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HIDDEN GENDER STEREOTYPES in TV COMMERCIALS
HIDDEN GENDER STEREOTYPES in TV COMMERCIALS
Assist. Prof. Elif KIRAN
Namık Kemal University
Department of Sociology
ekiran@nku.edu.tr
ABSTRACT
This study focuses on TV commercials’ role on depicting the stereotypical images of
men and women. The aim of this study is to draw a framework of the hidden messages of
gender stereotypical depictions of men and women in TV commercials in the light of selected
studies in the literature. Five different researches from five different countries (India, Egypt,
Pakistan, Netherlands, Turkey) have been put under the spotlight and the outcomes of these
works are analyzed in order to formulate a general overview of the gender stereotypes in TV
commercials. The commercials are reviewed under the categories of sex, role, credibility,
location and product type. The results of this work have showed that the gender stereotypes in
TV commercials are very similar to each other in all the works analyzed. Moreover, it was
inferred that the gender stereotypes prolongs their dominance in TV ads. They all depicted
women as bearing domestic roles, having less voice overs, being belonged to home or other
domestic settings and being associated with domestic products while men were portrayed as
having professional status, being authoritarian, being belonged to outdoor settings and being
associated with non-domestic products.
Keywords: Gender Stereotypes, Media, TV Commercials, Gender Stereotypes in TV
Commercials
TV REKLAMLARINDA GİZLENMİŞ TOPLUMSAL CİNSİYET ROLLERİ
ÖZET
Bu çalışma televizyon reklamlarının kadın ve erkeklere dair stereotipleri ele alma
şekline odaklanmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, TV reklamlarında, kadınların cinsiyetçi
rollerine dair verilen gizli mesajları literatürden seçilen belirli çalışmalar ışığında incelemek
ve televizyon reklamlarındaki cinsiyet stereotiplerine dair genel bir değerlendirme yapmaktır.
Beş farklı ülkeden (Hindistan, Mısır, Pakistan, Hollanda, Türkiye) beş ayrı çalışma mercek
altına alınmıştır ve bu çalışmaların sonuçları televizyon reklamlarındaki toplumsal cinsiyet
klişelerine dair genel bir çerçeve çizmek amacıyla incelenmiştir. Seçilen araştırmalardaki
reklamlar cinsiyet, rol, güvenilirlik, konum ve ürün çeşidi başlıkları altında incelenmiştir.
Çalışmanın sonuçları göstermiştir ki, analiz edilen tüm araştırma sonuçları toplumsal cinsiyet
klişeleri açısından benzer çıkarımlar yapmaktadır. Aynı zamanda, bu klişelerin televizyon
reklamlarındaki hakimiyetlerinin devam ettiği de tespit edilmiştir. Tüm reklamlar kadınları
evcimen rollerde, etkin sese sahip olma oranı düşük, ev ya da benzeri özel alana ait olan ve ev
işleriyle ilgili ürünleri tanıtan figürler olarak resmederken erkekleri profesyonel konumda,
otoriter, dış mekanlarda aktif ve ev dışı ürünlerle özdeşleşmiş olarak sunmaktadırlar.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Toplumsal Cinsiyet Stereotipleri, Medya, TV Reklamları, TV
Reklamlarında Kadın
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Sosyal Bilimler Metinleri, 2016 / 02
1. INTRODUCTION
Communication is one of the basic and indispensable needs of human beings of all
times and spaces. This old and close friend of us has undergone several changes in the course
of time especially in parallel with the developments in technology. Following these
alterations, media which is one of the communication tools, has turned out to be an item of a
huge industry which has the power of directing and manipulating the views of people in the
way it aims. “Gender stereotypes” is a frequently debated theme in this long list of issues that
mass media has a deep effect in terms of shaping the public opinion. This study focuses on the
images of gender stereotypes in selected TV commercials which are known as the most
influential tools of mass media. Prior to going deep in the research topic, some general
overview of communication, mass media, gender stereotypes and their meeting points will be
provided.
Communication, which is defined as “the process of establishing meaning, found in all
‘social situations’ (Marshall&Scott, 2009: 104), is a vital inclination of human beings”
everyday lives since we are social creatures and as a result, are in need of being in interaction
with other people and creatures around us. There are multiple ways to be used in order to
communicate with the world surrounding us. Some of these alternatives are verbal
communication, body language, mass media etc. Depending on the era and geography, each
of these may have different kind of meaning and power for people. For instance, we as the
inhabitants of the ‘electronic age’ (McLuhan, 1964: 170) are haunted by the great power of
mass media tools in a deepening way.
