DOWNGRADING BY FEMINISM IN ADVERTISING

Yogie Rukwanda

I. INTRODUCTION

Gender advertisements refers to the image in advertising that depict stereotypical

gender roles and displays. Gender displays are used heavily in advertising to establish the
role of one gender in relation with the other. But when it comes to gender advertisement, it
will be a different thing. There will be some feminism essence when there’s a combination
between gender roles and the contents in one advertisement. It has been a common thing that
everybody keep fighting for gender equality. Some of us are sure that gender equality has
been proven. But we don’t recognize that there are still some advertisements that contain
feminism. Advertisement is one tool that can keep feminism still running.

II. GENDER MAINSTREAMING

Feminist movement took place in the late 1960’s. There have been many debates
about the rights and roles of women. They claim that mass media, especially advertising in
women’s magazines is the main place where feminism can be found. According to them, ads
during this time period women are portrayed as individuals that submissive, and purely
domestic creatures.

(examples of 1950’s advertisement)

In 1973, Alice Courtney and Sarah Lockeretz did a large-scale study of eight
general magazines from the 1950s. After analyzing the advertising in them, they came to
several conclusions about the role and portrayal women in the ads that “women don’t do
important things.’ We can conclude from that sentence that women always be the sidekick.
They don’t make decisions or something that can determine the continuity of one particular
thing.

III. DOWNGRADING WOMEN’S VALUE

Just like what I just concluded on the previous section, that advertisement are
stereotyping women and putting gender roles as their content, one statement that we can pull
is advertisement nowadays is downgrading women’s value in general. For example, the
dishwashing liquid advertisement.

(The main subject of 1960s dishwashing liquid advertisement was always woman or housewife)

The figure that always appears on the advertisement is a housewife or a mom. The effect will
be various. The first thought that will across people’s mind that it’s women’s job to wash the
dishes. This kind of paradigm will always stay there since the advertisement is aired everyday
on daytime television. By the time, the paradigm will develop into “Husband got nothing to
do with chores. It’s women’s job only. The husbands doesn’t have any obligations to
maintain the cleanliness in the house.” It will affect the mindset of your future daughter. She
will think twice when it comes to marriage. Because she thinks it will be a burden to be a
housewife.

IV. FEMINISM TO BUILD THE MARKET

Even though the existence of feminism in every advertisement can downgrade the
value of women, there’s one proof that feminism is needed in the advertisement in order to
build the market, especially for some products that usually used by certain gender.
If we take a look at Clorox’s ads, we will find some signifier that can explain why
the dishwashing liquid advertisement always had female figure in it and not male.
 (Clorox’s vintage advertisement)

Flexing pose • signifier 1

STRONG • sign 1
FEMALE

INDEPENDENT
• sign
2

It has a female as the subject of the advertisement. But it not only shows a general female
figure in it. The female figure strikes a certain pose. She’s in flexing pose that explains she’s
a strong and independent woman. It can be a good thing for feminist, because it means that
the advertisement is upgrading the woman’s value. But still, it only has women to be the
subject which is still stereotyping that washing the dishes is women’s job.
But there’s another purpose by putting a female figure as the main subject. The reason why
they always putting female figure is it will be different if it’s a male figure. Even though we
know that washing dishes is not only for women, but it’s a common thing that it’s not men’s
concern. In our society, men’s concern is providing the family financial. And usually, men do
it by working outside of the house while the wife maintain the house. So it will be useless
when the subject of the ads is a male or father.

The target of the marketing are housewives and moms. The company wants to
make a product that based on housewives’ or moms’ need at that time in order to make the
consumers think that the product is suitable for them and it has what they need. For example,
fast cleaning soap or soap that doesn’t make your skin dry.

V. CONCLUSION
We can’t erase the feminism in advertising as long as the target of the product is
one certain gender. Each company has its own target and purposes in order to sell one
product. The most important thing to do right now is erasing the habit of stereotyping one
gender. And sometimes it’s pretty tiring to give so much attention to one particular
advertising that later be each woman’s future.

Yogie Rukwaanda
A11170010
Basic Paradigm of Cultural Scinces (class B)