How Stereotypical Gender Roles Mold A Viewer

Introduction and Context of the Problem

Most if not all viewer’s of advertising notice the gender specific roles that apply for men and women. Women are the house keepers, from cleaning to doing everyone’s laundry, and cook wonderful dinners after picking their kids up at soccer. While the man is working, providing for his family, and the only cooking he may do is on the grille on a hot summer day. There has been much research done on

A study of Saturday morning cartoons showed that women were shown less often than males, were less active, played fewer roles, and worked primarily in the household (Streicher, 1974). Though this study was conducted over 25 years ago, no large change is evident. More recent studies have shown many of the same results, children’s programs on Public Broadcasting System (PBS) consistently show fewer males than females. Television also shows certain stereotypical occupations for men rather than women (Beckon, 2). This occupational discrepancy also appears in music videos, where more than nine out of 10 occupational roles that were classified as stereotypically male, like (firemen, mechanic, cops) were played by male actors. This greatly affects boys over girls because boys represent 53 percent of the Saturday viewing audience (Beckon, 3).

To research accurate information and results for this study, focus groups will be the way to conduct a future survey. A focus group is an interview style design that is completed in a small group (Reinard, 242). The four objections of this study were, to gather preliminary information for the research question and to help develop questions for a future survey. The focus group used for stereotypes in advertising was a group of close friends and acquaintances. As the book suggests there are certain ways of conducting a focus group, the group had to be assembled with 11 students in Reed, prepared the focus groups questions that were asked during the session, completing the session, and finally analyzed the data. The group was stayed focused in the discussions with myself being the researcher and the gatekeeper. The sample questions asked were as follows, do you feel that men and women do have specific gender stereotypes, and if so what are they? Another broad question I asked was if the group of people were ever influenced positively or negatively to a certain stereotypical ad? The last question I asked was if they thought that children were most affected by these ads and how could we change children’s learned views from these ads? These questions were all open-ended questions, and were discussed within the small group; many students went above and beyond what was expected in the study.

From the questions that were asked at the time of the focus group study was conducted gave out some very unexpected answers. With the first question that was asked: How often do you see a stereotypical ad, 9 students said that almost every advertisement they see is stereotypical of what society expects. Either it be a very sensual woman trying to sell an adult beverage, or a masculine well built man trying to sell underwear. These advertisements do influence a persons spending considerably, a guy in the group made a very good point, “who wants to buy underwear from a guy who is fat and bald and visa versa for women.” “We only buy what we feel looks good on someone, most people think that if it looks good on her its definitely going to look good on me.” Half the group did not completely agree with his view, saying that yes a good looking person does entice someone’s spending habits, but most people simply buy the product because they like it. Companies spend millions of dollars a year to promote their products on either television, radio, or magazines and newspapers, and they do whatever it takes to get their product sold. One girl in the group felt that it takes a very daring and bold company to break a stereotype and still promote their product of sale. This lead to the second question asked in the interviews: Why do you think stereotypes are still used in advertising today? This question got many different responses, over half the group felt that it was just the easy thing to do, we are use to seeing women cooking in the kitchen while the husband works in the yard or car. Companies want to solicit their products the cheapest and best way they can, and that is using info

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