In our world of the 21st century, people spend long hours dealing with communication
tools since everywhere is surrounded by at least one of them. Whether on purpose or
reluctantly, people are exposed to the raid of these devices and more important than that, are
exposed to the messages conveyed through them each and every day of their lives. Moreover,
by the help of globalization, not only local but also global news and ideas can easily be
distributed all around the world by these devices in only some seconds. This paves the way to
the strengthening of the meaning of communication for people’s daily lives. An example of
this deep importance of communication tools for people is that they tend to shape their lives
in accordance with the images they get through these tools. That is to say, TV is such an
influential device that individuals tend to imitate the images they watch on it.
The language used in communication tools is also so important since “language, like
currency, acts as a store of perception and as a transmitter of the perceptions and experience
of one person or of one generation to another” (McLuhan, 1964: 156). Whether it is verbal or
body language, depending on the way it is used by media devices, it acts as a transformation
gadget of limitless ideas and images. One of the very striking notions that media is very
influential at is, the formation and continuance of the gender stereotypical roles of men and
women in a society.
Media which embodies a great power of diverting people’s understanding and living of
the world in a certain direction, is so effective in building gender identities, too. Being a term
underlying social connotations, ‘gender refers to differences between male and female
behavior that are agreed on by members of a particular society” (Baker, 2008: 4). “The new-
born child has a biological sex but no social gender. As it grows older society provides a
string of prescriptions, templates, or models of behavior appropriate to the one sex or the
other” (Connell, 1987: 193) and these are grouped under the heading of gender stereotypes.
Gender stereotypes are basically certain roles that are attained to men and women as a result
of the traditional understanding of the status of a man and woman in a society. “While sex
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HIDDEN GENDER STEREOTYPES in TV COMMERCIALS
refers to a male/female binary, gender has been traditionally thought to operate as a
masculine/feminine binary (………..) linked to societal expectations and mores” (Baker,
2008: 4). Thus, these stereotypes have nothing to do with biological formations but they are
closely related to the sociocultural factors and “are promoted through families, schools, mass
media and other agencies of socialization” (Connell, 1987: 34). Therefore, it can be deduced
that “gender expressions are by way of being a mere show; but a considerable amount of the
substance of society is enrolled in the staging of it” (Goffman, 1976: 8).
In each and every moment of daily routines, it has always been possible to witness or be
a part of gendered practices regardless of time and space. In other words, gender oriented
beliefs and practices are not limited to one period in history or to a certain place in the world;
the issue of gender is a universal one which includes gender discrimination at the work place,
in family, in education, in the public and private sphere, in politics and etc in each and every
place in the world. Among many other powers constructing gendered ideas, media acts as one
of the main actors in building gender identities and reminding the characteristics of these
identities to the audience at all times with a very long list of tools. Through soap operas,
commercials, radio programmes, journal articles etc., mass media organs convey gender
related messages sometimes via a product ad, sometimes via a last minute news or via a
compassionate mother figure in a family. The medium and its influence may change
according to the time and location but the gender stereotypes are more or less the same
depicting patriarchial understanding of the male and the female.
Gender and media stand as two highly debated subjects in the framework of several
academic disciplines. This study focuses on the intersection of these two important realms in
the example of TV commercials. That is to say, the aim of the study is to detect the gender
stereotypical visuals in TV commercials in the light of a critical review of the literature.
Before going deep into these works in literature, the notions of gender stereotypes and media
and their meeting points will be analyzed in the following parts of the study.
2. GENDER STEREOTYPES
“Taught from their infancy that beauty is
woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to
the body, and roaming round its gilt cage,
only seeks to adorn its prison.”
Mary Wollstonecraft,
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Gender is known as the socially constructed form of sex. In other words, sex is a
biological state whereas the notion of gender is a sociocultural one that is shaped in the hands
and through the histories of societies around certain traditions and beliefs. Gender, basically
includes the gender roles and gender stereotypes of males and females in several different
faces of daily lives such as family issues, education processes, career steps, politics etc.
Therefore, the issue of gender is a frequently debated one in almost all study areas of the
world of social sciences.
