Auto Ethnography
Abstract
The image of women in the modern era has been shaped by the over simplification of the female gender role that result in stereotypes. Mass media has abused of the use of stereotypes to sell products while creating impossible expectations for women to fulfill that result in equality with men. The television commercials portray two completely different ideas about the roles that men and women should play in society, where women is portrayed in a house environment taking care of her family while men are more socially active and enjoy activities outside their families. We, as society, have learned to ignore these differences between roles portrayed in propaganda by just thinking about them as commercials. While without us noticing, we are creating unconsciously standards that should rule society to maintain the order, which are unfair and unequal for women.
Television and other forms of mass media have one of the greatest impacts in society in today´s world. According to the American Time Use Survey Summary ``the average American spends about 4 hours watching TV every day`` (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013). This means that by age of 65, the average person would have spent 9 years watching TV. Edward Murrow once said that an instrument ‘’can teach, it can illuminate…But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends.’’(Murrow, 1958). Meaning, that during 9 years of nonstop television, the viewer is influenced by what the media wants him to believe. By creating a certain type of information or image, the media can manipulate his opinions and thoughts. While doing research notes on gender differences I came to the realization that the biggest impact on gender that I have, has come from the image that the media has shown me. There are many differences between the roles that each gender plays on television commercials and propaganda, where women are portrayed in the house with the family while men have social lives, and where stereotypes are only suggestions for men while expectations for women.
On Sunday super bowl day, I was watching the so anticipated and successful television commercials that everybody talks about for a long time. While watching them, I realized that there is an enormous difference in between the roles that men and women play. These roles are marked by the stereotypes that people have created towards each gender. However, the role of women is more affected than the men´s. First, it is important to define what a stereotype is. People sort and simplify the information that they receive. Creating cognitive schemes, which are representations of the reality that display important elements and properties. Therefore, these representations are responsible of defining the information of each class, gender or race. However, the over simplification of these stereotypes result in a subjective image. That is most of the time based on tradition and not willing to change.
The female stereotypic role is to get married and have children. While be loving, nurturing, caring, having to put her family´s welfare before her owns and still find time to be sexy. In the past, the dominant model of a family was a patriarchy. The men were seen as the provider for the family, while the women was in charge of caring for the family. Even though today the common model of a family consists of partnership rather than patriarchy, mass media still use the female stereotype to create propaganda.
The aim of modern propaganda is not only the satisfaction of needs, but also the creation. Media sets the standards of society by making the audience feel identified with the model or image of a product, such as a perfume, a car or clothes. Women are targeted in most of the television commercials because they are expected to make the everyday purchases. While men are shown with cigarettes, cars and beer, women are shown buying groceries, cosmetics and housework essentials. Men are always shown outdoors, at bars, restaurants, parties, football games or work. While women are most of the time shown in a home environment. The most typical type of stereotype commercial portrays a mother having a tough time being able to complete a house work task. For example, they have to find out what they will cook before the family arrives, the washing machine is not leaving the shirts completely white and they have to buy a new soap, the house smells bad and they have to use an air freshener, or there is any part of the house that has stains and they have to find the most efficient product to clean it. Consider the 2013 Tide Laundry Detergent Commercial where a women is shown helping the kids with the homework while discussing the issues that she faces throughout the day, all related to housework. This popular stereotype contrasts with the less popular stereotype of women outside the house. In this type of advertising women are shown as happy, beautiful and rich, acting as consumers of popular brands, while at the same time they are successful in businesses, have perfect bodies and are able to seduce every man they see. Every woman is expected to look like a Victoria Secret angel to be attractive for men. That is why they sell them products for their image, from cosmetics, to shampoos, to even products that will change their natural aspects like their skin tone or appearance. People in this type of advertisement are always thin, and have active and healthy lives. This sometimes can result in the belief that only thin and beautiful women have happy lives. That is why so many women obsess with their weight and their looks, leading them to depression or other negative effects.
On the other hand, we have the male stereotype in advertising. Men are shown as athletic, professional, successful and surrounded by beautiful women. This stereotype is used in almost every product targeted for men. If a man wants to be successful or as attractive as the guy in television, he should that specific product. Look at the deodorant commercials like Axe or Men Spice where after using deodorant, a guy finds himself surrounded by women. However, there is an enormous difference. Women undergo a pressure that men don´t. For men it is optional if they want to look like the television guy, he has the right to decide. If he does not, he can just decide to go under the other stereotype of going out with friends having the coldest beer possible. Think about the recent super bowl commercials, where after showing a Dove ``Real Strength` `commercial where real men are expected to take care of their image, they show Bud Light´s Pac man commercial where the only expectation for men is to drink beer and have fun, no image involved. For women, however, these stereotypes are expectations. As mentioned before, women are expected to look like a model. Including a few exceptions, super bowl commercials with women as protagonist portrayed an ideal image- Kate Upton, Kim Kardashian and the VS angels, there was no other option of beauty.
There is another stereotype for men in commercials. A less popular and less common image of a man that spends time with his family. Men are rarely presented cleaning, if it’s not a car or something alike. If they are, it is most likely satirical. For example, the Mr. Clean commercials where the cleaning guy is a genius that helps women to clean. In this cases, men are shown as experts that give advice to women on how they should do the house cleaning, food, or laundry. This is a perfect example of the stereotype of men over women, the only purpose is to give the image that women have to learn from men. However, it is ironical because if women do all the housework, how can a man know even a little about it. This shows the result of over simplification of the role of the woman in the society.
After learning how the stereotypes shape the way we perceive other gender and races, and analyzing the effect that this has in my life, I realized that my expectations towards women are close likely to what the television commercials show. By being raised by a single mother since I was 5 years old, I would be expected to be a non-stereotypical person because I have seen my mother pass many stereotypical barriers to help me and my brother succeed. For example, being the only provider in a house hold. However, I am still influenced by media. Honestly, I can say that I find more attractive a thin woman than a chubby woman. It is probably not because thin women look better, in fact, if we think about biological attributes chubby women should be more attractive, but because thin women is the standard of beauty that I have seen in mass media. Also, the other day at my church group, we divided the cleaning tasks between groups and my expectations were that the groups of women would finish faster because they are good at cleaning. For my surprise, I finished first and had to help them because some of them had never been asked to help clean the house, while I was raised with the belief that the house chores should be divided between my brother, my mother and I.
Since the day I started taking my field notes, I felt guilty for supporting those stereotypes that expect impossible things from women. Since then, I have been trying to avoid any kind of expectation towards women. I have started appreciating women for what they value as person and what they have to say, rather than how they look. I have been avoiding situations where women are presented as objects rather than human beings. Since I would not like to be expected to fulfill certain stereotypes in order to be accepted by society, I started making a call for action between my family and friends by just giving them a different point of view than the one that mass media gives them.
The expectations toward women are caused by the stereotypes created by mass media to sell products. The difference in roles that each gender plays is affected by the wrong use of this mediums. The average American learns many things from what they see on television and as long as they keep watching it many hours a day and the producers keep using the female stereotype, the idealization of women as objects and the impossible expectations towards the female gender will always exist.
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2013). AMERICAN TIME USE SURVEY -- 2013 RESULTS. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.nr0.htm
Murrow, Edward. (1958). Radio-Television News Directors Association.
Tide. (2013). Muffins. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0cAK9ouRXU
Dove Men Care US. (2015). #RealStrength. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoqWo3SJ73c
Bud Light. (2015). Real Life PacMan #UpForWhatever. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9A1NowrnGI
Mr. Clean. (2014). Madelline Carroll – Mr. Clean Commercial. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0YPsuZYZIY
odificar.