Gender Stereotypes In The Advertising Discourses

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3.THE ROLE OF ADVERTISING

Advertising is a common phenomenon nowadays and people are exposed to the advertising process as it has gained the attention and interest of a large number of individuals in different societies around the world.

Advertising is referred to as a form of discourse in the sense that it has influenced the structure of language and the modality of lifestyle and also the content of routine daily acts of communicative exchanges. The messages of advertising have permeated the entire cultural landscape. Printed advertisements fill the pages of newspapers and magazines, commercials interrupt TV and radio programs constantly.

With the advent of industrialization in the 19th century, style of presentation became important in raising the persuasive efficacy of the ad text. Accordingly, advertising started to change the structure and use of language and verbal communication. From the 1920s onwards, advertising agencies sprang up, broadening the attempts of their predecessors to build a rhetorical bridge between the product and the consumer's consciousness. In magazine advertisements as one the forms of advertisement, communication requires the presence and interaction of a number of elements for the understanding and the successfulness of the message. The interaction takes place between the ‘addresser’ who is the advertiser, the ‘addressee’ who is the public or the reader, the ‘meaning’ which is given to the product and transmitted between the participants, the ‘medium’ which is language and image, the ‘channel’ which is the written form and the ‘context’ which refers to the social and cultural situation, as the shared knowledge between the advertiser and the consumer.18

It is assumed that advertisements rely on different relationships and the three most important factors that must be involved and should be taken into consideration in the advertising context are: the ‘individual’ who is seeing the advertisement, the ‘context’ of the

18 T. Vestergaard & K. Schroder, The Language of Advertising, Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Weatherall, Ann, 1985.

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advertisement and the ‘content’ of its message because these are very crucial in creating people’s own worldviews.19 According to Holmes (2005), these relationships are “socially, economically, culturally, linguistically and politically constructed”, and for the advertisement to work successfully, the advertiser needs to assume “a common culture or communicative context” within the audience.

Formats of advertisements

According to Leiss (1997), the relationship between the product and the consumer are divided into four basic communicative formats. The first format is the ‘product-information format’, which describes and emphasizes the product and its utility, by means of a text which explains the benefits and the characteristics of the commodity. The second format has to do with the relationship between the product and picture: it is the ‘product-image format’, in which the name of the brand and package are important as well as the illustration used to valorize the product. The use of art and photography encourage the placement of the product in a symbolic setting, because the message implied in the visual representation gives the opportunity to explain the potential of product and their meaning in the human world. The ‘personalized format’ is another association between the commodity and people, in which persons are directly interpreted in their relationship to the world of the product. In this case, the product is presented in relation to the mother- daughter or male-female relationships. The ‘lifestyle format’ is the last relation which is established between the consumer, the product, the setting and the consumption style by combining aspects of the product- image and personalized format. Images, event and experiences are taken from everyday life and from the dreaming world to present the advertisement in an attractive and exciting way.

The cultural dimension of advertising

People’s needs have never been natural, but always cultural, social, defined relatives to the standard of their societies. Consumers derive meaning not only from the

19 K. Sheehan, Controversies in Contemporary Advertising, Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2004.

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product, but also from the external world, from experiences, from societal and cultural elements and from their beliefs and values, because the suggestive meaning or vitality of the product is taken from the events and adventures of everyday life. Sheehan (2004) asserts that the cultural lens allows us to create meaning from the product and services that come into our view.

For successful communication to take place, the audiences must be taken into consideration in the advertising process because what is appropriate for one audience may be unsuitable for another. Audiences belonging to different backgrounds, societies, cultures, customs and religions interpret the advertising messages and use culture differently.

Moreover, it is obvious that language may change when the audiences differ in the social or educational status. In other words, when addressing different audiences, social factors such as age, education and gender, other external components should be taken into consideration. For example, in the Iranian context, TV and Magazines´ advertisements are addressed to different audiences and are using a different language and discourse. The reason is that the audience of magazines is expected to be more educated and seems to belong to a different social class than TV’s audiences. Advertising should adapt to the social and cultural norms of a specific audience. However, it is assumed that in any given society we find two different audiences or identities. There are those who follow “the dictates of media culture” by “following the dominant fashion, values and behaviour”, and there is another group who resists “dominant forms of culture and identity, creating their own style and identities.”20 The second group is more resistant and cannot be easily influenced by the advertising manipulations. Jhally ( 1995) suggests that there are two worlds corresponding to the previous two audiences; there is a world of “substance where real power rests and where people live their real lives”, and there is “a world of style and surface” where audiences easily submit to consumerism because of their social and cultural education.21 Finally, the language and discourse of advertising are important to understand the objective of advertising as well as the social and cultural dimensions used to achieve and influence audiences. However,

20 K. Holmes, Advertising as Multilingual Communication. Hampshire: Palgrave, 2005.

21 S. Jhally, (1995), Advertising and Popular Culture. In Dines, G. & Humez, J.M. Gender, Race and Class in Media. A Text Reader. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1995.

