The use of gender stereotypes in advertising Essay

The use of gender stereotypes in advertising - Essay Example This "The use of gender stereotypes in advertising" work outlines how gender stereotypes used in the ads influence our consumer behavior. Advertisement content largely includes simplified images of gender roles that do not take into account the complexity of contemporary lives, thereby providing marketers a shortcut to communicate for whom the merchandise is intended. Stereotypes, therefore, form the basis of what have been termed advertising’s â€Å"ideologies† (Lafky, et al., 1996). Early advertising content has focused on a narrow spectrum of woman’s roles including childrearing, housekeeping and objects that are dependent, emotional, submissive, selfless and lacking power and authority (Hellemont & Bulck, 2012). Other ads have focused on the â€Å"superwoman† image of females who are equally good in their professional careers as they are at housekeeping. Still others have highlighted the sexual image of woman as being an object of beauty, pointing to i dealized body images and sex appeal (Hellemont & Bulck, 2012). Men, on the other hand, have been associated with traits such as assertiveness and aggression (Hellemont & Bulck, 2012). The world of advertising has been labelled as providing monetary and sexual rewards to the projection of an appropriate manly appearance. Some writers go as far as claiming that virtually all advertisements are skewed towards men by either demonstrating to them the kind of status they can aspire to achieve or demonstrating to women what kind of men they should aspire to attract. However, this does not negate the practice of portraying women as beauty objects or sex symbols in most advertisements. The way in which gender is portrayed in advertisements depends largely on the literacy levels and social status of the audience being targeted. For instance, some ads show working women as independent, whereas others portray women in their traditional dependent roles. A product targeted towards the higher soci al class will be advertised using the

Feminism and International Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Feminism and International Relations - Essay Example However, there are no agreed standards on how to achieve the equality standards. While most problems in international relations field are considered to reveal around the issue of war and security  as most realists assume, there are numerous groups that are liberal in nature, which are concerned in human rights groups, civil society, international political economy, development in the social space among others. For many years, realism and liberalism have been the two main theorists that address issues in international relations. Vibrant societal networks with entrenched confidence and practice leads lead to acknowledgement of important objectives in the country’s systems.The feminist movements and groups do influence international relations decisions by advocating new and better approaches to global to promote justice, equality, and maximise the value of humanity in globe affairs. Literature Review Feminism is currently a political movement and continues to challenge traditio nal approaches of conceptualising politics in the society and the political disciplines (Randall 1995, 118). There are two types of feminism: radical and Marxist feminism that had a revolutionary mind while the liberal feminists have portrayed themselves as reformists in international relations. As a result, in most western countries, the reformist mindset has won the political space, with many women, feminists included, making an impact in political institutions and professions (Randall 1995, 118). Feminist empiricism advances the perspective that states and interstate relations have been governed by dominating gendered structures, and interactions that have been neglecting women in leadership. Feminist standpoint is that women in their varied experiences in life have gained expertise and knowledge in the political life, which offers different perspectives on social issues that provide reliable and effective solutions to most problems in the world political system (Keohane 1989, 24 5). Therefore, the role of feminisms in international relations is to criticise any patriarchal thinking and introduce gendered structures in the society. The social and political integration have an impact on women discrimination since they diversify foundation of political competition and contribute to formation of diverse identities and understanding among citizens. Societal revolutions such as relocation from rural to city resolution areas, speedy population change, democratic politics, and improvement affect women rights. The political protests by women aim at convincing authorities of particular policies as well as create social norms through endorsing particular social behaviors. Problems Feminist Face in International Relations Women discrimination narrows the potential range of policy responses, undermines the capacity of the society to respond autonomously to the demands of their citizenry thereby weakening the legitimacy of traditional political intermediaries and state a uthorities. These new arrangements promoted the diffusion of new values of good governance, human rights, institutional structures, policy formulation, and democracy. One of the major problems that feminists have sought to deal with is in sovereignty of nations. For many years, sovereignty has been related to reciprocity (Keohane 1989, 247). In other words, as Koehane explains, while states have to claims their sovereignty, such states have a duty to respect the sovereignty of other states. These traditional international relation perspectives were discriminatory and tend to separate a nation from others. As Cohn (1987,