How advertisements reveal changing gender relations - Essay Example

Advertisements are a direct indicator of the changing values and ideologies in society.Therefore, to understand the cultural aspects of a society, the best way is to observe the advertisements.This essay intends to explore how the gender relations, especially the attitude of society towards females has changed over the last few decades. Studies reveal the fact that the common tendency in advertisements is to present females as weak, submissive, and irrational creatures who are born to exhibit and are pleased at ornaments, dresses and beauty products.

However, the period also witnessed a considerable shift in the position of females. Before, 1970 the overwhelming consensus in advertisements, according to Kellerman, and Kellerman, M reflected the ideas like (1) woman has her primary role in the home, (2) she is not supposed to take important decisions, (3), she is dependent on males, and (4) she is primarily a sex object. However, later periods witnessed a notable increase in the role of females in workplace though the portrayal of females as sex objects had only strengthened in the given period.

The first point taken into consideration is the fact that throughout the given period of consideration, males are presented taller than females. In most cases, according to Kellerman and Kellerman, during the period before 1980, males assumed taller positions than females. However, after the year 2000, one can see a slight difference occurred in this attitude. In the advertisements of modern apparels and beauty products, this height definition is not as strong as it was before. No one can deny the fact that height is a symbolic representation of authority and superiority.

This change in height definition is a direct indicator of the changing position of females in the society. Yet another vital feature is the exhibition of nudity. As per studies, there is a dramatic increase in the number of advertisements showing nudity after the year 1990. In addition, the degree of nudity too has gone upwards. If 24.6% advertisements revealed nudity in 1979, by 1991, the percentage rose to 31.9%; a considerable shift. In the opinion of Caballero and Solomon, a considerable shift in viewing females, that is, their transition from household settings to the workplace settings started in the decade of the seventies.

As studies reveal, the number of females in workplace increased and consequently, the number of advertisements showing females in workplace too increased. However, when their movement to the social sphere allowed them a great degree of freedom, there was a considerable shift visible in the attitudes of females too. To understand the varying female attitude in the society, the way female models look into the camera is taken into consideration. Up to the year 1991, 33.2% advertisements revealed females avoiding direct gaze into the camera, thus revealing a still strong feeling of submissiveness.

However, presently, there is a considerable increase in the proportion of the kind of advertisements in which females look directly into the camera and the stare is far more aggressive and bold than it was ever before. In addition, it has become rather common for females in the present day advertisements to wear dresses very similar to that of males with an alluring gaze directly aimed at the viewer. As Caballero and Solomon state, this shows a considerable variation in the submissive nature of females, possibility due to the economic and social independence they enjoy presently and also due to the understanding of the value and appeal of their physique.

Presently, they are more aware about the way they have to use it to seduce males. Despite all these changes, there are certain features that have not changed. For example, it has been a common advertisement trick to show females touching or caressing their body. This kind of advertisements still retains their position in the society. The caressed object is usually considered