GENDER STEREOTYPES

All three of these advertisements demonstrate some degree of gender stereotyping whether it be the message or by the general aesthetic of the product. It is evident that in the kid products the boys are portrayed as "hands-on," in which they are represented as the people in society with a job. For example, the hair and body wash product has the boy dressed like a farmer of which is a job that requires a lot of labor and strength. And, in the clothing brand advertisement, the wording to describe the boy is "the little scholar" which suggests that they are the only gender doing hard-working tasks. And, when I say "only," I do mean only as it can be seen that the two ads for both products have a picture of a girl contrasting to them in the theme of which of it was tackled. As, the hair and body wash ad made the girl dress up as a princess which allows the audience to interpret that girls are careless and rely on their "knight" for a comfortable life. The same thing can be seen in the other children's ad in a slightly subtler tone as the girl is described as the "social butterfly" which, in comparison to the words used to describe the boys, allows one to deem that 'apparently' girls must associate themselves with the social and carefree aspects of life rather than the kind that contributes to the economy. Furthermore, the axe ad above that is directed to adults and teens definitely has a layer of sexist quality in its imagery and its wording (similar to the children's ads). As, it seems like no coincidence that the "the cleaner you are" was placed on the man's side, and the "the dirtier you get" was on the woman's as this proposes the idea that Axe body spray will make you smell good to the point of attracting women to '"get dirty with you". This empowerment to men was dealt with quite poorly as it suggests that women's standards for guys does not exceed the point of appearance which then makes the audience see women as shallow. And, with having soap on the men's side and having the whip-cream on the women's side sexualizes them as being these sexy creatures with no motive in life besides sex. What is meant by this is that the advertisement gave men the useful item (soap) to the man and the kinky item (whip cream) to the woman which emphasizes their message even more that women (according to them) do not do any practical work.

One can see a correlation between this and the children's ads as men are portrayed as these strong-headed leaders in all of the attached ads. Moreover, while color is not used to stereotype in the adult ad, it is used as a tool in the children's one as they are more susceptible to follow simple stereotypes like that at that age. How? Well, it is easy to like the color pink if you're a little girl or blue if you're a little boy as it does not affect your lifestyle in any way as adult stereotypes tend to do. That's why children's ads are particularly dangerous as it is the child's first entrance into what is a society full of typecasting. This separation between the color blue and the color pink is small but impactful, as the association the color does with gender stereotypes allows judgment from others on how to treat that gender. For example, if a girl follows the stereotype of liking pink, a lot of people might treat her less than the associated "serious" or "workplace" colors such as blue or brown. Of course, this can also be detrimental to men as being put into a box of what a "guy should like" just as how girls are told what a "girl should like" restricts men from ever feeling comfortable to express what society deems is "feminine characteristics" such as crying, helping domestically, and others.

In terms of how the chosen ads are marketed towards the consumers, they are done in such a way that the stereotypes allow audiences to immediately click with what product is for what gender. I'm sure that if you were to hold a girl's product and a guy's product from afar and asked your friend to pick which one was for a boy, she would pick the one with the earth color. As, people have grown up with always associating traits and such with a gender as perhaps it is an easy way to categorize society. Gender stereotyping, as one knows, is not a natural human trait as it is a way of thinking that has been exercised by our minds because our environment/society has made it so. Personally, when I was younger, my parents allowed my sister and I to pick whatever toy we wanted without pushing us to the boy or girl section as they wanted us to appreciate a product for exactly what it was– a product. My sister, of course, had a couple of princesses but she also had army soldiers, just as how I had a couple of barbies but also had Scooby Doo characters. This freedom of choice had influenced us to think of society as a place with human beings and thought of gender as irrelevant to how we judged someone.

Based on what has been written, one can say that society's approach towards gender is too simplified to the point of which it paints people as 2D characters strictly playing their part. It treats women as people who never went to college when that is not always true. It treats men as people who must lead society when not all of them have the want or capability to. What is trying to be said is that gender stereotypes untangle the knots in a human's character, brushing their "string" down wrongly thinking that generalizing people through gender is the best way to view the world. However, the world has definitely become more progressive with this issue as people are beginning to blur the line between man and woman into what hopefully will lead to a future where we do not assign something as simple as "who cleans the dishes" with a gender.