Gender and advertising:

1. What sort of images of women and men dominated advertising pre-1970s? Why was this the case?
Before the 1970's women were shown doing many women related jobs such as hairdressing, housewife. These images started to decline due to a number of factors such as a rise in feminism, WW2 etc. Men were advertised as being manly in the sense that they would provide for their fasmily and take on more important jobs in society that commanded a lot more respect than the jobs women had.

2. How did the advertising of the 1970’s continue to perpetuate the stereotype of women, despite depicting women in a greater range of roles?
Though women had a greater role in society, the media still demeaned women as they were still stereotyped into roles of being a housewife. This sort of advertising was aiming to maintain a patriarcle society.

3. Can Gaye Tuchman’s quote regarding under-representation and the ‘symbolic annihilation of women’ still be applied in 21st Century advertising? If so, how?
The "symbolic annihilation of women" can still be appilied in 21st century advertising as we see many advertisements still stereotyping women into roles such as the "dumb blonde" (who widely appeals to many male audiences), the housewife and a sexually objectified women who is only there to please the men. Self objectification could be argued but then that would mean that women who want to empower themselves would still need to please men in one way of another.

4. Do you agree that adverts, such as those for the 1990’s Boots No. 7, ‘It’s not make-up. It’s ammunition.’ campaign, are post-feminist (thereby representing women as better than men?). Explain your answer.
These adverts are post-feminist as they show both female and male audiences that women have just as much "ammunition" in society as men. the very connotation of the phrase " its not make up its aummunition" connotes a gender war, with women fighting for an equal ground with men. As Boots advertise make-up, it is usually seen as quite a harmless company but this campaign shows that make-up can be just as deadly as any other male product.

5. Is the representation of women by the media accountable for the results of a survey in which ‘women were up to ten times more likely than men to be unhappy with their body image’?

The representation of females in today's media displays a "perfect women" with a near to perfect physique and being shown as the object of everyones affection. This would undoubtedly create insecurities for everyday women as they feel they are not "ideal" enough for men.

6. Is the contemporary representation of men in advertising perhaps also a negative one where they too are treated as sex objects?

The representation of men in today's media is equal to that of women as they also feel that they do not have the "perfect physique". Over the years men have become more subjected to being domminated by women in advertising through sexually connotated adverts.