One of the most famous sentences highlighting gender is the one of Simone de
Beauvoir’s stating that: “One is not born but rather becomes a woman” (Beauvoir, 1973:
301). These words indicates the generally accepted idea claiming that gender roles are shaped
by the society and as they grow up, people learn to spend their lives in accordance with these
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Sosyal Bilimler Metinleri, 2016 / 02
roles. “Originally intended to dispute the biology is destiny formulation, the distinction
between sex and gender serves the argument that whatever biological intractibility sex
appears to have, gender is culturally constructed: hence, gender is neither the causal result of
sex nor as seemingly fixed as sex” (Butler, 2002: 9-10).
If we are to give some different definitions of gender, we can start by the one of
feminist movement builder’s dictionary which is one of the most descriptive ones stating that
gender
relates to the characteristics – ranging from gender roles to physical appearance – that
societies attribute to the notions of “masculine” and “feminine.” We learn gender roles
through socialization which begins very early and is reinforced constantly throughout
our lives through education, the media, families, religion, public policy and other
social institutions. Gender roles are different in different cultures and can change over
time. Rigid enforcement of “traditional” gender roles has led to backlash and targeted
discrimination and violence against men, women, gays, lesbians, transgendered and
others who challenge narrow, static conceptions of masculinity, femininity, and
sexuality (Feminist movement builder’s dictionary, 2013: 5).
“So gender refers to differences between male and female behavior that are agreed on
by members of a particular society (Baker, 2008: 4). In addition to that, in Van Zoonen’s
words, gender can be defined as “a set of overlapping and often contradictory cultural
descriptions and prescriptions referring to sexual difference which arises from and regulates
particular economic, social, political, technological and other non-discursive contexts” (1992:
20). In parallel with this explanation, gender is never analyzed without references and links to
other contexts but usually “is inscribed in the subject along with other discourses, such as
those of ethnicity, class and sexuality, in a variety of cultural practices” (Van Zoonen, 1992:
20). Among these cultural practices, one characteristic of societies’ constitutes a vital point in
the building and understanding of gender roles: the patriarchal tradition. Gender
discrimination generally perishes in practices of patriarchy which is the word for father rule
and “refers to systemic and institutionalized male domination embedded in and perpetuated
by cultural, political, economic and social structures and ideologies. These systems explicitly
make women inferior and subordinate and confer control and decision making on males while
making values associated with masculinity the norm or ideal” (Feminist movement builder’s
dictionary, 2013: 8). “The physical sense of maleness grows through a personal history of
social practice, a life history in society” (Connell, 1987: 84). As an outcome of this powerful
background, patriarchy stands as the main figure of gender stereotypes in social values.
The real power of patriarchy stems from social control rather than physical strength. It
is a system of thought that asserts that not only the hegemony of men but also the secondary
position of women in a society is very normal and natural. Therefore, being dominant or harsh
is a sign of abnormality for women since this kind of traits are not appropriate for their nature
(Slattery, 2010: 140-141). As an outcome of these patriarchal values, there occur certain traits
and roles which are evaluated as being appropriate for women and others for men. The most
prominent of these are associating men with rationality and power whereas women with
beauty and affection. Moreover, women are usually associated with domestic works and the
private sphere whereas men are portrayed as being belonged to the responsibilities outside
home and the public sphere. Apart from these stereotypes, women are expected to be
passionate, neat, quiet, easygoing, and humble while an ideal man is expected to be harsh,
brave, competitive, talkative, and powerful both in mind and body and challenging.
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HIDDEN GENDER STEREOTYPES in TV COMMERCIALS
The long tradition of patriarchy has lead discriminative practices which paved the way
to feminist movement that is ‘a range of theories and political agendas that aim to eliminate
all forms of discrimination against women due to sex and gender as well as class, race,
ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation, geographic location, nationality, or other forms of social
exclusion. Feminism as a political agenda has evolved over centuries, shaped by the politics
of each historical moment’ (Feminist movement builders dictionary, 2013: 5).
Feminist writers harshly disclaims the generally accepted view stating that patriarchy is
unavoidable and it is the ultimate character of all the societies in the world. They accept
patriarchy as a male made notion and assert that males make use of it in order to dominate
females and firm the gendered practices in societies (Slattery, 2010: 139). However,
“masculine ideology references patriarchy (i.e. hegemonic masculinity), something that has
seemed to perpetuate itself in cultural products through the years in spite of active women’s
popular movements that challenge it and feminist scholarship that lays bare its presence”
(Byerly, 2012: 38).
