Gender stereotypes are all around us. Little girls wear pink, little boys wear blue. Women clean and do dishes; men fix things and do yard work. Wait a minute… men don’t do dishes?
Not according to the commercials I see on television. I’ve noticed recently that any commercial involving cleaning or doing dishes always has a woman doing the work. In fact, I’m not sure I recall any men in the commercials at all.
Perhaps marketers have done research and found most women do the shopping or most of the household chores and therefore use a “similar-to-me” strategy for their ads. But to me it seems like they are just perpetuating the stereotype that it’s a woman’s job to do dishes.
I grew up in a household where my brother, sisters and I shared the chores evenly, regardless of type of chore. We all did dishes and laundry, even my brother, just like we all helped with the yard work outside, and with taking out the garbage and recycling. Personally, I believe that men and women are different; however, when it comes to house work, I don’t think there needs to be a difference in who does certain types of chores.
Doing dishes is simply one example of gender stereotyping in advertising, but it leads to a greater question about the role of marketing and advertising in our society. Should advertising portray the status quo? Is there any room for challenging stereotypes? What role should marketing play is shaping our worldview?
What do you think? I’d love to hear your opinion, so please share your thoughts below.
Good post Lyds. Marketers will do what they want as long as they make money. It’s too bad that some are propagating stereotypes. Obviously there are enough people buying the stuff who don’t care about the message being sent (or are not even aware). What’s more, we don’t even *need* most (or nearly all) the products advertised. I love the Story of Stuff: http://www.storyofstuff.com/
Yes, Emmanuel has a fair point. And Steven, I didn’t really mention it, but the gender stereotypes certainly go both ways. Not sure I’ve seen a commercial for a mower with a female.
I’m with Emmanuel. I won’t mow my lawn anymore until I see a Husquavarna commercial with a lady on the mower.
The question isn’t how marketers should treat this. Rather it should be how women should treat this. Should women stop purchasing products from those who propagate gender stereotyping, should they complain? Fact of the matter is that this discussion fringe/marginal. Marketers figure that there is more money to be made this way.
Emmanuel,
We do the same…. well, I mean, no one prefers to clean the bathtub, but someone’s gotta do it! :) How do you think marketers should treat this?
I agree that gender stereotyping is an issue. There are so many chores to do around the house. We in our household divide tasks based on preferences.