foolproof, and
producers gauge their success by box office
receipts or TV ratings or magazine
subscriptions
It is the consumer who ultimately holds the
key to the media’s power, and has the
influence to change the representations we
see.
Purpose
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Other than for highly publicized events such
as the coverage of a world crisis, the
Academy Awards, or the Super Bowl, a single
media audience does not exist.
Instead there are dozens of smaller
audiences making different media choices all
the time. (target audiences)
Target audiences are what advertisers focus
on.
On a more personal level, each of us makes
sense of media messages in our own ways,
influenced by our gender, ethnic background,
class, age, and other factors special to each
of us.
Audience
We are exposed to gender representations
since childhood – in bedtime stories,
Saturday morning cartoons, advertising,
and films.
 While we are led to believe what we see is
the “norm” and accurate, producers are
really constructing a product to reflect
certain values, styles and ideologies.
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Lead in to Disney coming soon
To what degree do media representations
help to shape our perceptions of ourselves
and others?
 Consider how much time we spend with
media verses our families who used to be
the provider of our values, morals and
ideals.
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It is suggested that the goal of advertising is to
convince you to buy a product or accept a
message, but it also plays a role in shaping
attitudes and perceptions about ourselves and
the world around us.
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Ultimately we are being shaped into being a
consumer of products by big corporations
And/Or we are being shaped to change our
values to fit the vision put forward for us by the
powerful and rich in society (he who has the
money, can influence the most, is not always
true but more often then not it is the case)
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Gender Representation in Ads
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The following are six codes and
conventions often used in the portrayal of
men and women in advertising:
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Superiority and Dominance
Dismemberment
Clowning and Exaggeration
Male Approval
The Voice-Over of Authority
Irrelevant Sexualization of Women and Girls
According to MediaWatch.org
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See wiki for videos to support todays
PowerPoint lesson
◦ Dove Real beauty video
◦ Missrepresentation trailer
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Can we ever hope to change this?
◦ TED talk
◦ Ellen Bic Pen for women
Women