Feminist movement1 being the pioneer, there are plenty of movements and
organizations aiming to put an end to gender stereotypical discrimination. However, examples
of gender based practices are easy to be witnessed in everyday lives. As it is noted earlier, one
of the reasons behind this picture is the recurring appearance of these stereotypes in mass
media which has the chance to reach individuals and divert them whenever it wants. For that
reason, the role of mass media in firming gender stereotypical beliefs will be put under the
spotlight before going further in the analyses of the issue in TV commercials.
3. GENDER STEREOTYPES IN MASS MEDIA
“Mass media produce and reproduce collective memories, desires, hopes and fears, and
thus perform a similar function as myths in earlier centuries” (Van Zoonen, 1994: p. 37).
Moreover, it is a core actor in the socialization process of individuals which also leads to their
identity building.
Especially in the “electronic era” (McLuhan, 1964:170) which is ruled by technology,
mass media tools have become highly important for individuals. The time spent following not
only the visual or printed media but also the social media is increasing every passing day.
These long moments of meetings with mass media gives birth to great numbers of people’s
being -consciously or unconsciously- shaped by the ideas they see or read there since
‘‘everybody experiences far more than he understands. Yet it is experience, rather than
understanding, that influences behavior, especially in collective matters of media and
technology, where the individual is almost inevitably unaware of their effect upon him’
(McLuhan, 1964: 350-351). This effect turns individual into a passive mode. That is to say,
“the possibility of watching the whole world and zapping its images through one’s eyes has
turned much of society into one of passivity, attracted to images and media values like wealth
and celebrity, but careless about the programs’s contents and messages” (Linardi, 2003: 242).
These messages constitutes a wide loan ranging from political ideas to every day practises.
Besides occupying a very long list of attributes, mass media is known as a medium of
transferring representations of daily life routines including gender relations. “Stereotypes have
been associated with the mass media since the term first gained currency” (Ellen Seiter, 19).
The reason behind this long term relationship is that learning and building gender identities is
1 For further information about feminism, see Joseph Donovan, (2012). Feminist theory: the intellectual
traditions.(4th Edition). New York: Continuum.
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Sosyal Bilimler Metinleri, 2016 / 02
an end result of the socialization process and mass media is one of the agents of socialization.
In other words, ‘the notion of a ‘gender identity’ at the core of femininity and masculinity is
the psychological counterpart of the notion of a ‘sex role’ into which one is socialized. Indeed
its basis seems to be the act of recognizing oneself as the kind of person that conventional
images of femininity and masculinity define’ (Connell, 1987: 194). “We are concerned
precisely with this power when we interrogate and investigate the gendered and gendering
dimensions of the media – as discourses, institutions, technologies and so on – in order to
grasp and understand the role they play, always at the intersection with other social and
cultural factors, in influencing processes of gender identity formation and development”
(Buonanno, 2014: 6). The depictions of men and women on a tv screen, on a radio programme
or on a newspaper page recurrently convey the traditional understanding of the approppriate
way of being a man or a woman in such a descriptive, ordering and at the sime natural way
that the individual coming face to face with them inclines to behave accordingly.
Being a very significant point in the social structure of a society, this issue has been
analyzed by several researchers from different disciplines and under different focusing points.
The birth of studies on gender was around 1960s in Anglo American countries and after 1970s
research focusing on gender and media emerged. Before 1980s, the main point of these
academic works was the women image in mass media but in the last years of the century the
focus of the gender researches turned into the portrayal of gender roles in mass media and the
influence of it on the formation of masculine identities (Carter, 2012: 258). These works in
the literature may be categorized as the works aiming to draw a general framework of the
reciprocal relationship between mass media and gender (Collins, R. L. 2011, Eisend, M.,
2010, Gauntlett, D., 2008, Gill, R. (2007)., Huang, Y., & Lowry, D. T. (2015), the ones
focusing on a specific country, (Browner, C. H. (1986). Emons, P., Wester, F., & Scheepers,
P. (2010), Milner, M. L. (2005)., Ford, J. B., Voli, P. K., Honeycutt Jr, E. D., & Casey, S. L.
(1998), Haghighinasab M. & Hedayati SH. (Spring 2005), Kim, K., & Lowry, D. T. (2005).,
Knoll, S., Eisend, M., & Steinhagen, J. (2011). , Luyt, R. (2011)., Neto, F., & Pinto, I.
