RESEARCH: the gender ads project

"A Web site for the consideration of the intersections of gender and (print) advertising"  

THE GENDER ADS PROJECT

this has been suuuuuch a useful resource when I was gathering together research for gender based ads. It was created by a guy named Scott A. Lukas and it provides such a huge amount of ads and all of them have been filed into loads of different categories. This has made it so much easier to find specific adverts! 

it includes thing such as different roles for men and women, objects they are often perceived as in the media, culture, sex, control and anything and everything you'd want. 

I feel obliged to add this into my blog as it really has been so helpful, i'm annoyed I didn't find it sooner

A project proposal: visual response

themes I am going to explore:

1. the objectification and sexualisation of women 
2. gender stereotypes; masculine and feminine 
3. male and female ideals in advertising

theories that will inform my work:

1.  representations of masculinity and femininity in advertisements 
2. the male gaze: Laura Mulvey
3. American apparel advertisements 

specific subjects I want to investigate:

1. I want to look at the sexualisation of mainly women, and how they are used in advertisements to appeal to men (also vice versa)
2. how the male gaze plays a huge roll in advertising
3. whether or not this sort of objectification of women works within advertising

in order to visually investigate this content I will:

1. I want to explore already existing adverts that go with these themes
2. I think collaging would be the perfect media for me to use for these outcomes (also good as I seem to be terrible at producing a drawing that is even somewhat lifelike)
3. maybe try out using collage combined with another media

PLANNING AND STRUCTURING AN ESSAY

SUGGESTED RESEARCH QUESTION:
"to what extent does advertising construct our ideas of gender"

I want to research and discuss how and wether gender have started to become regarded as more equal within a modern day society.

REFRENCES:

O’Barr, W. (2006) Representations of Masculinity and Femininity in Advertisements [internet] available: < https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/advertising_and_society_review/v007/7.2unit07.html>. [01.12.15]

Papadaki, E. (2010) Feminist perspectives on objectification [internet] available <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-objectification/> [05.12.15]

Gauntlett, D. (2002) Media, gender and identity [internet] available <http://www.theoryhead.com/gender/extract.htm> [03.12.15]

Fisk, S. (2011) How does gender inequality persist? [internet] available <http://gender.stanford.edu/news/2011/how-does-gender-inequality-persist> [11.12.15]

Wolska, M. (2011) Gender stereotypes in mass media [internet] available <http://krytyka.org/gender-stereotypes-in-mass-media-case-study-analysis-of-the-gender-stereotyping-phenomenon-in-tv-commercials/> [4.12.15]

IMAGES:

I'm pretty set on these images to analyse within my essay; they seem to include the content I want to look at and they also illustrate my key points. I chose two advertisements from around the mid 20th century, and then one from fairly recently, I am going to talk about the sexism and stereotypes shown against men and women in the first two, and then compare them with the third advert, showing how the depiction of gender within advertising has changed over the years.

ESSAY PLAN:

I thought while I was in the swing of writing about my essay, I would write up a quick essay plan and what I will include in each paragraph of my essay. I think this will be really useful for me as the thought of even starting my essay is giving me slight heart palpitations (they definitely aren't my strong point)

intro

In my introduction I want to give the reader a quick insight on what I'm going to be talking about, which is how and if gender within advertising have started to become regarded as more equal, backed up by images and quotes from the sources I have included above. 

I'm also going to talk about the generalised stereotypes of men and woman in advertising (and in general life) and how these are portrayed in the media. 

quotes?

’Representations of gender in advertisements provide powerful models of behaviour’ (O'barr 2006)

‘Masculine images typically convey power, strength, virility, athleticism, and competitiveness’ (O’Barr, 2006)

‘feminine images show beauty, submissiveness, nurturance, and cooperation’ (O'Barr, 2006)

paragraph 1

my first paragraph is going to mainly be the image analysis of the "don't worry darling you didn't burn the beer" advertisement for schlitz beer. I'm going to talk about the image as a whole but also link it to the expectation of women at that time, and that the norm in society at the time was for women to tend to their husbands and that males were predominantly seen as the 'better sex'.

quotes?

