Sc2220 lecture 5 2011
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Advertising plays a powerful role in shaping gender beliefs and reinforcing stereotypes. It often portrays women as "sex objects" and men as "success objects", playing on evolved psychological tendencies. While some aspects of beauty are consistent across cultures, such as symmetry, standards of beauty vary widely and are influenced by factors like status, food availability, and skin exposure norms. Gender systems have complex determinants from culture, social relations, and biology.
Sc2220 lecture 5 2011
- 1. SC2220: Gender StudiesLecture 5: Selling Gender IdentityEric C. ThompsonSemester 2, 2010/2011
- 2. Where We Have Been…History of Gender StudiesSex/Gender DistinctionBecoming Male or FemaleGender socialization; paths to learning gender.Gender SystemsMasculinity/FemininityGender as systems of beliefs and behaviors
- 3. Where We Are Going…Gender in Popular CultureGender in AdvertisingPopular CultureGender in Social RelationsGender and PowerGender and WorkGender, Here and NowGender in Singapore
- 4. Today’s Lecture…“Killing Us Softly” – Images of Women in AdvertisingContent Analysis and Influences of AdvertisingCultural Differences in BeautyWhy do advertising and popular culture seem to objectify women and not men?
- 5. “Killing Us Softly 3”:Gender and AdvertisingKilling Us Softly: 1979Still Killing Us Softly: 1987Killing Us Softly 3: 2000
- 6. Men and Women in AdvertisingContent Analysis of Advertising general shows the following:Men as “expert” voiceover announcer on all types of productsMen overrepresented numericallyWomen younger, shorter, more likely secondary roleWomen more often a smaller % of the image
- 7. Content Analysis of Advertising (Continued…)Men less often in family role; if dads then less often with daughters or infantsWomen more likely appear unemployed or in “pink collar” job; men are shown in all jobs (especially occupations with authority).Men more often give advice, women receive adviceAds selling to women more often focus on appearance; those selling to men focus on status.
- 8. “Real Beauty”Dove “Real Beauty” CampaignRevolutionary?Shock/Difference = Attention = Interest = Sales = $$$$And still . . . “Advertising involves selling us things we did not know we needed to solve problems we did not know we had.”
- 9. Shaping PossibilitiesBrittney Spears Pepsi Ad CampaignInfluence on Clothing StylesIn mass market, clothing choices are determined by producers as much as by consumers.Low-cut jeans become the norm (and the only thing available in stores).How many people choose to wear clothes other than those available in shops?
- 10. Masculinity and Advertising“Instruction Manual” & “Structure of appropriate behavior”Advertising exaggerates male status-seeking (as ‘what women want’) and female beauty & sexuality (as ‘what men want’)Findings from Psychology:Men who view beautiful models are less satisfied and less committed to current partner.*Women who listen to stories about successful men are less satisfied with current partner.See: David Buss, Evolutionary Psychology
- 11. “Killing Us Softly”:Gender and AdvertisingVersion 4: 2010
- 12. Cultural Differences in Images of BeautySome aspects of beauty are consistent across cultures:SymmetryWaist-to-Hip Ratio (.70)Indicate Health, FertilityMany others are not.Why do standards of beauty vary widely in different societies and cultures?Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640): Set the standard of “Rubenesque” beauty.
- 13. Mauritania Fat-Farms: Force Fed Beauty
- 14. Radically Different Images of Beauty:But Equally ExtremeObesity = BeautyCorrelation between Body Image and StatusIf little food is available, fatness is a display of wealth and high social status.If food is abundant, thinness is a display of discipline and leisure time to exercise and high social status.Anorexia = Beauty
- 15. Skin Deep BeautyAgricultural societies:Dark skin = Working Outdoors = Low Social StatusLight skin = Staying Indoors = High Social StatusIndustrial societies:Dark skin = Leisure Outdoors = High Social StatusLight skin = Working Indoors (factory/office) = Low Social StatusRacism: White = European = Wealth = High Social StatusSkin Whitening ProductsSkin Tanning Products
- 16. Influence of Mass Popular CultureMass popular culture = greater body image pressure.Introduction of television correlated with increased emphasis on body image cross-culturally.Societies without mass media are much less obsessed with body image. (e.g. Shostak 1981, Nisa)
- 17. Men Don’t Seem to Need a“Real Beauty” Campaign
- 18. Objectification of WomenWhy are women’s bodies objectified and not men’s? (or women’s bodies more so than men’s)Thesis 1: Men control advertising firms; they choose to display women as sex objects (for their gratification and to perpetuate male power over women).Thesis 2: Heterosexual dynamics are such that women are a sexual commodity in ways that men are not (there is a “market” for women’s sexuality; but not much of one for men’s).The two theses are not mutually exclusion; evidence exists to support both.
- 19. Cultural, Social, BiologicalPopular Culture: Images teach us how to be men, women, gendered beingsSocial Organization: Different social-economic organization (agricultural, industrial; scarcity, abundance) influences cultural representations of high and low statusHeterosexual Chemistry/Dynamics: Inclines women to be Sex Objects more so than men.There is no single explanation for gender. Gender systems are “overdetermined.” (see Ridgeway and Correll, p. 512)
- 20. Summary PointsAdvertising plays a powerful role in gender beliefs.Advertising reinforces stereotypes and gender polarization; playing on evolved psychology:Women appear as “sex objects”Men appear as “success objects”Beauty has both culturally consistent and culturally consistent elementsGender systems are “overdetermined” – by culture, social relations and biology; they cannot be reduced to single causes.