Why Men Are Portrayed as Bread Winners - Essay Example

WHY MEN ARE PORTRAYED AS BREAD WINNERS, AND WOMAN AS HOMEMAKERS IN THE MEDIA AND ADVERTISING The beginning of the 21st century witnessed the crumbling walls of male domination and female subjugation as docile objects of satisfaction and service. What had been accepted as mere convention and culture was being challenged and questioned. Women empowerment was the new buzz phrase and the lines that polarized gender roles were blurring. Although gender roles are now considered interchangeable, with as much power vested in women as in men, the media still uses the pigeonhole of conventional gender responsibilities. What feminist movements worked hard to embrace, todays media and advertising gladly cast off- the idea of an equal playing field. When one gender is given superiority of any form over the other an imbalance is created in the whole system, this imbalance is called Gender Inequality. Gender Equality along with everything is a basic human right. As we all know gender inequality is not a new concern in today’s world. Gender inequality has existed in all times, in all societies in some form or the other and still prevails in the world. It is a debate which has achieved remarkable results in developed countries but at the same time fails in the less developed world. Gender equality is such a huge concern for the global community that it is used as a measure of how developed a country is in the most popular Human development index, which calculates the standard of living of a country (Gender Inequality Index). Therefore, the importance of such a pressing issue cannot be undermined. While we all have our own understanding of gender inequality it is important to complement that understanding with different forms of inequalities that exist today in the real world and exacerbate this problem. When we talk about portrayal the first thing that comes to our minds is media; a crucial tool which has the power to alleviate or exacerbate the issue of gender representation in the media. The reason behind this association is that most of us rely on media to craft opinions and identities. A popular website, Listverse which serves over 10 million pages a month highlighted the extreme forms of gender inequality that the world faces today. These included the abandonment of the right to drive, Female infanticide, access to education, right to divorce and drive (Extreme examples of Gender inequality). With these examples of inequality prevailing in the world today there must be a few factors that have worsening effects on the situation. However liberated the 21st century woman is an advertiser still wishes to see her as a consumer, an idea that conflicts with the feminist movement. This practice is particularly rife in the household products, healthcare and foods categories. If women are portrayed as independent decision makers as opposed to care giving homemakers, the premise of most of these advertisements will fail and, inevitably, so will their product. Our societies are still quite patriarchal and therefore this psychology is implicitly communicated through our advertisements and the media in general. This results in the portrayal of women as being dependent on men. The main reason lies in the fact that even though women are more empowered now than they were two decades ago, they have only taken up more roles, not unshackled themselves of the ones they were fettered to more than a century ago. They are still identified with attributes of a caregiver and a homemaker. The responsibilities of a mother, wife and a daughter still lie on a woman’s shoulders. These are the features that advertisers need to promote when promoting products related to the health and homecare industries and the convenient option available to marketers in this regard is to exploit the consumers’ psychology. It is an unarguable notion of how media impact gender stereotyping today. This has a devastating impact on the current generation and the generations to come in the future. Studies show that TV- advertisements portray women as homemakers; they are shown in roles that relate to home and care whereas men are portrayed as breadwinners. They are depicted as strong, successful and powerful which tells the man that he is supposed to take care of his wife and kids because he possess the ability to do so. Although we see that after the 1950s women portrayal in magazines has improved and many magazines are today devoted towards their lifestyle and achievements, but unfortunately this does not reduce the underlying belief of women occupying menial roles. While on the subject of consumer psychology let us direct our attention to beauty and personal care products for, both, men and women. When the flicker of marketing innovation and creativity extinguishes, the age-old cliché of using women as sex objects kindles. Derogatory sexual behavior towards women is viewed as a symbol of male virility and therefore an easy shortcut to selling a product like hot cakes. This perceived sexual superiority of men and the dogma of an alpha male, has given way to the belief that women are weaker than men and are looked upon as objects that satisfy and service men. This misguided sense of the balance of powers, therefore, invariably grants the man an important position in the public sphere. (Limpinnian) The issue of gender stereotyping is not only restricted to advertising, in fact it can be seen in newspapers, shows, films and other forms of social media. These mass media cater to and are representative of the masses; they thrive on the stories fed to their audiences and on the approval they receive from them in return. By virtue of the nature of this relationship dynamic of mass media and its audience, it is very important for these media to conform to their audience in order to sustain themselves. As the idea of an equal playing field gained momentum, women’s participation in the workforce increased. Notwithstanding this increase men still dominate the workplace and the glass ceiling, has unfortunately not been broken. The skewed male to female ratio with more males than females gives rise to a natural bias to implicitly or explicitly portray women in their conventional roles. This under representation of women in the workforce automatically reinforces the idea of a man as the provider-the breadwinner and a woman as a dependent- a homemaker.   Splashed across newspapers, magazines, shows, advertisements and other forms of social media is the same stereotype of conventional and rigid gender roles which has an anti-social impact, more powerful than we perceive. The reasons can be traced back to the fact that although, women have increased the ambit of their roles and responsibilities they are not absolved of the traditional roles of guardian, mother and wife. The media falls prey to this conventional role dynamic of women in order to conform to social norms. Advertisers use it as a tool to manipulate and capture their consumer’s by amplifying the impact of traditional gender roles. Bibliography Extreme examples of Gender inequality. 26 Mar 2012 . Gender Inequality Index. 26 Mar 2012 . Limpinnian, Danielle. The Portrayal of Men and Women in TV Ads. 27 Mar 2012 . Read More