SC2220: Gender Studies

Lecture 5: Selling Gender Identity

Eric C. ThompsonSemester 2, 2010/2011

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

Where We Are Going…Gender in Popular

CultureGender in AdvertisingPopular Culture

Gender in Social RelationsGender and PowerGender and Work

Gender, Here and NowGender in Singapore

Today’s Lecture…“Killing Us Softly” –

Images of Women in Advertising

Content Analysis and Influences of Advertising

Cultural Differences in Beauty

Why do advertising and popular culture seem to objectify women and not men?

“Killing Us Softly 3”:Gender and Advertising

Killing Us Softly: 1979Still Killing Us Softly: 1987

Killing Us Softly 3: 2000

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

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 advice

Ads selling to women more often focus on appearance; those selling to men focus on status.

“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.”

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?

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

“Killing Us Softly”:Gender and Advertising

Version 4: 2010

Cultural Differences in Images of BeautySome aspects of

beauty are consistent across cultures:SymmetryWaist-to-Hip Ratio (.70)Indicate Health, Fertility

Many 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.

Mauritania Fat-Farms: Force Fed Beauty

Radically Different Images of Beauty:But Equally Extreme

Correlation between Body Image and Status

If 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

Obesity = Beauty

Skin Deep BeautyAgricultural societies:

Dark skin = Working Outdoors = Low Social StatusLight skin = Staying Indoors = High Social Status

Industrial societies:Dark skin = Leisure Outdoors = High Social StatusLight skin = Working Indoors (factory/office) = Low Social

StatusRacism: White = European = Wealth = High Social

Status

Skin Whitening Products Skin Tanning Products

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)

Men Don’t Seem to Need a“Real Beauty” Campaign

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.

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 status

Heterosexual 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)

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 elements

Gender systems are “overdetermined” – by culture, social relations and biology; they cannot be reduced to single causes.