‘These advertisements often times showed smiling women with their arms loaded with cooked food, or a women cleaning house and looking happy and content to be doing that and nothing else’ (Stoneham, 2001)

‘Commercials are the vast source of gender stereotyping, because they are adapted to the specific, either male or female target, and are “the reflection of the recipient”.’ (Wolska, 2011)

paragraph 2

my second paragraph will be another image analysis of the Potatoes advert. Here I will talk about the message this image is putting across, which is very opposite of the first image; I will also talk about how empowering the image was for women at that time, as it was deemed almost socially unacceptable to portray men as the weaker sex. 

quotes?

‘views of gender and sexuality, masculinity and femininity, identity and selfhood, are all in slow but steady processes of change and transformation’ (Gauntlett, 2002)

‘as women become increasingly assertive and successful, apparently triumphing in all roles, men are said to be anxious and confused about what their role is today.’ (Gauntlett, 2002)

paragraph 3

this is going to be my third and final image analysis, and this is going to be on the lynx advertisements. Here I am going to talk about the advancements (if any?) in the way gender and females especially are being shown within a more modern day advert. I am also going to mention the idea of sexualisation and objectification in the media, and how this is more of a recurrent theme in modern day society. 

quotes?

‘I’d like to talk about specifically about the lie or the idea that being a sex object is empowering' (Heldman, 2014)

‘Kant thought that in theory both men and women can be objectified, but he was well aware that in practice women are the most common victims of objectification’ (Papadaki, 2009)

conclusion

this will be a paragraph linking everything I will have spoken during my essay, and trying to tie up any loose ends. I think this will probably be the most difficult one for me as it doesn't really have a main bulk of content. I think I will try and talk about views on whether male and females have or haven't started to become regarded as more equal, and arguing points for each.

quotes?

‘Gender equality is not impossible to attain – but the struggle is constant and is sure to have ups and downs’ (Ridgeway, 2011)

‘the distinction between the "man's world" and the "woman's world" is actually fairly new’ (Sargent, 2012)

WHERE TO GO NEXT?

• do I need another paragraph in there? I'm worried this won't be enough content
• Maybe I could think about linking the american apparel ads in there somewhere?
• find more quotes and references!
• start to think about a visual response, get some drawing done
• start the bloody essay !!

quotes I could include in my essay

Representations of masculinity and femininity in Advertisements  by William M. O'Barr

"Masculine images typically convey power, strength, virility, athleticism, and competitiveness whereas feminine images show beauty, submissiveness, nurturance, and cooperation."

"Representations of gender in advertisements provide powerful models of behaviour"

"In adulthood, the sexuality of mature women is a central focus."

"While young adult women are assuming these provocative postures in ads that emphasize their sexuality, young men continue to express their masculinity in physical ways."

"Although the current trend in advertising tends to show the relationship between men and women as very masculine dominant and female submissive"

Feminist perspectives on objectification by E Papadaki 

"In order to gain social acceptability, women are under constant pressure to correct their bodies and appearance"

"Kant thought that in theory both men and women can be objectified, but he was well aware that in practice women are the most common victims of objectification"

"It has been pointed out by some feminist thinkers that women in our society are more identified and associated with their bodies than are men"

"Everyone is already only an object and being only an object is not necessarily a bad thing"

Media, gender and identity by David Gauntlett 

"The traditional view of a woman as a housewife or low-status worker has been kick-boxed out of the picture by the feisty, successful 'girl power' icons"

"as women become increasingly assertive and successful, apparently triumphing in all roles, men are said to be anxious and confused about what their role is today"

"views of gender and sexuality, masculinity and femininity, identity and selfhood, are all in slow but steady processes of change and transformation"

How does gender inequality persist? by Susan Fisk

"Gender inequality continues to exist in advanced industrial societies"

