Lecture 5: Selling Gender Identity

1. SC2220: Gender StudiesLecture 5: Selling Gender Identity Eric C. Thompson Semester 2, 2010/2011

2. Where We Have Been… History of Gender Studies Sex/Gender Distinction Becoming Male or Female Gender socialization; paths to learning gender. Gender Systems Masculinity/Femininity Gender as systems of beliefs and behaviors

3. Where We Are Going… Gender in Popular Culture Gender in Advertising Popular Culture Gender in Social Relations Gender and Power Gender and Work Gender, Here and Now Gender in Singapore

4. 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?

5. “Killing Us Softly 3”:Gender and Advertising Killing Us Softly: 1979 Still Killing Us Softly: 1987 Killing Us Softly 3: 2000

6. Men and Women in Advertising Content Analysis of Advertising general shows the following: Men as “expert” voiceover announcer on all types of products Men overrepresented numerically Women younger, shorter, more likely secondary role Women 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 infants Women 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.

8. “Real Beauty” Dove “Real Beauty” Campaign Revolutionary? 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 Possibilities Brittney Spears Pepsi Ad Campaign Influence on Clothing Styles In 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 Advertising Version 4: 2010

12. Cultural Differences in Images of Beauty Some aspects of beauty are consistent across cultures: Symmetry Waist-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.

13. Mauritania Fat-Farms: Force Fed Beauty

14. Radically Different Images of Beauty:But Equally Extreme Obesity = Beauty 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

15. Skin Deep Beauty Agricultural societies: Dark skin = Working Outdoors = Low Social Status Light skin = Staying Indoors = High Social Status Industrial societies: Dark skin = Leisure Outdoors = High Social Status Light skin = Working Indoors (factory/office) = Low Social Status Racism: White = European = Wealth = High Social Status Skin Whitening Products Skin Tanning Products

16. Influence of Mass Popular Culture Mass 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 Women Why 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, Biological Popular Culture: Images teach us how to be men, women, gendered beings Social 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)

20. Summary Points Advertising 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.