10/18/19
Gender Bias & Stereotypical Gender Roles in Advertising
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Despite the numerous advancements made by the Women's Rights Movement over the last hundred years, the advertising world still contains gender bias, sexism, and stereotypical imaging of gender roles concerning women.
Despite the buying power of women in 2019, companies and their advertisers continue to perpetuate gender bias and gender role stereotypes in ad campaigns. Ads in today's market are geared more towards men, than women, by nearly double. Advertisers are obsessed with gender and market their products in ways that distinguish one gender and its roles, from the other. "Women are more often portrayed as young and concerned with physical attractiveness than their male counterparts" (Artz 20). By purchasing the products displayed in these biased ads, we are saying that we agree with the bias and stereotypes expressed in the campaign. If we want to further the Women's Rights Movement and truly be treated as equals,our advertising should reflect the changes and climate of the times. Advertising, as part of mass media, has the power to influence consumer opinion and by participating in gender bias, sexism, and stereotypes, they are contributing to the problem and not the solution.
By adopting gender-neutral language in advertising and marketing campaigns, corporations can be more inclusive of consumers within a given market, and subsequently increase their profits. Eliminating the sexism, gender bias and stereotyping in advertising has the potential to affect serious change in the attitudes of consumers, influencing not only what they buy, but why we choose to support the causes that we do. "Scholars have studied portrayals of women and men in advertising since the 1970s" (Zotos & Grau 759). Cultural and social consequences of gender bias, sexism and stereotypes in advertising for decades have had overwhelmingly negative effects on the public perception of the gender roles of women. Not only are the images, attitudes and messages depicted in these advertisements offensive, but they are psychologically damaging to women as a whole.
News Feed Curated by:
Heather O'Hara
Always #LikeAGirl
Join Always in our epic battle to keep girls' confidence high during puberty and beyond. Using #LikeAGirl as an insult is a hard knock against any adolescent girl. And since the rest of puberty's really no picnic either, it's easy to see what a huge impact it can have on a girl's self-confidence. Making a start by showing them that doing things #LikeAGirl is an awesome thing! "In my work as a documentarian, I have witnessed the confidence crisis among girls and the negative impact of stereotypes first-hand," said Lauren Greenfield, filmmaker and director of the #LikeAGirl video. "When the words 'like a girl' are used to mean something bad, it is profoundly disempowering. I am proud to partner with Always to shed light on how this simple phrase can have a significant and long-lasting impact on girls and women. I am excited to be a part of the movement to redefine 'like a girl' into a positive affirmation." So tell us... what do YOU do #LikeAGirl? For the past 30 years, Always has been empowering girls globally, bringing puberty education to millions of adolescent girls. Find out more at http://always.com/en-us/about-us/supporting-puberty-education Find out more at http://always.com/en-us/about-us/our-epic-battle-like-a-girl Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/always Twitter - http://twitter.com/Always Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/always_brand For information, tips and advice on being a girl from our partners at BeingGirl presented by Always and Tampax, watch their YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/beinggirl
The dangerous ways ads see women | Jean Kilbourne | TEDxLafayetteCollege
Never miss a talk! SUBSCRIBE to the TEDx channel: http://bit.ly/1FAg8hB Pioneering activist and cultural theorist Jean Kilbourne has been studying the image of women in advertising for over 40 years. In this rapid-fire, passionate, and highly entertaining talk, she discusses the experiences that inspired her to create this new field and vividly illustrates how these images affect us all. You'll never look at an ad in the same way again. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
Top 10 Most Sexist Commercials of All Time!
We're winding back the clock and counting down the most sexist commercials of the 1950s and 60s! — Video by Beryl Shereshewsky and Jonathan Tortora Other Top 10 Videos: Top 10 Cutest Cats: http://bit.ly/RLBIoa Top 10 Cutest Babies Laughing: http://bit.ly/OnToru
Advertising Week panel uncovers the truth about gender bias in advertising
Having the conversation on gender bias is the first step to overcoming it, and a panel discussion at Advertising Week Monday afternoon confronted the subject head on.
This panel and the discussion that resulted, prove that there are active gender bias and stereotypes in advertising. Despite the shift we've seen in the Women's Rights Movement and mainstream second-wave feminism of the 1960s, we are still fighting for equality and that includes the advertising world. Despite advancements, women in advertising are still relegated to the kitchen or displayed as sex objects. The panel and their research prove that women are underrepresented in advertising, with men appearing in twice as much advertising as women.
The U.K. Just Banned 'Harmful Gender Stereotypes' in Advertising
"Harmful gender stereotypes in ads can contribute to inequality in society."
Gender bias and stereotyping of gender roles in advertising is not just a problem in the United States. Our allies across the pond in the United Kingdom, know all too well about inequality in the advertising industry and how it affects female consumers in particular. In 2019, the U.K. issued a ban on advertising which stereotypes gender and attempts to influence how people should see themselves or behave based on gender roles. The ban and its rules hope to limit the stereotypes and biased images that contribute to inequality in society and reduce images that limit ones potential.
Gender Stereotypes Banned in British Advertising
No more commercials showing men struggling to do a load of laundry, or asking women if they are “beach body ready.”
In order to end the gender bias and stereotyping that occurs in the U.K., the country's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has issued a ban in 2019, giving specific guidelines for companies and advertisers and banning "ads that connect physical features with success in the romantic or social spheres; assign stereotypical personality traits to boys and girls, such as bravery for boys and tenderness for girls; suggest that new mothers should prioritize their looks or home cleanliness over their emotional health; and mock men for being bad at stereotypical “feminine” tasks, such as vacuuming, washing clothes or parenting." By removing the advertising that is biased or displays gender stereotypes, the ASA hopes to crack down on harmful, offensive and unhealthy ads which contribute to a variety of issues for consumers who hang on their every word.
Cognitive Bias, Gender and Images in Advertising - Avoiding Stereotyping
Images in advertising can sustain a bias or confirm a stereotype. Using images to tell a story, and avoid bias can forge new ways of acting and thinking. As the article discusses, we are influenced greatly by the people we are raised by, hard-wired to associate and sympathize with people who are "like us." As cognitive development theory suggests, we are heavily influenced (especially as children) by our gender models, some of whom are shared via advertising and social media. The power of the brain is used heavily by advertisers, as they use messages in ads to influence and persuade the public and their decisions. Gender stereotypes in these ads perpetuate bias, affecting how people believe, behave and what they purchase.
The ugly truth about advertising's gender bias, and how to change it
Execs from JWT, J&J, and DanoneWeave react to the results of a new JWT/Geena Davis Institute study. Based on a study conducted on over 2,000 ads and spanning a period of more than ten years, it was concluded by the panel that the women depicted in ads were often "young and dumber" than the men depicted in advertisements. In the ads studied, men were depicted as intelligent 89% of the time versus 61% of the time for ads featuring women. These statistics clearly demonstrate the gender bias and stereotypes that most advertising depicts. Leaders of the panel want to take the necessary steps to correct the bias that exists in advertising, by first admitting that men are contributing to the problem and that they need to be more supportive of women and give them a seat at the table and make them stakeholders in advertising campaigns.
Links Cited