(1998)., Tartakovskaya, I. (2000)., Uray, N., & Burnaz, S. (2003)., Morna, C. L. & Ndlovu, S.
(Eds.) (2007)., as studies comparing two or more countries (Bresnahan, M. J., Inoue, Y., Liu,
W. Y., & Nishida, T. (2001, Furnham, A., Mak, T., &Tanidjojo, L. (2000)., Furnham, A&
Bowdage, S. S. (2006), Gilly, M. C. (1988)., Milner, L. M. (2007)., Skorek, M., & Schreier,
M. (2009).,as studies researching gender depictions in a specific media tool (Courtney, A. E.,
& Lockeretz, S. W. (1971)., Goffmann, E. (1976)., Gow, J. (1996)., Dill, K. E., & Thill, K. P.
(2007)., Glascock, J. (2001)., Larson, M. S. (1996)., Neto, F. & Santos, A. (2004)., Hoerrner,
K. L. (1996), Ottoni, R., Pesce, J. P., Las Casas, D. B., Franciscani Jr, G., Meira Jr, W.,
Kumaraguru, P., & Almeida, V. (2013)., Wolin, L. D. (2003)., and as the ones focusing on a
specific product (Emma Lourdes R. Mones,2015, Parkin, K. J. (2006)., Dilevko, J., & Harris,
R. M. (1997).
The common point in the studies handling the issue of the intersection of media and
gender stereotypes is the claim that there is a strong relationship between them. One of the
mass media tools that is studied as being influential on the social construction of gender
stereotypes is TV. When studied underminingly, the gender stereotypical character of many
soap operas, commercials, news, dating shows, talk shows etc. on TVs are found out. In the
next part of the study, the influence of TV commercials in building gendered identities and
the examples of the specific researches focusing on this issue will be analyzed.
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HIDDEN GENDER STEREOTYPES in TV COMMERCIALS
4. GENDER STEREOTYPES in TV COMMERCIALS
TV commercials are products of a huge industry. Based on the time, channel or the TV
programme that an ad is broadcasted at, the brand of this product is to pay large amounts of
money to the TV channels. Commercials’ basic role is to make people buy the product
advertised. However, this is a very little of the mission they achieve. “In today's media driven,
fast moving age, ads sell more than just products. They sell lifestyles and dreams” (Gorver &
Hundal, 2014: 56). Moreover, ads are so successful not also in persuading the audience to buy
the items advertised but also in shaping public opinion of several issues including gender
stereotypes.
“Advertisers want viewers to enjoy their commercials and to associate the advertised
products with a comfortable reinforcing picture of mainstream cultural values. As a result,
commercials are designed to take optimal advantage of gender-specific fantasies, myths, and
fears” (Gorver&Hundal, 2014: 55). “Advertisers seek to communicate to a target audience
with existing beliefs. Advertisers believe that the use of stereotypes makes it easier to
communicate to a target audience and to sell their products than the use of multiple, realistic
values and beliefs would” (Kim&Lowry, 2005: 901-902).
Ads have also undergone several changes over time. For instance, “these days, ads sell
images, ideas, even principles and ethics” (Gorver & Hundal, 2014: 56). These differences
have lead to a change in their contents, too. “However, the depiction of woman hasn't changed
all that much, except the inclusion of sexual and more dramatic imagery. Laundry detergent
ads still feature mostly women and even if she is 'just a housewife', she usually lives in a nice
house and is slim and beautiful, even though she has three children” (Gorver & Hundal, 2014:
56). TV commercials these days portray an image of the female as a superwoman who can be
described as follows:
“Superwoman, unaware of its full implications, had to add serious “beauty” labor to
her professional agenda. Her new assignment grew ever more rigorous: the amounts of
money, skill, and craft she must invest were to fall no lower than the amounts
previously expected—before women breached the power structure—only from
professional beauties in the display professions. Women took on all at once the roles
of professional housewife, professional careerist, and professional beauty” (Wolf,
2002, p. 26-27).
Women are generally depicted as ‘housewives’, ‘decorative equipments’, or ‘sexual
objects’ in TV commercials. After the increase in their labour force participation rates, they
act as working woman, too but not in superior positions; the idea of a working woman is also
in the framework of patriarchial understanding (Pazarzi & Tsngaris, 2008). Therefore, they
act as the agents of firming the gendered ideas of the society in so many issues.
