Gender Stereotypes in Media

Gender Stereotypes in the mass media frequently portray women as ‘slaves’ who would do a man’s bidding and how men are always the hard working individuals that deserve to be treated with pleasure in most cases. Through this, men are seen as the dominant gender which leads to the audience taking in this information and accepting it as fact, though they are simply oblivious to it. This is how the media brainwashes people without them realizing and trying to make it seem as if what they present in forms of advertisement is what is deemed as a ‘perfect’ example that the average consumer should follow. Unfortunately this works well due to people absorbing this information as fact which makes them buy the product in order to keep up with what’s accepted by society and so they don’t feel out of place or unattractive; anything to make them not feel like they are ostracized by society.

One of the main points I am trying to make here is that I want to illuminate that we are brought up to learn that there are only two gender roles in society which ends up fueling gender expectations. We humans are a very curious species, so when we are bored we seek many forms of entertainment. The biggest form of entertainment comes through digitally, which most people have access to. The media takes advantage of this because these businesses spend millions of pounds to purchase information conducted from surveys tp sales figures all in order so that they can learn about what the audience likes in order to get us to purchase their products, in turn, giving them our money.

Gender roles portrayed in advertisements and even on television often depict women as housewives doing chores for men or on the flip side being the submissive yet seductive type of woman. This widely affects the representation of the image women have and also changes the way they are treated by the opposite gender in real life circumstances. However even though the media tries to demonstrate these stereotypes and representations, in certain cultures such as in Asia, for example in Japanese culture, it is normal for the woman to be submissive to the man in a relationship or even in any other circumstances whether it be in business, these portrayals are stained into society with the helping hand of the mass media to contribute.

Men on the other hand are represented as the dominant gender, often seen as the hard working type, comes in different categories when presented in the media. One of these stereotypes is where the male is seen as the professional type of person who has essentially reached the epitome of success, while really confident in his abilities. This is seen as a valuable asset by society which makes people want to strive to be this type of person. The second main stereotype in gender roles represented by the media is the buffoon type of male. This male is typically the fatherly figure in the family, who is mostly depicted in TV sit coms and reality shows, while also often being troubled with issues in the workplace.

Companies that specialize in selling products related to keeping the health of the human body maintained as well as beauty products always employ this technique as to them, what’s deemed attractive by the media, they have to show what their products look like on these ‘attractive people. Examples of companies like this who always use attractive models to advertise their products are big names like Lynx, Nivea, Dolce & Gabbana  and L’oreal to name a few.

However I’m going to focus on one brand that happens to nearly always include gender stereotyping within their advertisements. This company is Lynx. Lynx, or Axe known outside the United Kingdom are a company that sells male grooming products targeted towards the young male demographic. They sell various products, predominantly deodorant spray and shower gel. Since they sell men’s beauty products, they have to cater towards what men like to see and what they want as a whole. Of course, women plays a huge part in this since “men love sex” is a huge stereotype and while most of it is true, it isn’t really applicable or relatable to keeping yourself clean and having a good hygiene.

Even though Lynx caters towards men as the main target consumers for their products, women are generally featured on their adverts, shown in a seductive passion; revealing too much skin than what’s needed. An example of this is located in the lynx advert shown here. The advert presents a female model who is half naked in a sexual position, in a kitchen taking out food from the oven. This ia a huge stereotype for women and relates back to them being good for nothing but being housewives. This stereotype has been around ever since the 1950s, and in that decade the media exhibited a huge amount of gender bias towards women and it was the norm for them to be presented in the media doing chores or cooking. This advert tries to adopt the old traditional American adverts style, we can tell this just by looking at the old fashioned oven, cookware and vintage furniture.

Indeed, the media portrayed American women as the best dressed housewives ever seen and this was also popular due to women leaving school at young ages to marry and indulge into the realm of being dedicated to families and loving food preparation in the kitchen. This is where that stereotype originates from. The lipstick and use of dark colours on the models clothing signifies mystery, lust, elegance and luxury. Additionally, the use of the title “Can she make you lose control?” is emphasizing the gender stereotype that cooking and lust for women are a man’s weakness when this has nothing to do with the product at all. This is a way of drawing the audience/consumer in by using these images to catch the eye and making a certain gender think that to attain what’s in the image we must purchase their product as a ‘bargaining chip ’in order to achieve this.