While studying abroad, I took a class which centered on gender in relation to the arts — an extremely broad topic.
Over the course of the semester, my professor asked me and my fellow classmates to narrow that vast scope down to one medium.
She then tasked us with researching how our chosen art form reflects and reinforces ideas of gender, which we were to present at the end of the class.
Without much thought, I quickly decided on advertising — a form of media infamous for its use of sex to sell products.
I wanted to focus on the history of sexist advertisements, moving toward today to see if those same elements still existed or if ad executives had changed their tune over time.
Ads have been used to divide people into two specific genders since the beginning of marketing, and a trip down any department store children’s aisle will show how this starts at such young age.
Girls’ toys are often pink or purple and relate to homemaking duties, such as a play kitchen or dollhouse. Whereas, with boys, their toys are either blue or red and designed for careers outside of the domestic sphere, such as a doctor or a builder.
As children age into adults, advertisements become even more targeted and sexist, especially in the 1950s and 60s.
In this era, ads were tailored to depict women as damsels in distress who needed a man to help solve their mundane problems, such as opening a ketchup bottle.
These ads showed women mostly in the kitchen, trying to sell some type of household good, aimed at making her life easier, and in turn, making her husband happier with her.
As things began to modernize, ads seemingly stopped selling products to women, but started using their bodies to sell said product, often sexualizing or using violence against them.
One thing remained true, a woman was still less than a man — she was a prop.
Men also experienced negative ads. It was their manhood that was attacked and called into question, if they weren’t rugged or popular with the opposite sex.
They weren’t allowed to show any sort of emotion besides confidence or anger because it would make them less of a man.
I didn’t expect today’s ads to be completely devoid of sexist undertones, but I did expect more change than I found.
Many companies, such as Always and Dove, are working hard to end negative stereotypes targeted toward females by showcasing real women and girls.
When I tried looking for businesses doing the same thing for men, I had a much harder time finding any.
According to a New York Times article, Juliet Williams, a gender studies professor at the University of California, said this occurs because society continues to rely on traditional definitions of masculinity, which are then reflected within advertisements.
“We’re really in a moment of the mainstreaming of the idea that girls can be anything,” Williams said in the article. “We haven’t seen the same shift with men. It’s still ‘boys will be boys.’”
If advertisements can’t reflect all people, then executives should revisit the drawing board. Gender stereotypes are too outdated.
It doesn’t matter if sexism sells, the anachronistic ideas about what it means to be a man or a woman are completely false and they are no longer acceptable.
Ads have more power than many give them credit. With that power comes great responsibility. It’s time to shape up and leave chauvinist ideas of gender in the past.
Olivia Heersink can be reached at [email protected]