Representations of Gender in Advertising

Objectives: Representations of Gender in Advertising (70 min)

Students to be made aware of how gender is often represented in advertisements Students to be aware that such representations sometimes perpetuate problematic stereotypes

Materials Needed:
Internet access for advertisements

Activities:
Note: Activities A, B, C and D can be used as stand-alone activities or together, in any order. 10 min: Activity A Snickers Advertisement Youre Not You When Youre Hungry (Singapore version) Watch the Snickers advertisement Youre Not You When Youre Hungry [00:32, via Youtube] Whats the product? Whats the direct/ indirect message? How do the students feel? Discuss how different genders are represented in this advertisement.

10 min: Activity B Old Spice Motorcycle Watch the Old Spice advertisement Motorcycle [0:31, via Youtube] Whats the product? Whats the direct/ indirect message? How do the students feel? Discuss how different genders are represented in this advertisement.

20 min: Activity C Strike a Pose Students to bring magazines to class. In groups of 6, they should choose an advertisement (with at least 1 human model). (They should not show this advertisement to the other group!) Each group to take turns to pose like the model/s in their selected advertisement. (They should either hold the pose during the class discussion or be photographed) Other groups are to guess the gender identity of the models Whats the product? Whats the direct/ indirect message? Reveal the actual advertisement.

Debrief: o How do the students feel? o How are the bodies in the advertisements positioned? o In what roles do women and/or men appear (or not appear)? How are they looking at each other or at their audience? o Discuss how different genders are commonly represented in advertisements.

10 min: Activity D The photographs of Yolanda Dominguez Educator to briefly explain Yolanda Dominguezs photo project. Look at the images at Yolanda Dominguez: Exposing the Artificiality of Women in Fashion (Sociological Images, 30 Sept 2011) How do the students feel? What does the project reveal about gendered representations in advertisements?

20 min: Conclusion
Based on all the images and advertisements, discuss the following questions: To what extent are gendered stereotypes being perpetuated in these images? How do these gendered stereotypes help to sell the product? Is this harmful? Why/ why not?

Educator to sum up the general discussion points and show Beauty Pressure by Dove [01:20, via Youtube]

Additional Resources
GQs men of the year covers spot the odd one out (Newstatesman.com, 5 Sept 2012) Men-Ups: Manly Men In Classic Pin-Up Poses (Buzzfeed), photographs by Rion Sabean