Gender Oppresion

Through the mass media, our patriarchal capitalist system has created the illusion that Women's Liberation has progressed when gender equality policies were introduced, such as "equal salaries" and the right to vote. It has convinced the common North American woman to believe that she is not socially restrained, that her accomplishments can be unlimited, that she is in total charge and control of her life. However, conventional norms veiled deeply and expressed indirectly in the mass media continue to dictate and subdue lives according to gender. Seemingly innocent short TV ads, still remarkably traditional in depicting gender roles, condone and reinforce gender oppression. This paper will focus on the underlying imagery of several advertisements, which help perpetuate gender oppression and reinforce the patriarchial system.

The first advertisement was extracted from the popular magazine Cosmopolitan, targeted to a predominantly young female adult audience. The ad illustrates a young couple in which the man is kissing the hand of his soon-to-be wife, with an engagement ring on her finger. The picture itself places both the male and the female in their corresponding gender roles in mainstream society: buying his bride an expensive ring, the man fulfills his role as 'Good Provider' and the woman not only willingly accepts this symbol of belonging to the man, but is extremely satisfied and blissful. This ring, of course, does not fall short of its symbolic expectations. The act of offering her a ring, the man may be seen as manifesting deep love; but he is also making an investment, expressing it in the form of commitment. In a sense, this is also a form of tenure and possession; he is expecting her to completely give herself to him. The subtext to the slogan "Platinum. For a lifetime of love" also suggests a lifetime of ensured financial security and protection for the woman. It reduces the expression of love to a brand of jewelry, selling it not just as a product, but as a standardized lifestyle. How can a woman become truly emancipated if she is economically dependent of man throughout her life, typically from father to husband? In the ad, the man has also fallen victim to the expectations of his gender role in society. Under pressure to fit the masculine profile, he must financially provide for his partner and shower her with pricey gifts, not to mention choose a proper trophy wife: feminine, attractive, submissive and delighted at everything he does. With bombarding messages like these, how can marriage truly be about love and not about private property within a social institution? The message behind this advertisement reflects the traditional expectations of both genders powerfully, yet subtly and indirectly.

In the second example also extracted from Cosmopolitan, accomplished female pop icon Beyonce Knowles is advertising for a Hilfiger fragrance. Most consider this woman to be an empowered career woman, a "true star" for achieving her goals by her talent and skills. However, in this ad (as well as in many others to which she sells her image) she is degraded to only an erotic representation of females, a creature of beauty poised in a way to suggest that she is sexually available. The allusion reverts this 'empowered modern woman' back on track to her ordained role in society to service herself for the male enjoyment. The subtext "a private performance" degrades her career as a performer to a sex object for the consumption of man, specifically for the consumption of the targeted reader "privately". Although she is portrayed as sexually available, she is only sexually active for the viewer. The double standard that a woman must be preoccupied in adorning herself for men's approval, but must save and reserve herself for only one man is also depicted here.

Finally, the TV advertisement for "The Swiffer" is one of many examples in which gender roles