Advertising enforces gender stereotypes. Discuss.

Advertising is a marketing tool used by many to persuade or manipulate an

audience to consume their goods and services and change consumer behaviour.
Advertising has transitioned to being done on new media nowadays from old
media so as to reach out to a greater audience who no longer have time to spare
for reading the news or watching the television. Advertising is typically done in a
way where the content is put up in a format that is attractive and is what
consumers will like to see. Inevitably, advertisements will contain subtle signals
and information that are in accordance to the current social norms and hence
also enforce gender stereotypes along the way. Thus I agree that advertising
indeed enforces gender stereotypes to a great extent.
Firstly, Advertisements actually inculcate fixed perspectives towards gender roles
in us and steer us towards behaviour that is more acceptable by the society. The
common storylines in advertisements are often relatable to our everyday lives.
The role of a mother is often portrayed to be washing clothes and taking care of
her children at home while the father is almost always, not home. For example,
the advertisement regarding products for the Lifebuoy soap and Dettol products
will show a mothers care for her children and hence using those products to
ensure her familys health. The portrayal of such family values is widely accepted
or even commended by the society especially Asian countries when mothers are
seen to be the guardian of the family. However this is also a form of
stigmatization where mothers must be housewives while fathers are the
breadwinners and that females are the weaker gender in terms of capabilities to
support the family. The roles of scientists played by males in advertisements for
healthcare products further reinforces the perception that men are more capable
in greater things compared to women. Hence the storylines adopted by
advertising firms are forms of stigmatization towards the assumed roles of the
different genders.
Detractors may argue on the grounds that advertising firms are just trying to
promote their goods and services under the basis of showing the consumers
what they want to see and hence in hope to alter their consumer behaviour.
Therefore, advertising does not enforce gender stereotypes as consumers
determine what the media shows. However I beg to differ. As the world becomes
more secular and liberalised, it is becoming less common to see families
adhering such family values especially in western countries and multiracial
societies like Singapore. We are moving towards gender equality and hence both
women and men are more equal now, in terms of social status. It is also shown
that women are as capable as men now and one good example will be Oprah
Winfrey, the founder of Harpo Productions, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN)
and the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. Despite these outstanding
achievements by women around the world, there are still people with the
traditional mindsets that women will always be of a lower status compared to
men and there is no denial that this can be partly due to advertising.

Secondly, advertisements also act as a guideline for our physical appearances so

that we will be accepted by the majority under the labels of being pretty or
handsome. For examples, advertisements for slimming products often include
women with lean bodies, thigh gaps and flat torsos. Similarly, advertisements for
mens clothing like undergarments by Armani Xchange also show male models
with toned bodies and distinct abs. These send a major but skewed signal to
people that they should be like those on televisions or the internet so that they
can attain the ideal body image and hence acknowledged by the society to be
perfect. This issue of low self-esteem and self-confidence and thus the obsessive
pursuit for the so-called perfect physical appearance is prevalent in every
segment of the society, from the teenagers to adults or even elderly such that
they are willing to risk their health and consume various drugs to achieve the
desired effect. This shows that advertising is promoting gender stereotypes in
terms of physical appearance, and thus harming us on the whole.
Lastly, the voiceovers in advertisements also display gender stereotypes in
terms of power and authority. Most advertisements choose to engage a male
voiceover as research has shown that males voices command more authority
and conviction hence their voices will bring about greater sales. This exhibits
gender stereotype as there is unintended transmission of information that males
hold more power over females and this is linked to social status too. Thus,
advertising certainly enforces gender stereotypes onto our society.
Advertising is a way that marketers adopt to communicate with our unconscious
minds and nudge us towards a particular idea that they want to drive across.
Enforcement of gender stereotypes will always occur as long as advertising is a
fantastic method to alter our mindsets.