Gender Stereotypes in Advertising Essay

Gender roles are complex constructions. These structures are formed not only by explicitly institutionalized differences of gender but also informally, such as through the media. The media takes an important role, because it establishes values, dominates modern life's symbolic settings, and cultivates a rising perspective. Commercial television has been spreading globally since the 1970s, and today most people are exposed to a great deal of television advertising (Furnham and Mak, 1999). Looking at TV advertisements also gives us insight into the changing significance of gender in popular culture. Many studies have shown that females are generally portrayed at home and play traditional roles while males are portrayed as the central and dominant role in TV commercials (Furnham and Mak, 1999). Social learning theory also supports the idea that TV has an important effect on people’s beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors by showing models that they can learn from. By repeatedly exposing these models on TV, viewers’ mindsets and beliefs about gender roles can be changed. From this point of view, repeating exposure to commercial messages that relate female characters with domestic products and male characters with nondomestic products may subtly influence consumers’ attitudes about appropriate spheres and roles for both women and men (Arslan, 2015).

Since the Republic of Turkey was established in 1923, its goal has been to reach a high level of modernization and Westernization. As a result of that new models for gender traditional gender types have been introduced. According to Mine Çankaya, today, the Turkish gender ideology reflects a mixed profile whereby modern concepts are based mainly on Western models, hybrid ones where traditional and new models are combined and traditional models coexist (2013). Historically, Turkey was one example of a patriarchal society in which men dominated certain aspects of life and women had limited rights. However, result of Westernization and modernization processes, women’s status increased. They were given equal rights and privileges in political, cultural, and social life. On the other hand, enormous developments in mass media and technology tended to contribute to patriarchal model challenges. Many Turkish women today work in high-paying jobs, have a say in many aspects of life and at home, live alone, and act independently without interference of any kind. At home, men support their partners, perform traditional female jobs such as nursing, and show greater empathy when raising their children. Even though there have been some changes in the mindset people have about gender stereotypes, TV commercials still depict and consolidate traditional gender stereotypes. And also these stereotypes can be easily seen in Turkish daily life. One possible solution to change those roles is to create more equal commercials in terms of gender.

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Gender is a socially constructed term that defines the roles, characteristics, and attributes of being female and male. Society and cultural norms define what is acceptable for both sexes. Throughout life, individuals have been learning gender roles by observing and experiencing. They find answers to questions such as “What is acceptable, valued, and expected” based on their gender. These answers can be seen as norms in society. Since males are considered breadwinners in Turkish society, many Turkish families encourage their sons to become doctors or lawyers basically because those are better-paid occupations. Meanwhile, girls are encouraged to become good mothers or at least to have jobs that are considered suitable for females. Similarly, mass media such as soap operas or movies define models of action as being male or female; for example, females are depicted in more traditional gender-stereotypic fashion: they can be seen on TV less than male characters, they are generally associated with domestic products, mostly in indoor settings and shown as housewives (Arslan, 2015). Whereas male characters are associated with nondomestic products and they can be seen in the public sphere, they usually are successful business people. Furthermore, female characters are slightly more attractive, thin, and suggestively dressed than males. Many ads show women as good looking, attractive, and sexy, making such representations ideal roles for women. Every person internalizes these signals as defining themselves and others. Hence any gender dialogue serves as a positive force in shaping one's identity as well as communicating with others. Many study results revealed that women appeared more often in interior settings, they were rarely used as the voiceover and many times women and children created the background. According to Arslan male characters are mostly preferred as voice-overs. However, Uray and Burnaz (2003) found different results; they claimed that advertisements were much more equal in terms of being voice-overs. Eylem Arslan's results’ showed that men are generally more likely to be voice-overs than females and it is a very low chance that a male character appears in an ad where the female is providing voice-over almost in every culture. (Arslan, 2015). In addition, women were depicted as younger, more often with some indication of marriage, without any indication of employment, independent positions, and social relationships were established with other characters in the advertisements (Cagli and Durukan, 1989; Karaca and Papatya, 2011; Uray and Burnaz, 2003). Furthermore, researchers have repeatedly shown that male characters are depicted in professional roles more than females (Coltrane and Adams,1997; Hong, 1997; Signorielli,1997), and female characters are portrayed less than male characters in professional positions. Such representations are significant in terms of learning about the social role, these patterned portrayals in ads generally claim that men are more commonplace and more competent in business roles.

According to Mine Çankaya, there are 3 types of gender profiles in Turkish society and also these profiles can be seen easily in TV commercials. In the traditional model, women are depicted as submissive, unreasonable, beautiful, and emotional characters without authority or control over events whereas men are depicted as self-confident successful business persons who engage in powerful and dominant positions with courage but limited emotional disclosure. In the new model, Turkish women have more power than they had before. They are working in highly paid jobs and they have a say when it comes to important decisions in the family. Women can divorce their husbands, raise their children alone, and compete for the improvement of their rights. Meanwhile, men are becoming more empathetic to their wives, they undertake domestic roles and most importantly they respect their partners’ decisions and sexual freedom. Men give much more importance to their physical appearance. They can prefer so-called female colors on clothing without confronting any judgment. Lastly in the hybrid model, even though women have freedom and rights in any part of life; they are still considered domestic caretakers and still pressured to continue domestic tasks such as cleaning, cooking, or ironing while men are responsible for the money-related things such as paying the bills and children’s school fee. One can easily observe these models in TV commercials. However, traditional and hybrid ones take more place than the new model. In commercials, both sexes are presented as working people but still, women are associated with traditional stereotypes. They are inferior to the man, emotional, unreasonable, seductive, or influenced by a powerful man. On the contrary, for males, nothing has changed except clothing. They are still depicted as powerful, ambitious, clever, self-confident, masculine, and strong (Çankaya, 2013).

Overall, many studies were conducted and their results were almost the same: Turkish commercials tend to preserve the traditional gender roles. They contribute to the hegemonic traditional models, probably to sell more products rather than start new trends and help to change gender norms of the society. Men are depicted as strong, masculine characters who are associated with non-domestic products such as automobiles and services. On the other hand, women are still associated with domestic products and depicted as happy in their lives in the private sphere. These commercials suggest that women’s main goals are to improve themselves and their homes. Also, many researchers point out that emphasis on women’s bodies and unrealistic beauty standards are the accepted norms in Turkish TV commercials. From the social cognitive perspective, it is clear that viewers are likely to learn that women’s value is measured mostly by their appearance and sexuality; however, this is not the case for men. Furthermore, commercials also indicate that traditional roles and behaviors are more acceptable for women. They continue to place women into the domestic realm.