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the role of the language of gender is very important to clarify the language used in advertising and the impact it has on women and men.

The role of language and visual images

The word and the picture do not exist in pure contradistinctions, there is a continuum whereby the word is a learned and conventional symbol and the image is a partially learned and naturalistic one.

The function of language in advertising is to express feelings, offer advice, inform and persuade, describe or create. Advertising language can either follow “a prescribed path of advertising clichés” or have the freedom to “deviate from it and from the rules of the language itself.”22 Moreover, the fact of advertising different kinds of products “means making different choices of language and in particular different choices of vocabulary.”23

According to Fowles (1996), it is important to distinguish between images and words. Illustrations are a kind of symbol, words are arbitrary creations, while images are naturalistic representations. Therefore, the heart of any advertisement is not only the picture or the text, but it is the visual imagery with symbolic properties that the advertiser hopes the consumer will find significant, since the combination of text and image has become very important for successful communication. According to Leiss (1997), the prevalence of using images in the media is growing, which improves ‘the ambiguity of meaning’ embedded in the advertising message. Visual representations become “more common and the relationship between text and visual image become more complementary”.24

22 G. Leech, English in Advertising. A Linguistic Study of Advertising in Great Britain, London: Longman, 1972: 4.

23 Ibidem, pg. 57.

24 W. Leiss, Social Communication in Advertising. London and New York: Routledge, 1997.

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According to Barthes, images are ‘ambiguous or polysemic’, while verbal messages are ‘unambiguous or monosemic’. He mentions two main functions of text in relation to picture: anchorage in which “the text provides the link between the picture and the situation in space and time”, and relay which denotes “a reciprocal relation between text and picture”.25 Sometimes pictures are vaguer than language and need to be explained by it; however, both language and imagery are important in the communication process as they are complementary in constituting the meaning expected from the advertisement.

Language and gender

Language, gender and society are three complex and interwoven terms. The question of whether language reflects or shapes the social life, gender relationships and expectations is a central one. The answer to these questions will help us understand how men and women’s space, speech, perspectives and choices are both determined and reflected by language. There are so many questions that need consideration. For example how do the socio- cultural actors interact with language in order to determine men and women’s relationships in society; how is gender deemed to be an important and powerful component in social interaction; how does its influence go beyond people’s thoughts, attitudes and beliefs.

The aim of the researches are to explore the importance of both language and society in determining and reinforcing female and male differences in speech, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. The emphasis will be on how gender is negotiated and represented in language and society and how the linguistic form may reflect and shape the social and cultural conditions under which women and men live. Instead of gender being viewed as an essential characteristic of an individual’s psyche, it is understood as a social construct, one that is produced by language and discourse.

The investigation and identification of differences between men’s and women’s speech date back across time. Until 1944, no specific piece of writing on gender differences in language was published. As stated by Grey (1998), it was in the 1970s that comparison

25 D. Barthes, Putting on Appearances Gender and Advertising. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988.

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between female cooperativeness and male competitiveness in linguistic behavior began to be noticed. Mulac concentrated on the term ‘gender as culture’ and ran a study on linguistic differences between men and women.

Researchers in language and gender such as Lakoff (1975), Coates (1998), Fishman (1997), Tannen (1986) and Cameron (1992) draw attention to the differences in male and female speech. These differences have been perceived within various theories. For instance, Lakoff (1975), the pioneer of studies on language and gender, introduced the deficit model. She explained women’s language in terms of inadequacies resulting from the political and cultural subordination of women by men. In her view the linguistic features of women’s language portray them as tentative, uncertain and lacking in authority and submissive. Other explanations given by authors such as Coates, Cameron and Tannen have termed women’s language as simply different, supportive and co-operative, in accordance with their socialization. These differences have resulted in theories such as the difference approach, the dominance approach and the stronger version of dominance, the deficit model.

