Gender Stereotypes Essay

965 Words4 Pages

Media’s role in shaping people’s ideas, beliefs, actions and behaviors has become unquestionable.
The issue of mass media, advertising and their influence on the building of our culture and social values has been broadly debated by both academics, from a sociological standpoint, and public entities aimed at regulating media content-especially television. Societies have proved the indispensable role of mass communication in awakening national consciousness and mobilizing the people. Media also became an agent for the preservation of the status quo. It is compelling in both processes of learning and relearning, as well as in socialization and crystallization of ever-changing people’s expectations. Media is also very influential in spreading …show more content…

A study looking at sex role stereotypes and their developmental aspects found that the acquisition of concepts about sex roles begins at an early age. “By age three children can correctly apply gender labels and can correctly associate sex-typed objects like articles of clothing with the appropriate sexî (Flerx, Fidler & Rogers, 1976, p. 998). In another study by Broverman, Vogel, Broverman, Clarkson and Rosenkrantz (1972) people were asked to define sex role stereotypes by defining the socially acceptable characteristics associated with gender. Broverman, Vogel, Broverman, Clarkson and Rosenkrantz (1972) found that most people described certain character traits, which a woman or a man should have in order to be socially acceptable. They termed these character traits stereotypes. An example would be when men said women should not be aggressive, whereas it was found that women considered aggressive behavior from men acceptable (Broverman et al., 1972).
This paper will concentrate on the representation of women in advertisements involving household products by looking specifically at how the female stereotypes are portrayed in Philippine advertisements such as Tide, Downy, Breeze, and Joy. It will also contain results of a qualitative approach on the matter, based on the effect of household product advertisements in constructing the female identity of the female Filipino