ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Delyana
8212719003

Rubio, M. D. S. (2018). A multimodal approach to the analysis of gender stereotypes in

contemporary British TV commercials:“women and men at work”. Poznan Studies in
Contemporary Linguistics, 54(2), 185-221.

This article is interesting enough for me to do a mini research on the comparison of

gender stereotypes in TV commercials. It aims to examine the potential meaning of images in the
enactment or creation of gender stereotypes in contemporary British TV advertising corpus. As a
result of the fact that discourse is becoming increasingly multimodal, current analysis of TV
advertising has attempted to account for various semiotic modes to access the intended meaning
of advertisers (cf. Pennock-Speck and Del Saz-Rubio 2013). The dimensions outlined in
Goffman (1979) and several aspects of the metaphorical functions of Kress and van Leeuwen
(1996, 2006) are taken as starting points to quantitatively and qualitatively analyse a sample of
155 advertisements that depict women and men in the work environment. Goffman's theoretical
underpinnings provide clues to how gender roles are enforced in print advertising by focusing on
subtle behavioural cues such as use of the hands, eyes, body position, facial expressions, gaze
aversion, and relative sizes of men and women, all of which are represented. "subordination of
women" and their infantilization. The Goffman dimensions are Relative measure, Feminine
touch, function rating, Subordinated ritual, and licensed drawing. This article also uses Kress
and van Leeuwen's Visual Social Semiotics (1996, 2006) aiming to move away from a
monomodal approach to discourse, developing a tool kit for approaching visual representations
or organization analysis, which they define as a grammatical approach to visual
communication images on three meta function. developed in the account of Halliday (2004). The
findings show that women are mostly depicted in unpaid scenarios, in home settings and
accompanied by their children. This view is reinforced thanks to the multimodal dimension of
framing (mostly through close-ups), engagement with other participants through looks, smiles,
and lots of touching activities. Men, on the other hand, are mostly depicted in paid scenarios
where they greet the audience live through a display on demand, act as experts in their
professional capacity and are framed with medium and long photos.
For me, this article is very interesting. Indeed, it is not strictly a reference for my project.
There are some things that still need to be explained specifically, one of which is the background
music in the advertisement. This article focuses on the work of men and women, while my mini
research plan is a comparison of men and women on facial cleansing products.