Lakoff (1975) propounded the deficit theory by expressing the view that women’s language is deficient and inadequate. The dominance approach takes a similar stance, except that it is a weaker version of the deficit model. It focuses on dominance over women by men. The difference approach explains women’s language as being different to that of men, in that they are more nurturing, supportive and co-operative. Though this approach discusses the nature of women’s language, it overlooks the political impetus of the focus on women’s language. However, the deficit model does not consider the complexities involved in women’s language. As a result of the inadequacies of both theories, modern sociolinguists led by Cameron (1992) have argued that both approaches are necessary for the interpretation of language and gender. In fact, both theories are relevant in explaining men and women’s language in any context. As such, both theories will be employed in the explanation of men and women’s use of language. The researcher is aware of the current debates questioning some of the fundamental theoretical assumptions on which the dominance and difference theories are based.

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Many feminists have demonstrated through research that language, understood as discourse, functions as a powerful tool of patriarchal culture. Thorne and Henley (1975) state that language helps to enact and transmit every type of inequality, including that between the sexes, since it forms part of the structure that helps to maintain the larger politico- economic structure. According to them our use of language shapes our understanding of the social world, relationships to one another and social identities. De Klerk (1997) noted that gender identities reflect the material interests of those who have power. She states that this relationship between men and women can be perceived as politically- contracted gender linked roles in which language is constructed. Coates (1993) reinforces this notion by explaining that when children learn to speak, one of the things they learn is the cultural role assigned to them on the basis of their sex. When men and women interact, they interpret the responses of the other in the light of their own gender specific expectations. This, according to Tannen (1990), results in misinterpretation and even conflict. In order to achieve a better understanding of men and women’s language, studies have been conducted into the linguistic behaviour of men and women.

Shimanoff (1977) analysed politeness between men and women by measuring it in terms of linguistic features and communicative functions. She found that males and females were equally, but differentially, polite. The males in her study used equal proportions of negative and positive politeness, whereas females preferred positive features. Shimanoff suggests that the female preference could be due to the fact that females by their nature do not like to impose. Hirschman (1974) used simple frequency counts to analyze male assertiveness and female supportiveness in the use of fillers, what he calls qualifiers (‘maybe’, ‘sort of’) and affirmative responses.

Torres (1993) points out that, questions about language and gender have become more complex since researchers have realized that the question of gender differences in language use relates to other issues such as age, qualifications, race, class and social roles. In this regard Preisler (1986) states that a speaker’s choice of speech forms is determined in a predictable way, by the structure and properties of the social situation as defined by an interplay of demographic variables such as region, social class, ethnic membership,

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age, sex and occupation with variables directly related to the speech event such as setting, medium, relative status of participants, degree of formality and topic.

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4.GENDER ROLE IN MEDIA

Gender studies in media are a wide topic of research that includes many different types of media: prime- time television, radio and the internet, as it is a growing field of study and is important for many reasons. Different ideologies concerning gender representation can be seen in different films. A wide range of methods in researching have been applied to the field as well, the most common methods have been quantitative content analysis and discourse analysis.

Studies on gender roles in media show that women are underrepresented in movies and that they are represented in a different way than men. Men tend to be portrayed as having higher and longer lasting career status based on their success, while women have lower and shorter career status based on their youth.26 Although gender studies imply that gender concerns both femininity and masculinity, it is rare that both sides are discussed at the same time. Gender studies in media concern the feminine perspective and how women are portrayed. Mostly it focuses on the negative aspects of women‘s portrayal and it rarely pays attention to how men are portrayed. Furthermore, media and gender is an area that produces new data that can be gathered and analyzed in various ways. Each year there are a huge amount of movies and television shows produced. Media is an important area of study since it has the power to represent what is ‗socially acceptable‘. Furthermore, representations are political in the sense that they are power, as it can be seen in literature pertaining, the history of Hollywood film and representation.27

Previous research concerning gender and media is quite extensive and covers many different forms of media, for example: prime- time television, movies, cartoons/Disney, music, games and the internet where new forms of media are being produced. Previous

26 C. Carter & L. Steiner, Critical readings: Media and gender, Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2004.

27 M. Ryan & D. Kellner, Camera Politica: The Politics and Ideology of Contemporary Hollywood Film. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990.

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research has shown that the most common data analyzed is from prime- time television, movies have not been analyzed as much, although this research field involving movies seems to have expanded. A wide range of different methods have been used, the most common ones are quantitative content analysis and discourse analysis.

