Case Study:

Gender Role Stereotypes, Sexual

Objectification, and Power in Advertising

Submitted by:

CALPOTURA, Angelica

CANTA, Vhista Anne Marie

ESCOBEDO, Bea Eunice

MABALOT, Ma. Isabela

MARASIGAN, Daniella Grace

TOH, Kylie Rebeccia

Submitted to:

MS. ERIKA CRUZ

 The term media, which is the plural of medium, refers to the communication channels
through which we disseminate news, education, promotional messages and other data. This can
include anything from printed paper to digital data such as newspapers, magazines, television,
radio, billboards, and posters. It refers to all means of communication, as it describes the various
ways through which we communicate in society. When talking about reaching a very large number
of people, we can call it a mass media. And according to research, mass media has become a
driving force to different kinds of discrimination, especially sexual objectification. Of the many
influences on how we view men and women, media are the most pervasive and one of the most
powerful. Woven throughout our daily lives, media insinuate their messages into our
consciousness at every turn. All forms of media communicate images of the sexes, many of which
perpetuate unrealistic, stereotypical, and limiting perceptions.

In general, media continue to present both women and men in stereotyped ways that limit
our perceptions of human possibilities . Men and women are sexually objectified to sell products
but has different standards of objectification through men and women. When men are used as
sexual object this often mean as strength and power. In contrast women are portrayed as sexual
desires of man. In results, in order to attract a man, one has to be beautiful and sexy. In result a
women’s power in society decreases. This annihilates the rights of women, where the gender
equality is affected by these advertisements. In general, this can cause someone to depression, low
self-esteem, disordered eating, substance abuse, and stronger endorsement of rigid gender roles.
As we think that the purpose of a women is to satisfy men’s sexual desires, and in addition with
tolerating sexual objectification increases the women’s anger, disgust and distrust towards men
which can affect relationship between them.

Studies show that typical female roles fall into cultural stereotypes of women and are often
sexualized with minimal clothing and sexualized roles. For example, a content analysis of video
games found that "41% of female characters wore revealing clothing and an equal number were
partially or totally nude", whereas the male characters were not. However, sexualization is not the
only stereotypical way in which women are represented in the media. The objectification of
women in the media is transmitted verbally and nonverbally, as well as directly and indirectly, and
it is not only visual but can also be expressed subtly by commenting on women's appearance in a
humorous way, making jokes and gags, and using double meanings. Thus, women are often
victims of online and offline violence as a result of the normalization of their bodies
objectification. In order to advocate against the objectification of women in the media, some
program are implementing projects on this issue. For instance, some trainings and handbooks are
being developed by International organizations and NGOS for media professionals to improve the
gender-sensitivity of media representations. Objectification concept has suggested that men
appear especially to a woman’s sexual function when provoked with sexually objectified
depictions of female targets, this increase in focus on the body and appearance could then imply
that men lose out on the personal and individual qualities of the sexually objectified target, seeing
her as a lesser human being.

When it comes to advertising, we tend to think of gender roles that are capable of
advertising. Which is the main key of advertising is to persuade/to attract the people especially
from the media where there is a huge audience that you can make a huge difference with by
representing an exact gender role stereotype. For example, women in advertisements are usually
skinny, beautiful, and curvy, instead of intelligent, smart human beings. Women’s bodies are
shown as objects, rather than as a person. In a lot of ads, men and women are depicted together in
sexual situations, the appearance of the body is emphasized, and human qualities are ignored. The
man is shown as overriding, and the woman is his sexual object. They tend to take control over
women easily. However, this is not only inappropriate, but also offensive for women. Their bodies
became the symbol of unfair power in relation to men.

Advertisers frequently use gender roles to promote products. Research has shown a strong
interest in studying the portrayals of men and women in advertisements, which was initiated by
the assumption that advertisements typically present a male viewpoint of the world, leading to
positive and negative consequences for marketers, consumers, and society. Using gender roles in
advertising can improve brand evaluations and sales. On the other hand, such representations of
men and women can create or reinforce gender stereotypes, causing a disadvantage for women or
promoting idealized standards that are impossible for consumers to achieve. These ambiguous
effects are not only challenging for advertisers who use gender roles but also leave researchers
with several unanswered questions concerning gender roles in advertising.

The most common example of sexual objectification through advertising is the marketing
of alcohol to men, often showing and giving highlight or focus to select bodily features of women.
We can't deny the fact that advertising company always creates a new type of woman that does not
exist in the real world, because also of the reason that at an early age, men are programmed to
desire the Barbie Doll woman. And as for the women, they are told that they must look like this
kind of woman. A woman who can catch the attention of viewers, particularly men, a woman who
have long legs, perfect skin, beautiful hair, and an impossible body. The problem is woman that
looks like a Barbie doll does not exist. She is the product of hours of sitting in the chair, facing the
mirror, putting a lot of beauty products and days of photo retouching, even if she's a supermodel.
Every woman has imperfections because every woman is also a human.

On the other hand, men objectification also happens all the time in advertisements. But
unlike women, we don't really mind or we don't really care about it. Objectification of men happens
when we treat them as the objects of pleasure. Example is the commercials where men buy or treat
their girlfriend or wife with expensive things. This kind of situation shows that men are treated
like bank accounts, wallets and basically objects of wealth. The idea of marketing a men flaunting
expensive things or spending loads of expense on women is very rampant and is considered as
objectification as it shows the concept that the value of man is based on the level of what he can
offer to women or his wealth or power. It just basically informed the viewers that women find men
more attractive if they wear suits, ride extravagant cars, have expensive watches and also the power
to treat them with those things instead of their personalities.

One of the most damaging consequences of media's images of women and men is that these
images encourage us to perceive normal bodies and normal physical functions as problems. It's
understandable to wish we weighed a little more or less, had better developed muscles, and never
had pimples or cramps. What is neither reasonable nor healthy, however, is to regard healthy,
functional bodies as abnormal and unacceptable. Yet this is precisely the negative self-image
cultivated by media portrayals of women and men. Because sex sells products (Muro, 1989),
sexual and erotic images are the single most prominent characteristic of advertising (Courtney &
Whipple, 1983). Further, advertising is increasingly objectifying men, which probably accounts
for the rise in men's weight training and cosmetic surgery Media, and especially advertising, are
equal opportunity dehumanizers of both sexes.

Advertising is very effective in convincing us that we need products to solve problems we

are unaware of until some clever public relations campaign persuades us that something natural
about us is really unnatural and unacceptable. In an effort to meet the cultural standards of beautiful
bodies, many women suffered unnecessary surgery, which led to disfigurement, loss of feeling,
and sometimes death for women when silicone implants were later linked to fatal conditions. media
argue that our natural state is abnormal and objectionable, a premise that is essential to sell
products and advice for improving ourselves. Accepting media messages about our bodies and
ourselves, however, is not inevitable: We can reflect on the messages and resist those that are
inappropriate and/or harmful. We would probably all be considerably happier and healthier if we
became more critical in analyzing media’s communication about how we should look, be, and act.
References

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00913367.2019.1566103

https://www.nyu.edu/classes/jackson/causes.of.gender.inequality/Readings/Wood%20-%20Gendered%
20Media%20-%2094.pdf