ADS AND GENDER

While flipping through the pages of a Spanish magazine named “TV Notas” I came across a very interesting ad. It says “Un busto Exuberante con Bosom Max,” This means: A bigger breast with Bosom Max.” The ad has a picture of a fairly young woman probably in her late 20’s. She is wearing a pink shirt that is so open barely covering her nipples. Her breast looks so big that all you pay attention too while you see this ad is her breast. Of course the company promoting Bosom Max wants to sell the product making women believe this treatment will increase the size of her breast. But why would they assume women with small breast would want bigger breast? I strongly believe ads like this are what make many women feel ashamed of their bodies and not completely satisfy with themselves. The woman in this ad is also wearing a lot of makeup. Her cheeks are as pink as her shirt, and she has this innocent smile that is portraying “satisfaction.” Her hair is nicely done and her hands are tied together on top of her stomach. Women are always forced by society to be looking beautiful, sexy, many times innocent, and calmed. It makes me really sad how ads like this want to put women down. Since by showing this they are saying that small breast is not cute, sexy, and is not supposed to be that way. Especially this is focusing on Spanish women since this is a Spanish magazine. It wants to tell the Spanish audience that women are supposed to have big breast in order to look good. I remember when I was younger I always wanted big breast, since I always used to see this type of ads. Now that I think about it, it upsets me to realize that many teenagers going on puberty are going to see this ad and feel different about their body. They will look at themselves and say, “My breast doesn’t look like that, I am not a good looking, sexy woman.” We need to change this and evoke that idea that we are all beautiful that way we are.

In the morning while I was in the train to work I noticed a woman standing next to me reading a magazine. I saw her flipping the pages slowly but then she stopped to read an article. I soon realized that the back of the page she has flipped to had a picture of a woman in a kitchen. I pay close attention to the ad and what exactly was trying to say. If it were any other day I wouldn’t even notice how that ad evoked gender norms, but since I had to do this assignment I actually stopped and observed it well. It was a picture of a woman in a fancy kitchen. She had a big smile in her face. She was holding a towel in one of her arms and with her hand holding a knife and a tomato. One of her legs was lift up (as if playing soccer) but lifted from her backside pointing her toes towards her back. On top of her foot was a small toaster, as if she was catching it from falling. With her other hand she was mixing fruits on a blender, and then again she had a big smile in her face! Oh! And I forgot to mention that her kid was holding on to her right leg as is he wanted something from her. The ad titled “All a woman could do with Olympia Kitchenware.” This article made me so mad because I am not and will never be a housewife at all. I don’t believe in women having to cook, clean, watch the kids, and still work, and on top of that serve the husband when he gets home. I hate that they post ads like this in which they are saying that women have to be housewives no matter if they work or if they stay at home. Society imposes that role since it is always claimed that women are so emotional, more caring, more sensitive, and more nurturing. That is not true! Not all women are like that. I was trying to find an ad where there was a man in a kitchen performing those roles and I hardly found one where the man was in a kitchen but because he was a famous chef. Man are always the “though” ones, and seeing them in a kitchen according to society is feminine and reflects weakness. This is the worst ad they could possibly put on a magazine, trying to portrayed women as multitask housewives able to do all the housework and everything that entitles.

In a target discount magazine I found a picture of two kids modeling cloth. The boy about 8 years old had a big smile in his face, showing his teeth. His hands were in his packet; he was standing straight, looking at the camera. He was wearing a blue t-shirt and black gym pants. He looked tough and secure of himself. As opposed to the girl the boy was portrayed stronger not only because of his cloth but also because of his body language. The girl, around the same age, was wearing a purple shirt with butterflies in the middle. She was also wearing pink tights and had her hair wrapped up in a bun. She was not looking at the camera like the boy was, but instead she was looking away at the ceiling. She had a half smile and her hands were in her back as if she was shy and hiding something. We can clearly see the difference in gender portrayal even among kids. They are both modeling cloth but they are not perceived as the same, there is clearly a boundary that shows one is a girl, and one is a boy, one most know the difference according the ad. The girl is always perceived as sad, shy, and quite, whereas the boy is always perceived secured, tough, and decided.
If society and each of us individually don’t change the way we do gender, things are never going to change. Lets not dress our little boys in blue, and our little girls in pink, lets just not establish boundaries between both sexes, and we will see a change in how we are all perceived.