{ Alajmit Khalid ALajmi Professor: Corri Ditch ENGL 113A 2 November 2015 x ie ‘The Effect of Advertising on Masculine and Feminine Performances “The mass media today has the access to almost everything, including people life. As a result, it is becoming more powerful than ever. Television, internet, radio, newspapers and, magazines are everywhere around us. In other words, avoiding mass media today is impossible. ‘Therefore the ability to reach a large audience gives the mass media the power to influence people behaviors, beliefs and characteristics in every aspect of life. Gender is one of the aspects that mass media targets in a lot of different ways. Not many people today know that gender is not determined biologically, but it is the appropriate behaviors that socially assigned to each sex.» / while sex refers to the biological distinction between men and women. The social difference that constructed gender carte from many factors, one of these factors is advertising because these advertisements that people see everyday influence their understanding of gender. The problem is y ~ that the more people see these advertisements, the more it becomes natural and normal to them. \ Ifpeople took a deep look into these advertisements they will know how weird they are in terms of gender. “Individuals are born sexed but not gendered, and they have to be taught to be ees : _/, masculine or feminine” (Lorber 24). Masculinity and femininity are the two attributes that we \/ often use to identify a person’s gender. The problem is that these two characteristics are shaped by advertising. Therefore, the masculine and feminine performances that we see today from menAlajmiz and women are actually based on some norms and the advertisements are one of the main factors that lead to create these norms. In other Words, the masculine and feminine performances are y socially constructed. Violence, the body images and the inequality between men and women, all ‘ of these concepts has been understanding wrongly when it comes to gender. i fee ; The advertisement main goal was garbing peoples’ attention in every way possible in order to sell them something. In other words, the advertising purpose is to send a message to the audience and try to convince them that whatever they see is true. Advertising as the people know today begun with the industrial nation. Shyama Kumari and Shraddha Shivani in their article “A Study on gender portrayals in Advertising through the years: A Review Report” states that over the last four decades, gender was one of the most preferred advertising strategy to market products, In the 1970s the research shows that female and male were stereotypical and the researchers at the time predict that the way male and female portrayal will change and become more contemporary (57). However, they found out later that they were wrong because male and female continued to present in a stereotypical way in the 1980s (57). Fven in the 1990s and ¢ 2000s there was only a slight change in the way gender represent in the advertisement (57). The general consensus from these researches was that women in ads are depicted to be dependent on \) men, need protection, homemakers and sex object (56). Therefore, the images of babysitter, maids and a good housewife for women and the masculine tough men are not something new. | Alll of these roles that women and men preforms today are not something new, but is something | that advertisement starts to construct long time ago and it became bigger and bigger as time goes by.Alajmi3 {As the advertising becomes something avoidable, itis natural to expect that it will change the understanding of some concept or at least affect it. The masculine and feminine performances are one of the aspect that changed because of the advertising, Men often preform their masculinity and evaluate themselves based on what they see in the advertisement, Advertising plays an important role in defining masculinity and the set of attributes, roles, and behaviors that comes with it, according to the advertising and mass media, every man has to be tough and strong in order to identify themselves as a male, The real men cannot cry, show their pain or emotions. The problem with these norms is that it is lead men to become violent because it is the only way to hide what other considered as girly emotion or feeling. In other words, some men. start to think that violence means masculinity and that’s can lead to serious problems such as school shootings, gay bashing, bullying, sexual assault, and violence against women. Most of these accidents are committed by men. The same thing with women, advertising control the attributes that every woman should have and preform, because women’s portrayal in the advertisement as dependent, sensitive, emotional, weak, soft and accepting. These signs that advertisement sent become part of the masculine and feminine performances, “Gender signs and\\ singles are so ubiquitous that we usually fail to note them- unless they are missing or ambiguous. ‘Then we are uncomfortable until we have successfully placed the other person in gender status; / otherwise, we feel socially dislocated” (20). Therefore, the image of masculinity and femininity that men and women had in their mind affected by these advertisements and both men and ‘women unconsciously start to label the other and judge him or her based on what they see in the advertisement and if somehow some of them notice these norms and refuse to follow the script that advert 1g gave them they will become non-conformist and as a result, they will left behind and most of people will start to ignore them.Alajmia ‘The body images are one of the most important things that advertising change. ‘The wrong understanding from men and women to these images has led to serious problems. [Jean Kilbourne in her article “Still Killing Us Softly: Advertising and the Obsession with Thinness”.] Talked about how these false images affect women in verity \ ways. Kilbourne said that the ideal body that media advertise is unattainable and even if ‘women starve themselves only 5% of them will reach the ideal body “The tyranny of the \ ideal image makes almost all of us feel inferior” (Kilbourne 396). As a result, women Will suffer from depression, anxiety and low self-confidence. “We are taught to hate our bodies, and thus leam to hate ourselves” (Kilbourne 396). Therefore, in order to reach the false ideal body women will buy the products that media advertise. In other words, they {ell into the trap that advertisement set. Men also on the same boat with women in terms of body images, they always try to live up to the norms that advertisement set. The images of the masculine body are everywhere, it does not matter if the advertisement is about food, television show, movies, clothe and even Action Figures. There is always a strong masculine man in it. As a result, most men concerned about their weight and always feel unsatisfied about it which lead them to depress and sometimes risk behaviors. Q ‘The problem with these false body images is that it distracts men and women from what / | is really important, so instead of worrying about complete their education they ended up focusing on minor issues such as, how their body should look like. Y Gender inequality is another concept that advertisement effect. Many \\ advertisements depict women as someone who need help or someone how cannot take care of himself and the person who usually help them and take care of them are strong |Alajimis masculine men, Men and woman characteristics cannot be the same in the advertisement, there is always a difference between them. “As social: institution, gender is a process of creating distinguishable social statuses for the assignment of rights and responsibilities” (Lorbor 27). Therefore, based on these norms in the advertisement men and women assign to different tasks and jobs. For example, In Middle Eastem society, it is rare to find women in the field work because jobs such as construction and automotive mechanic need Physical strength and stamina and that’s something women lacked according to the advertisement. On the other hand. It is also very rare to see a man working as kindergarten teacher because women are better at taking care of children according to ‘what we see in many advertisements. Therefore, these norms that advertisements set \ makes men and women’s performances different. Many people believe that parenting is the strongest factor that shape the , 7 masculine and feminine performances. They claim that the child learning everything first \ from his parent who raising their child based on the gender norms that they learn from their culture. This view seems convincing at first, but many people here forget that their parent were once child, then teenager then adult and in each stage of their life they must have seen a lot of advertisements, so as they grew up watching these advertisement their ideas about gender in general and the masculine and feminine performances in particular has changed and framed by these advertisements. “Film, print, magazine, newspaper, TV- ‘magnifies the object. It is hard to escape. It enter us, and then our interest in that object, becomes part of who we are, entwined with our sense of self and community, an aspect of cour identity as crucial as church iconography was several centuries ago” (Orbach 244),Alaimi6 ‘Therefore, the parent understanding of the masculine and feminine performances shaped by these advertisements, so they pass these norms and standard that they learned to their child unintentionally. In other words the parents’ affected and influenced by the advertisement and that’s why the advertisement is the strongest factor that constructed the masculine and feminine performances. The advertisement affects us in a good and bad ways. In terms of gender the cons outweigh the pros, and because of that man and woman are suffering the consequences. Therefore, masculine and Feminine Performances are controlled by the advertisement ‘norms. In other words, the masculine and feminine performances are socially constructed and advertisement plays an important role in shaped these performances that people preform today.Alajmi7 Works cited 1. Kumari, Shyama, and Shraddha Shivani. "A Study on Gender Portrayals in Advertising \ | through the Years: A Review Report."Journal of Research in Gender Studies 2.2 (2012): 54-63. ProQuest. Web. 28 Oct. 2015. \ 2. Jean, KI. "Still killing us softly: advertising and the obsession with thinness”. Feminist W Perspectives on Eating Disorders. Fas. Patricia, F.A. and Melanie Katzman and Susan Wooley. New York: Guilford Press, 1994. 395-396. 3. Judith, LO. “Night to his day: the social construction of gender. Composing Gender a Bedford Spotlight Reader. Bosten: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. 19-34, Print. 4. Orbach, SU. Losing bodies”. Composing Gender a Bedford Spotlight Reader. Bosten: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. 19-34. Print. §. Katz, Jackson. "Tough Guise 2." Online video clip. \ YouTube. YouTube, 06 Nov. 2013. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.ean es |counerarumen and \saton are meson. |erougny teow drecons. Insnrer. 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