Research on contemporary Hollywood films over time indicates that political messages and ideologies can be seen in films, representing the ideas and opposition of the social system in effect at the time. Specifically, during the time period when second wave feminism was taking place, Hollywood was still creating the same type of movies, representing men and women in a traditional way. The movies ignore the ideas connected to the feminist movement taking place or promoting ideologies opposing feminist ideas. Furthermore, Hollywood still seems to represent gender in a way that still upholds a patriarchal privilege.

Representation of certain characters can work towards explaining the political social landscape at a time, concerning ideas from political movements, for example the feminist movements against patriarchic oppression of women or the black rights movements towards giving black people the same rights as white people. It is interesting to see how the black feminists see the movie Pretty Woman as spectators, from different aspects such as gender, race, class. Pretty Woman is considered having a typical Disney fairy tale princess plot because it is describing the life story of an attractive street hooker named Vivian who is saved and turned into a classy woman by a handsome corporate raider Edward, which answers questions from a black feminist spectatorship point of view. The movie implies several signs such as gender, romance, femininity, masculinity, wealth, economic implications, respect, class which in turn, shows that this movie follows the concepts in typical Disney princess movies. Although the heroine Vivian is portrayed to be a typical modern woman being attractive, independent, self-employed, the fact that she is just a street hooker which belongs to a lower class, cannot be changed. In the end she is turned into a proper lady who belongs to the upper class by Edward and becomes his wife, which helps Edward to become a more sensitive human being. Vivian is not like any other prostitute. The fact that she is portrayed to be white and clean, she refuses to kiss on the mouth, she flosses her teeth and does not do

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drugs, she uses proper condoms, implies that although she belongs to a lower class, she still has the potential to become a proper lady.

There is research concerning feminism and femininity which focuses on the television show Sex and the city which is based on the book with the same name. The research made by Stillion Southard concerning the television show is conducted through the use of discourse analysis. The research points out that the characters within the show posses certain characteristics and the main characteristics are mostly white, female, well educated and economically independent. According to the research, the show takes place in a post-feministic arena and that post- feminism is mostly referred to anti- feminism. Although, there are arguments for and against such a statement, some argue that feminism is ever changing and there are different ways of looking at it in the context of the television show. Femininity is described as a moving target, which represents cosmetic and behavioral expectations of womanhood during a certain period of time. Femininity also includes women‘s sexual attractiveness to men.

According to Stillion Southard (2008), Sex and the City pushes the gender boundaries and questions the current social norms within the series in various ways. Examples of scenes and episodes of this are given on multiple occasions. However, it is unclear how these scenes have been selected, if it is random or whether it is to promote the authors‘ own ideas. In the case of research made on the television series of Sex and the City, the method of collecting and the use of data in the analysis is unclear.

However, there has been no research made on the movies, therefore it would be interesting to find out how men and women in these movies are represented: how different characters are portrayed, using typically feminine and masculine traits. Furthermore, the aim is to find out whether or not the characters challenge the traditional gender roles and if they do, in what way they are doing so. Questions concerning age and representation are also interesting when it comes to these cases, since the characters are older than in most other Hollywood films.

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The way gender is represented in the media have an influence on how we perceive gender roles. Certain gender specific features can strengthen the image of what a man and a woman are and how they should behave in relation to each other.

Women are represented as striving towards being as beautiful and as young- looking as possible. The studies shows that physical appearance and age are important for women. In previous studies, the two genders are still for the most part represented as different from each other, in both a traditional and modern way, but sometimes try to question the patriarchal privilege‘. The meaning of different in a modern way is that while women are portrayed as sometimes economically independent, they do not clean by themselves, they have cleaners or other women doing such things, usually women with another ethnic background, they have good jobs and careers, fun and exploring sex lives as well as control of their sexuality and reproduction. They also show traditional traits as well, they show a lot more emotion than men do; they sometimes are portrayed as feeling guilty for putting their own needs first. A lot of emphasis is put onto being physically attractive and staying young, they also seem ashamed when their relationships do not work out very well and when this happens they are portrayed as them feeling it is their fault for not doing enough to please their men.

Although some traits are used by both sexes, women are still portrayed as being subordinate to men even in movies, although an exception when it comes to being submissive is Samantha. Men are also represented in a typical manner, most of the time, that in one way or the other; they end up getting what they want even when they make mistakes. There are many examples of this: Steve, who cheated on Miranda, eventually gets her back, Big who did not want a big wedding, finally gets to marry Carrie in City Hall with barely anyone watching, the way he seemed to have wanted it from the start. Even though there has been progress legally on a political international level concerning women rights, this does still not seem to be represented to its full potential in the Sex and the City movies.

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