3rd Post: First Scholarly Source: Female Role Stereotypes in Print Advertising.
This source is an article detailing the results of an experiment that have to do with analyzing magazines and other advertisements in the UK. The article will analyze how women are depicted across a spectrum. It mentions that the intent of the experiment is to explore gender roles, or more specifically, female role portrayals in advertisements. In addition, it will analyze if these female role portrayals vary among magazines of the U.K, and how these gender roles portrayed in advertisements, reflect on jobs that women have in real life.
After all its research, the study concluded that most of the magazines and advertisements that they studied had women mainly portraying “decorative” roles (Emanuella 1418). However, the magazine did note that while male oriented magazines had women in a traditional and decorative role, most of women’s magazines had figures and pictures that were leaning more towards non-traditional gender roles. In addition, the study points out that in male oriented magazines, having women as “decorative” and “traditional” translates to them being seen as sex objects.
The study goes even farther to determine the repercussions of portraying and objectifying women in advertising. It states that, “there is concern that advertising stereotyping can have a major influence on the sex role development of children since media exposure affects cognitive development, attitude formation and development and change, and socialization. Because the use of female role stereotypes is also manifested in advertising directed toward children, it further propagates these gender representations,” (Emanuella 1418).
While I do agree with most of the study, these results encompass only the advertisements of Great Britain. While many advertisements are created in Great Britain, and then pass over to the United States, these results are not consistent with any other country. It is interesting to note that the article points out that the results of turning women into sex objects can be seen in the rise of cosmetic surgery in the U.K. Women start to believe that their self-worth lays with their appearance, and this belief is only reinforced when looking at a commercial or magazine.
I think that an important question for this article would be if the results found for Great Britain can be considered consistent with other areas of the world, such as the U.S. While the answer to that question can only be found with a similar study done in the U.S. instead, it is easy to imagine that similar results can be found. The United States is a consumer nation, with advertising, commercials, and billboards as far as the eye can see. It is highly possible that the results found in Britain would be replicated in the U.S.
Emmanuella Plakoyiannaki, Yorgos Zotos, (2009) “Female Role Stereotypes In Print Advertising: Identifying Associations With Magazine and Product Categories,” European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 43 Iss: 11/12, pp. 1411-1434.
