Gender Stereotypes Used in Advertising

Gender stereotypes are useful for advertisers because they are something which the audience is familiar with, and which act as a cultural point of reference. The audience almost expects women to be portrayed as motherly types or as sex goddesses, and for men to be swaggeringly macho or comically weak and ineffectual. Using stereotypes would appear to make it much easier for advertisers to sell their product to a particular target market because the people who see their advertisement are instantly aware whether that particular product is relevant to them or not.

Advertisements featuring women as mother figures tend to promote products relating to the home, children, and health. Women in such advertisements are portrayed as putting others before themselves, and doing the best for the family. They take care of the children, make sure the house is clean, and cook all the meals.

At the other extreme, women are portrayed as being slightly vampish. They want to attract men, and to do so in any way possible. Beauty and hair-care products are presented as the best way for women to make the most of themselves, and usually feature attractive, slim, and flawless women wearing the most flattering clothing. Sometimes it is hard to remember that these advertisements are actually aimed at women. It is because advertisers want their female audience to aspire to be as beautiful and successful as the women in the advertisements are presented as being.

Although there has been a tendency to focus on the use of women in advertisements as sex objects, it is not unusual for men also to be used for their looks. Advertisements for razors, aftershave, cars, jeans and even Diet Coke have all employed the services of good-looking men to sell a product. These are supposed to be 'real' mean, who are naturally muscular and good with their hands. They care about how the way they look and smell, but not excessively so. In contrast there are those advertisements where men are presented as useless at traditionally 'manly' tasks, having to rely on their wives to fulfil simple DIY tasks, for instance.

There are some advertisements in which male and female roles are reversed without actually focusing specifically on the issue of gender, but simply used as a way to reflect a more realistic viewpoint for most people. The majority of advertisers rely on perpetuating traditional gender stereotypes, though, because such stereotypes make it possible for them to reach their specified audience without having to expend much energy on thinking of new ways to appeal to people. Obviously anyone who fails to fit into these narrow gender categories are not the priority of advertisers for a reason and, in the end, it usually comes down to money.