To what extent does the representation of women in advertising reflect or challenge the identity of women?
As the title of this slide suggests, women are sometimes seen as domestic servants. They conveyed the idea that the female gender role is to do housework, like cooking and washing.
The first ad infers that usually women cannot open a ketchup cap, and usually men can, which is true…… The ad represented women in a very stereotypical way: neat makeup, hair-style, very feminine hand pose. Not being able to open a ketchup cap is not a big deal. We all need help from others at some point for something. But this advertisement exaggerates on that and is kind of saying that women are incapable in general. The exaggeration and emphasize are shown by the woman’s surprised expression and the word “women” is underlined. In fact, some men cannot open a ketchup cap and some women can. If we don’t have gender stereotypes in our mind, the text should say “you mean everyone can open it”, it’s going to make more sense.
The second advertisement has the text: “Be a good egg. Treat your daughter for doing the washing up.” Here it plays a double meaning on “good egg”. It is referring to this chocolate pinata egg that they are trying to sell, but a good egg also is a nice person. Nice in terms of benevolence and compliance, which are traditionally expected traits for females. But should parents really reward their children for listening to orders? Or should they reward their children for being responsible, creative, or brave? Traditionally parents would want their sons to have their own thinking and want the girls to just listen. Because in the old society, women are supposed to listen to the orders given by men. In the workplace, the boss is usually male, and at home, the wife should follow the husband, and children should listen to the father. And why not treat your son for doing the washing up? Or treat your daughter for doing well on the math test? There’s nothing wrong with “treat your daughter for doing the washing up”. It is something worth a treat. But the problem is that the creator of this advertisement actually made this particular choice that typically infers the idea that females should be doing housework. He or she could have written so many other things, but to the creator, this seems to be the most natural thing to write, and that is the problem. The whole underlying society’s expectation for gender roles is completely shown in this advertisement.