The effects of TV commercials on gender stereotypes is a recurring theme of several
studies in a wide range of countries. In order to have a general opinion of the common and
different points of this subject in different places of the World, it should be useful to analyze
the studies on this issue in different countries. To this aim, the study focuses on some selected
studies from different countries and critically analyzes them in the light of their main findings.
4.1. STUDIES on GENDER STEREOTYPES in TV COMMERCIALS
In this part of the paper, the core aim is to draw a framework of gender stereotypical
images included in TV commercials from different countries. The examples of this kind of
study comparing and contrasting previous work on the issue of gender stereotypes in TV ads
are present in the literature (Bartsch, R. A., Burnett, T., Diller, T. R., & Rankin-Williams, E.
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Sosyal Bilimler Metinleri, 2016 / 02
,2000; Furnham, A., & Mak, T., 1999). Our paper is a contribution to these works focusing on
the similar issue. In this study, 5 researches concerning 5 different countries’ TV commercials
are selected and analyzed in terms of the role of TV commercials in influencing individuals’
developing the stereotypical ideas of gender.
4.2. METHOD
The method chosen to meet this aim is to do an overview of 5 previous works in the
literature that focuses on gender depictions in TV commercials of 5 countries. The studies to
be analyzed deal with the gender stereotypical depictions in TV ads in India, Pakistan, Egypt,
Netherlands, Turkey.
Brief information of the studies would certainly be inscriptive before going on with
their main end results. One of the researches is from India and conducted by Mallika Das in
2011 (Das, 2011). The researcher used the method of content analysis and studied on 318 TV
ads on Indian Tvs. The second study reviewed was conducted by Mireille Raouf İshak in
2003 on Egyptian TV commercials’ portrayal of women. 182 ads were coded and analyzed in
terms of gender stereotypes under the headings of age, product type, credibility basis, setting,
presence of children, and subservience (İshak, 2003). The next research is conducted by
Serena Daalmans, Ellen Hijmans and Fred Wester in 2013, on gender stereotypes in Dutch
TV commercials. They studied on a sample of 1967 TV commercials (Daalmans, Hijmans &
Wester, 2013). Another work is from Pakistan which is the paper of Lubna Akhlaq Khan
(2016) from the University of Gujrat, who did a research on the gendered depictions in
Pakistani television ads and analyzed contents of 150 TV ads (Khan, 2016). The last study
selected for this paper is the one of Eylem Arslan (2015) from Turkey. She conducted a
research on the depiction of male and female characters in Turkish TV ads and analyzed 4135
characters in 2603 commercials in total (Arslan, 2015).
McArthur and Resko’s (1975) study is one of the first and most quoted works in the
literature on media and gender stereotypes. Even many years ago, they focused on de
portrayal of the gendered images in TV commercials and draw a scheme of a list of sex
differences in TV ads. These are sex, role, credibility, location, arguments and product types.
This study reviews the studies selected through analyzing the gender stereotypes in the
ads that were subjected to content analysis and by using five categories of McArthur and
Resko’s scheme since these five are the most frequent handled ones in the studies selected.
These headings are; sex, which refers to the sex of the characters in TV ads; role, which refers
to the roles of men and women in TV ads; location which refers to the main setting the males
and females appear in ads; credibility which refers to the male and female characters’ degree
of being active as a leading figure in the plot of these ads; product types which looks for the
type of the product used by the male and the female figures in these commercials.
4.3. REVIEW OF THE STUDIES
In this section, the main findings of the studies will be reviewed under the five headings
(sex, role, location, credibility, product type) mentioned above.
4.3.1. Sex
The frequency of appearance of men and women in TV commercials is undertaken
under this heading. The results of the study on India showed that out of the 627 characters
coded, 271 were females whereas 356 were males. The case for Egypt was different than the
one of India in such a way that in the ads analyzed, the number of the females were more than
the males’ one (60 % females and 40 % males). The study on Pakistani TV ads indicated that
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the females outnumbered males in terms of being visible in the TV ads analyzed with the
percentage of 65.31% versus 34.68%. As for the research focusing on the TV ads in
Netherlands, the outcome showed that the number of male figures outnumbered female
figures in Dutch TV commercials with a proportion of 56.2% versus 43.8%. Moreover, the
proportion of the female figures decreased between the years 1980 and 2005. In the study
dealing with Turkish TV commercials there were 4135 characters noted, and 1953 of them
were females and 2182 of them were males.
