Muratalla

Carlos Muratalla
Professor Beadle
English 115
5 December, 2016

Media: The effects of stereotyping women

Women in society are treated with disrespect and are thought to have a thin variety of
skill and talents. The advertisement industry influences our society by making us think that
women need to be in the kitchen or that they need to be showing off their perfect body. In the
advertisement that I chose that showed a woman in the kitchen and being the server for a man
because he is in charge and she has to submit to what he says. In society is often frowned upon if
men seem feminine, because women are mostly feminine and not being aggressive and dominant
is seen as a sign of weakness. This is important to analyze and call out because it shows how
there is an inequality in society in terms of the way males are treated as opposed to females.
Women are treated as the inferior by men and society.
In the advertisement I chose, the picture shows a man saying wives are only for cooking.
The ad shows him saying The chef does everything but cook thats what wives are for!, this
shows how in society even though the women is doing all the cooking and cleaning in the
kitchen, the man still gets the title as Chef. The chef is often the one who is in charge of
everything in the kitchen, the women who do everything are still treated as the servants and
inferior to the man. This ad also shows the women smiling, making it seem like the women is

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happy with being in the kitchen, being without a provider for her family and this shown with her
being in the kitchen in her and not in a work space. The man is smiling as well in the picture and
the text on the image is said as if it were a joke, this statement shows how before women were
thought to only have skills in the kitchen and in the area of maintaining the house for the man.
This reinforces the stereotype that women are happy being in the kitchen and they enjoy being
bossed around. This articles helps to show that roles in society are male dominated and are full of
men being the leaders of the business. In society we often find that men are aggressive and the
dominant ones in society, in society we started creating tiers of people in charge, at the top is
men then it is then children and women. The men become the ones at positions of power and are
able to abuse that power, sometimes harassing the women.
In Renzetti & Curran the authors speak of when we are at a young age we are often
affected by the types of toys we use and see. In studies that were taken by the 2, it was found that
the girls had toys that often helped influence and prepare them for their lives later, the toys often
found for the girls were taking care of babies, playing with dolls and being in the kitchen. For the
boys it was often found that they played with vehicles, action figures and outside in nature. This
connects to the idea that women are treated as less because during childhood years the girls are
taught to be nurturing and to maintain the house, then by the time they are with their spouse they
are influenced by the advertisements to be a happy house wife and have less freedom than their
spouse. They have to conform to these ideas of being at home and not trying to get an education
just because they were trained to do such. This idea also relates to the article of Aaron Devor
Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender, in this article he says that in
society we show our gender by the way we present ourselves and roles we do. Devor states this
with as we move through our lives, society demands different gender performances from us and

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rewards, tolerates, or punishes us differently for conformity to, this quote shows how society
demands that we change ourselves and mold to fit into what we are thought to be, such as the
women being care-takers and this mold occurs from a young age. This occurs in the ad, the
woman gives an example of how a woman was supposed to look at that period in history, the
woman has painted nails and her hair is neatly fixed, while the man is in a suit that looks as if he
works for a business. The ad has a message that shows only the man can do business and that the
women has to listen to what is said. These advertisements that are meant for women were male
dominated creators and they were trying to get persuade a sale from the womans point of view.
In Renzetti & Curran, they speak of the difference of the toys that we have based on the sex of
the person. The boys again had violent action figures with weapons and enforcing with strength
figures, and this develops the way the males think because the toys teach us the being violent and
killing those who oppose us is the right thing to do. For girls the toys they use are those mainly
concerning the concept of maternity, this shows how they are bred to become mothers and caretakers.
In advertisements that involve women it is often seen that the womans body is contorted
and made to look perfect, something that is unattainable. This causes the women to want plastic
surgery on order to attain the characteristics that they want. In the article What do Woman
want? The effects of Gender and Sexual Orientation on the Desirability of Physical Attributes in
the Personal Ads of Women by Christine Smith, she says that women often feel as if they are
not pretty and in this society where on social media we often see these beautiful women in ads it
is virtually impossible to not witness. Through the media we teach each other how to treat our
women and men in society, but from this societal output we teach each other that it is right to be
treated this way. In old cartoons that Ive personally seen there would be construction workers

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and as soon as they saw a woman walk by, they would do a cat call and what this is, is a where
they whistle and are ill-mannered of the womans beauty. In the cartoons the woman would turn
around and enjoy the attention because this meant they meant something because they were
pretty, the media taught us that whistling at women was appropriate when it wasnt, and it taught
some women that being pretty is all they have for themselves. This relates to my visual text
because they show women are being treated as less and are only used for the use of men, such as
cooking for them and keeping their houses clean, and also having something good to look at.
Many try to refute this idea that women are being exploited by men. These people also
say that the women are not forced to do anything and have the right to stop what they want and
leave, but the truth is that the people who control the advertisements are men and they can just
cast another beautiful young women and exploit her body in exchange for fame. Also, as the
people we tell woman that by is taking part in the music video or photo shoot they are
empowering themselves and are doing good to stop the stereotypes of a woman who does not
doing anything but stay in the house as a way to convince them to use their body. Women, who,
through such media representations, are increasingly encouraged to exploit their bodies as a
means of capital exchange. (Coy, 2009; Douglas, 2010; Katz, 2006; McRobbie, 2009; Oppliger,
2008) This shows that women are able to say no to exploit their capital or body because it is
theirs. However, in an article by Elza Ibroscheva, pieced Caught Between East and West?
Portrayals of Gender in Bulgarian Television Advertisements the author speaks of how in a
prospering industry of ads in Bulgaria, the women are subject to being treated horribly. Women
in this country are often treated with being underpaid in every class and in the year 2004
approximately 50.4% of women from 16- 64 were unemployed because the work force is
discriminatory to women (Elza Ibroscheva). Due to the fact of advertisement criticizing women

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and making them seem as the weaker sex, they have endured turmoil in real life and thus life
imitates the art of advertisement. In the entertainment industry to women have been eroticized
with their bodies and are victims of this from male. As a result from this advertisement in the
countries, the effect of this is that women are being treated as second class citizens. The women
are not chosen for jobs simply for the fact that theyre simply women and they are not going to
be enough to suffice. This refutes the counterargument because this shows how by doing those
things and showing their bodies for money, they are degrading themselves. The way to get power
in society for women is by showing themselves off.
In conclusion women in adverts are often treated as being as pieces of meats. Through
advertisements, the sexualization of females has been present in eastern countries for thousands
of years and is getting worse, and has been evident in western societies like the United States
with the business of advertisements such as the one I chose. From childhood we are taught how
to act a certain way, and in the united states it is often where the woman is the weakling and
having the characteristics of a feminine which is typically a woman, is known as a bad thing. The
way that we view a woman in media comes and influences to view them the same way in society,
by stereotypes of them being uneducated and proud to show their body.

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Works Cited
Ibroscheva, Zelza. Caught Between East and West? Portrayals of Gender in Bulgarian
Television Advertisements. yr:2007 vol:57 iss:5 pg:409-418

Smith, Christine A. What Do Women Want? The Effects of Gender and Sexual Orientation on the
Desirability of Physical Attributes in the Personal Ads of Women, Sex Roles
May 2002, Volume 46, Issue 9, pp 337342

Curran, Daniel, From Women, Men, and Society, Composing Gender pp76-84
Devor, Aaron. Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender Composing
Gender