"men are believed to be especially more competent than women in male-typed settings (e.g. engineering, sports) and positions of authority, while women are advantaged in female-typed settings (e.g. childcare, communication)"

Women's roles in the 1950's by Nina Stoneham

"These advertisements often times showed smiling women with their arms loaded with cooked food, or a women cleaning house and looking happy and content to be doing that and nothing else"

"Many of the advertisements in the magazines and T.V. shows somewhat defined the role of motherhood. They were constantly aimed at feminine concerns because women were normally the ones that were buying the products for the house"

The sexy lie by Caroline Heldman

"I’d like to talk about specifically about the lie or the idea that being a sex object is empowering. I’d like to convince you that it is not empowering"

"Even though our sexual objectification culture is more amplified, we see more images, and 96% of them are female of sexually objectified bodies"

"there’s not power in being a sex object when you think about it logically"

Proper men, proper women: gender roles in contemporary UK society by Stephanie Taylor

"how does the social or cultural become so deeply engrained that gender identities and gender differences seem fundamental to who we are?"

How gender inequality persists in the modern world by Cecilia L. Ridgeway

"Gender equality is not impossible to attain – but the struggle is constant and is sure to have ups and downs"

"Men, for example, tend to be seen as more authoritative and women more communal in orientation"

5 gender stereotypes that used to be the exact opposite by J.F. Sargent

"the distinction between the "man's world" and the "woman's world" is actually fairly new"

BOOK: gender advertisements by erving goffman

KEY QUOTES:
the task of the advertiser is to favourably dispose viewers to his product, his means, by and large, to show a sparkling version of that product in the context of glamorous events.'

'a classy young lady is likely to be in the picture adding her approval of the product and herself to its ambience, whether the product be floor mops, insecticides, orthopaedic chairs, roofing materials, credit cards, vacuum pumps, or lear jets. But all of this is only advertising and has little to do with actual life.'

'there is the use and of scenes and characters which have come to be stereotypically identified with a particular kind of activity by the widest range of viewers.'

'seeing what picture-makers can make of situational materials, one can begin to see what we ourselves might be engaging in doing.'

'one way in which social weight-power, authority, rank, office, renown- is echoed expressively through relative size, especially height'

'the males usual superiority of status over the female will be expressible in his greater girth and height.'

'beds and floors provide places in social situations where incumbent persons will be lower than anyone sitting on a chair or standing.'

'lying on the floor or on a sofa or bed seems also to be a conventionalised expression of sexual availability.'

'a male pictures with a female sometimes appears to employ an extended arm, in effect marking the boundary of his social property'

'portray an ideal conception of the two sexes'

'an ideal representation'

SUMMARY:
he talks in this book about the idea that advertisers play on already existing stereotypes and roles taken on by males and females, to fit into the times and to make the advertisements much easier to read by an audience.
He then goes on to analyse a series of gender based advertisements, and talks about how they can be read by viewers, simply from the poses, postures, positions and stances of the male and females shown.

RESEARCH: malgorzata wolska

a case study I found particularly helpful within my project was one written by Malgorzata Wolska called 'gender stereotypes in mass media'.

http://krytyka.org/gender-stereotypes-in-mass-media-case-study-analysis-of-the-gender-stereotyping-phenomenon-in-tv-commercials/

this piece of writing covered a lot of the same key points that I want to include in my essay:

• generalised stereotypes and gender roles
• gender in advertising
• flipping gender stereotypes on their heads

this part I found particularly interesting:

dove real beauty campaign

and I think this is something I want to include in my essay!! I want to research the change in gender roles and stereotyping within advertising, and look at which adverts have challenged gender stereotypes. I think the idea of the roles being reversed is really interesting, and something that isn't usually seen in adverts, but something definitely worth looking at! 

I think reading this case study was a bit of a breakthrough moment for me, as I've been struggling on deciding what to base my essay on and coming up with a good theme!