4.3.2. Role
The roles of the males and the females in TV ads are an important indication of the
gendered messages of these ads. The study on Indian TV ads found out that the male figures
were tended to be depicted as employed (23.9%) whereas the percentage of women in this
category is 7%. Moreover, the data showed that men were more likely to be portrayed as
professionals, whether business or non-business, than were women. In the Pakistani ads
analyzed, the number of female figures performing domestic tasks were 14.9% and the
percentage of male figures performing domestic tasks were 0.8%. Moreover, men were
portrayed in adventurous activities (8.7%) more than were the women (3.5%). The females
depicted in the role of beautifying (9.6%) outnumbered the males in this category (0.8%). The
research on Dutch TV ads showed that 76.1% of the male figures acted in a professional role
whereas 23.9% of the female figures in such roles. Despite the significant change in this issue,
the gap between males and females in being depicted as professionals is still a big one. In the
Turkish TV commercials analyzed, 20% of the women and 43.7% of the men were depicted
as professionals in terms of occupational roles.
4.3.3. Credibility
Another significant determinant of gender based point of views is the portrayal style of
men and women in TV ads in terms of credibility which is a sign of the authority figure, too.
The gender of the voiceover is the main detection agent in this category. Related to this, the
Indian researchers found out that the voiceovers were more frequently men in such a
proportion that out of 280 adult voiceovers 28 of them were females whereas 225 of them
were males and 27 of them had both male and female voiceovers. The percentage of men as
having an authority position is 16.1% and the one of women’ is 10 %. In addition to that,
women were depicted as users of the products more frequently (90%) than were the male
figures (83.9). 74.2% of the Egyptian TV commercials analyzed, the voiceover was male
whereas 11.2% of the ads used female voiceover and 14.6% didn’t use any. 21% of the
females were depicted as serving others whereas 5% of the males were depicted in the same
manner. The results of the study from Pakistan revealed that 29.9% commercials had female
voice-overs whereas the ratio was 56.05% for males. 12.33% of the commercials had both
male and female voice overs. Moreover, it was found out that female-related product ads had
male voice overs, too. In addition to that, 25% of male voice overs were in an authoritarian
tone while the percentage of females in this category is only 5.9%. The case of Netherlands
indicated similar results, too. Whereas the proportion of the female voiceovers is %25, the one
of the males were 75%. Additionally, women voice-overs outnumbered the one of women in
beauty and personal care product, detergent and cleaning supply ads whereas men voice-overs
outnumbered women voice-overs in car and financial services ads. In Turkish TV ads 78.7%
of the voiceovers were men. 0.6% of the commercials had mixed voice overs. Moreover, the
end comment was mostly uttered by a man in the commercials analyzed.
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4.3.4. Location
The setting that the main male or female character is depicted in is also bearing
significant messages in terms of the appropriate territories for men and women. The findings
of the study on Indian TV ads indicated that the female figures were underrepresented in
outdoor settings whereas male figures were underrepresented in home settings. The one
focusing on Egypt showed that 35% of the males and 37% of the females were portrayed in
home setting. Additionally, 65% of the males and 63% of the females were depicted in
locations other than home. In Pakistani TV ads, 23.96% of the female figures were depicted in
private sphere whereas 9.5% of male figures were portrayed at home. The analyses of the
selected ads on Dutch TV showed that 42.8% of the male, 22.5% of the female characters
were portrayed in the public setting whereas 77.5% of the female, 57.2% of the male
characters were portrayed in the private setting. The study handling Turkish TV ads found out
that %50 of the female and 21.8% of the male characters were depicted in a home setting
while 10.2% of the female and 23.5% of the male characters were depicted in an employment
setting.
4.3.5. Product Type
The type of product that is used and actually advertised by the male or female characters
in TV commercials give an idea of the gendered images of consumption items in minds and
social structures. In Indian TV ads analyzed, men were depicted as using technical and
financial products whereas women were depicted as using home and beauty care products.
