Gender Stereotypes in Advertising and the Media
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According to Surviving for Thriving, a nonprofit organization that helps victims of rape and sexual assault, one out of every six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetimes. This means that a total of 17.7 million women have been victims of these crimes. While these numbers may or may not come as a shock to you, the real surprise is where they start (Surviving to Thriving, 2008).
Due to rapid advances in technology and the effects of globalization we have facilitated the emergence of a media saturated world. While the media’s consistent presence has provided us with countless advantages, many negatives have also emerged. One such issue is our perception of women and men in the public eye. Because popular consumer culture is both producer and product of social inequality, we have unknowingly allowed advertising imagery to construct negative and perpetuate stereotypes of gender. Today’s advertising is inundated with the dehumanization, infantilization, sexualization, and animalization of both men and women. The gender stereotypes constructed in advertising and the media threaten society because they cause an irrevocable inequality between men and women. Standing before you today, I will discuss several types of gender stereotypes and the consequences of their perpetuation. Furthermore, I will be analyzing the situation from a conflict and interactionist theoretical perspective as well as discussing the historical roots of gender inequality in order to demonstrate how society is undermined by gender stereotypes.
When dealing with social problems, it is typically helpful to examine the issue within a theoretical framework. In doing so, we can draw upon the patterns set by other similar issues and examine the advantages and disadvantages to the various approaches. The first theoretical perspective I propose is the conflict perspective, most commonly
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According to Surviving for Thriving, a nonprofit organization that helps victims of rape and sexual assault, one out of every six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetimes. This means that a total of 17.7 million women have been victims of these crimes. While these numbers may or may not come as a shock to you, the real surprise is where they start (Surviving to Thriving, 2008).
Due to rapid advances in technology and the effects of globalization we have facilitated the emergence of a media saturated world. While the media’s consistent presence has provided us with countless advantages, many negatives have also emerged. One such issue is our perception of women and men in the public eye. Because popular consumer culture is both producer and product of social inequality, we have unknowingly allowed advertising imagery to construct negative and perpetuate stereotypes of gender. Today’s advertising is inundated with the dehumanization, infantilization, sexualization, and animalization of both men and women. The gender stereotypes constructed in advertising and the media threaten society because they cause an irrevocable inequality between men and women. Standing before you today, I will discuss several types of gender stereotypes and the consequences of their perpetuation. Furthermore, I will be analyzing the situation from a conflict and interactionist theoretical perspective as well as discussing the historical roots of gender inequality in order to demonstrate how society is undermined by gender stereotypes.
When dealing with social problems, it is typically helpful to examine the issue within a theoretical framework. In doing so, we can draw upon the patterns set by other similar issues and examine the advantages and disadvantages to the various approaches. The first theoretical perspective I propose is the conflict perspective, most commonly
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