Філологічні науки/3. Теоретичні та методологічні проблеми дослідження мови

Асистент Мрочко О.В.

Вінницький торговельно-економічний інститут Київського національного торговельно-економічного університету

Gender Stereotyping in TV Advertisements

Gender issues in communication have attracted attention of many researchers. Studies in this area show that TV advertisements aimed at men differ from those aimed at women. This is reflected not only in targeting a particular product at a particular audience. In doing so, we can observe, firstly, using specific day parts (daytime, evening primetime and weekend afternoon sports) as a framework for the supposed target audience (women, family and men respectively). Secondly, and this is a more serious issue, the advertisements aimed at one sex tend to portray gender differently from the advertisements aimed at the other sex. There is now fairly widespread conceptual agreement and empirical support for the view that television can and does profoundly influence the viewers' intellectual development, change their attitudes, encourage attitudes and behaviours, and spread some stereotypes.

It was found that overall men appeared more often than women in television advertisements and that men and women differed in terms of credibility (men being authorities and women users), role (women portrayed in terms of their relationship to others and men in a role independent of others), location (men shown in occupational settings and women in the home), persuasive arguments (men gave more `scientific' arguments than women), rewards (women were shown obtaining approval of family and males, while obtained men social and career advancement) and product type (men were authorities on products used by women).
Despite improvements since the seventies in the status of female characters, the TV commercials of the early eighties still revealed stereotypical gender roles. Male characters for example, were still more likely to be portrayed as employed outside the home while women were typically found working in the home. Males were also given greater credibility than were females. Male and female adult characters were also still clearly associated with activities traditionally associated with their gender (i.e. men were associated with mowing the lawn, while women were associated with doing the dishes). Finally, they discovered that ninety percent of commercials had male narrators, and that this was true even in the case of commercials for stereotypically female products. Also, there was a clearly gendered association of loud music and dark settings with male characters. This is of importance, as the narrator is considered the voice of authority. By selecting predominantly male narrators, advertisers are identifying males as the most deserving of respect. They are working from the assumption that viewers are more likely to believe what they are told by a male voice. Finally, male characters were most often shown alone, participating in stereotypically male behaviour.

The male figures' typical credibility basis as an authority of the advertised product complements previous findings.
Men were most likely to be portrayed as interviewers, narrators, or celebrities in occupational settings or in unspecified locations, while women were most likely dependent on others. However the difference between the two (males and females) was not as great as expected concerning the professional role.
Location is still a significant predictor of gender stereotyping. Females are more often portrayed at home while males are more frequently portrayed during leisure/outdoor.
Age is often one of the best indicators of sex-role stereotyping. Although studies define "young," "middle-age," and "old" on slightly different scales, a prevalent picture is indicated: females are consistently shown as younger than males. Most studies show that central figures are dominated by middle-aged males and young females. The depiction of female figures as young is a typical feature of advertisements from Australia and United States. This implies that advertisers consider it important for women to be portrayed as youthful and consequently attractive, whereas this is not as important for men. Instead male figures are depicted as being older - most male figures are middle aged - which may enhance this commonly presented image as authoritative experts.
The content category "reward types" showed many gender role effects. There is a significant association between gender of product user and reward type. The general pattern is that males are shown to be associated with pleasurable rewards, while females are more portrayed as rewarded with social approval and/or self-enhancement. Women were more likely to appear in adverts for body products and most likely to be associated with food products.

Literature

1. Craig, R. Stephen. The Effect of Television Day Part on Gender Portrayals in Television Commercials: A Content Analysis, in Sex Roles 26(5/6), 1992. – P, 197-211.

2. Neto, Felix and Pinto, Isabel. Gender stereotypes in Portuguese television advertisements. In Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, July, 1998. – P. 45-46.

3. McArthur and Resko McArthur, L. Z., & Resko, B. G. The portrayal of men and women in American television commercials. Journal of Social Psychology, 1975, 97. – P. 209-220.

4. Manstead and McCulloch Manstead, A. S. R., & McCulloch, C. Sex-role stereotyping in British television advertisements. In British Journal of Social Psychology, 1981, 20. – P. 171-180.