The study on Egyptian TV commercials indicated that 65% males and 78% females were
associated with domestic products. 35% of the males were portrayed in non domestic ads
whereas the percentage of women in non-domestic ads was 25%. In Pakistani ads, the female
figures appeared significantly more frequently in the role of using of product types as food
and beverages and cosmetics and personal hygiene than their male counterparts did. In the
example of Dutch TV ads the results highlighted that women outnumbered men in a
significant ratio in terms of advertising home and beauty products whereas men outnumbered
women in advertising cars and financial services in the commercials analyzed. In Turkish TV
ads, the female figures in ads were associated with domestic products more than their male
counterparts. In addition to that, the males were portrayed as using nondomestic products as
automobile and services, bank, insurance.
5. CONCLUSION and DISCUSSION
Gender is different from sex in such a way that sex refers to the biological aspect of
being male or female whereas gender embodies social connotations. To put it differently,
gender is term embodying the socially constructed ideas of being a man or a woman. The
gender stereotypes is the name of the group of roles that are attained to a certain sex by the
society. There are several agents active in building and firming these beliefs concerning
gender. This study focuses one of the most influential of them; TV commercials.
This study examines the intersection of TV commercials and gender stereotypes in
terms of the role of this mass media agent in the construction and continuance of gendered
beliefs regarding the roles and status of men and women in a society. To this aim, five
different studies analyzing five different countries’ TV commercials’ role on gender based
beliefs in a society are reviewed. The studies selected focuses on the gender stereotypes in TV
commercials of India, Egypt, Pakistan, Netherlands, and Turkey. These studies used the
method of content analyzing and examined the commercials in terms of the issue of gender.
This study reviewed the findings of these previous works under the categories of sex, role,
credibility, location and product type. These categories are chose out of the seven categories
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detected by McArthur and Resko’s study focusing on this issue in 1975 (McArthur and
Resko, 1975).
The review of these five studies showed that there is only a slight difference among
these countries’ depiction of men and women in TV commercials in terms of the roles, the
credibility, the location and the product types in TV ads. The only category that two countries
differ from the other three is the sex one in such a way that the studies on Indian and Pakistani
TV commercials indicated that there appears more females on TV ads than males do. Apart
from this point, the other categories highlighted similar situations.
In terms of the roles of the males and the females in TV ads, all the studies found out
that women depicted as bearing domestic roles such as cleaning the house, cooking or child
bearing outnumbered their male counterparts whereas the reverse of this ratio is true for the
professional roles which are different from household chores such as being a worker or an
employer. The number of males depicted as a figure of a professional position outnumbered
the females in such a position. This is an indication of the traditional role of women as a
mother and housewife; the one of men as the bread winner of the family. In the category of
roles in TV commercials, these studies came up with a conclusion that overlaps with the
gender stereotypes.
The studies showed similar results in the category of credibility. To detect credibility,
the percentage of the male and female voice overs and authority figures were calculated. In
all the studies reviewed the males outnumbered the females in this category. Men were
depicted as the voice over, as the authority figure, as the rescuer and as the one to utter the last
words in most of the ads analyzed. Such an outcome is again a lively image of the gender
portrayals of TV commercials. In addition to that, the category of setting also had such
indications that in all the works reviewed; the female figure is depicted as being in domestic
settings as her home whereas the males outdoors in these commercials outnumbered women
outdoors. As we noted in earlier parts of the study, men have usually affirmed as being more
active outdoors while women have always been associated with indoors. These results have
once again revealed the long-term belief through high-tech commercials in such an ironic
way.
The last heading under which these studies’ findings were reviewed was related with the
type of product that the males and the females used in these commercials. The results of the
studies of these different countries clarified that women are usually associated with domestic
products as detergents or personal care products as beauty cream whereas men are depicted as
being more inclined to use non-domestic products such as cars, finance products, electronics
etc. One more famous belief of gender stereotypes claiming that the female is either a
domestic figure or a beauty object is clear in these findings of the studies, too.
The review of these studies provided us with the data that TV commercials are in line
with the gender stereotypical ideas of a man or a woman. The studies selected to be reviewed
were all conducted in the 21st century the oldest of which is from 2003. However, the
gendered point of view continues its existence in a significant way. Another point that needs
to be highlighted is that last years have witnessed to several changes in terms of diminishing
gender based discrimination and these attempts have led to some positive results on this issue.
However, it is clear from these studies that regardless of the changes on society and
government base, the media continues with the gender stereotypical images of men and
women in TV commercials.
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