The Influence of TV Advertising on Gender Identity

From a very young age, people are subjected to norms or standards for how each gender should act. Advertisers carefully create their TV ads to send a particular message about gender, playing up the norms people have come to know and enforce.

  1. Children

    • Research conducted in 1998 notes that TV commercials show boys as active and dominate, yet shows girls as giggly and shy. TV commercials also demonstrate what type of behavior is appropriate for boys and girls by dictating which toys are for girls and which toys are for boys. The representation of how boys and girls should act and what they should play with sends a message to the viewer of what is appropriate, thus shaping the gender identity of the viewer.

    Women

    • TV advertisements cast the female character in one of two ways: the home maker or the sex object. Initially, women are consistently shown in the home, supermarket, or shopping in order to reinforce the role of the woman in the domestic sphere. On the other hand, women are also portrayed as sex objects, almost always shown in provocative clothing delivering a clearly sexual message. By continually telling women that they should be doing these things, viewers see such behavior as the norm and frame their gender identity around it.

    Men

    • Television advertisers place men in two distinct roles: the bread winner and the heterosexual male. Initially, TV ads commonly depict men as knowledgeable, hard working, powerful and successful; this depiction tells men that to be a man you must take care of your wife and kids and possess these qualities. Additionally, TV advertisements dictate that men must be heterosexual. Placing women as the direct sex object for men sends the message that heterosexuality is the norm, thus shaping men's gender identity.

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