Advertising: Gauntlett - Media, Gender and Identity reading and questions

Read this extract from Media, Gender and Identity by David Gauntlett. This is another university-level piece of academic writing so it will be challenging - but there are some fascinating ideas here regarding the changing representation of men and women in the media. If you can't access David Gauntlett's website, the text is also available here.

1) What examples does Gauntlett provide of the "decline of tradition"? How can we link our advertising CSPs (Score hair cream and Maybelline 'That Boss Life') to this idea?

The traditional role of women as housewives or low-status workers has been overtaken by 'girl power' icons (spice girls). Score portrays the more patriarchal role, the traditional role of a man dominating the women or owning her by attraction has been thrown out by modern day representations of gender in the Maybelline advert. Manny Gutierrez, is the modern representation of how gender identity in society has changed and become more accepted in terms of gender fluidity.

2) How does Gauntlett suggest the media influences the way we construct our own identities?

Magazines promote self-confidence and provide information on sex, relationships and lifestyles. Other types of text like TV programmes, music, adverts, movies and the internet allow us to take in all aspects of culture and create our own identity surrounding the media we are tolerant to. (Uses and Gratifications theory - consumption of media).

3) How do the two CSPs reflect the generational differences that Gauntlett discusses? Is it a good thing that the media seems to promote modern liberal values?

The Score advert has more of a conservative attitude by giving us hyper-masculinity representations. It is less tolerant of homosexuality, the year that this advert was produced homosexuality was decriminalised, so it would make sense if this advert was strongly reinforcing these conservative values. The Maybelline advert is more liberal and more accepting that there are a number of people who are homosexual and that this is accepted in society with younger generations. The Maybelline advert was targeted to youths by using platforms such as YouTube and Instagram, where the dominant traffic in these platforms are mostly young people within the last 30-40 years to present.

4) Why might Manny and Shayla be a good example of the role models that Gauntlett discusses - and also demonstrate how those role models have changed in recent years?

These 'role models' give the audience somewhat of a direction to shape their identity and personality. Before role models were always going to be the people around them that they know personally like parents, friends and colleagues. Nowadays it is more shaped by digital influencers who also have a connection to these individuals.

5) Why does the Score hair cream advert provide such a good example of traditional masculinity? How can you link this to Gauntlett's discussion of whether masculinity is in crisis?

The Score advert gives repetitions about what a female looks for in their partner, the advert shows many women in revealing clothing to attract the audience(the male gaze, Laura Mulvey), and then these females in great numbers in the advert emphasise that this is what they want in their male counterpart by looking at him, admiring him physically. Masculinity in the advert pushes biology as an attempt to keep traditional attitudes, the humour of using phallic symbols like the gun threatens the soft nature of caring and being generous. Masculinity was more in crisis at the time with the legalisation of homosexuality and because of this, what it meant to be masculine traditionally was threatened with change, this advert tries very hard to make sure that this isn't the case.

6) Gauntlett consistently argues that masculinity is not in crisis. Can the Maybelline 'That Boss Life' advert be used as evidence of this?

The Maybelline advert gives messages that it is okay to be whatever, they can, 'lash like a boss', no matter the gender. There are still views of traditional masculinity in advertising but this more liberal and change of masculinity allows us to see that there is less of a crisis especially if digital influencers are here to steer and to help others find their meaning of masculinity.

7) Does advertising still reinforce the "conventionally rugged, super-independent, extra-strong macho man" that Gauntlett discusses? Offer examples for both sides of the argument from the wider advertising industry.

Advertising in products like men's health magazines and online sites like bodybuilding.com try to reinforce the traditional view of men looking in a certain way to attract the opposite sex. Men's health magazines in particular are more likely to have this conventional view of masculinity. But with social media being a place where people can discuss individuality, advertising is less likely to view men in the traditional masculine route that was dominating in the era before social media.

8) Gauntlett discusses the idea of 'girl power' and offers examples from music and film. Does advertising provide evidence to support the idea of 'girl power' or is the industry still reinforcing traditional representations of men and women?

I think that values are more dominant in terms of being liberal, with equality of power being distributed in both genders. I think advertising is gearing more towards the 'girl power' and empowering that women can do anything, remain independent. but advertising still gives examples where women are wearing make up to attract the attention of others while still maintaining individuality. So traditional values are still portrayed in traditional mass media advertising.

9) Do you agree with Gauntlett's argument under 'Popular feminism, women and men' where he suggests that younger generations are not threatened by traditional gender roles and are comfortable with social changes? Does advertising (and our CSPs in particular) provide examples either reinforcing or challenging this idea that younger generations are more comfortable with changing gender roles?

I do agree with this statement. If younger generations grow up around others who are seen as their equal, they are more likely to be in acceptance with this value, traditional values may seem alien to them. Younger generations accepting this is evident in the Maybelline advert. The use of colloquial language and hashtags being used to encourage audience interaction, shows confidence with the producers of the advert that the younger generation will spread positive news about the advert for not reinforcing more traditional roles.

10) How do the two advertising CSPs show the changing 'diversity of sexualities' that Gauntlett suggests?

Getting to know LGBTQ people in a positive way, while these attitudes are growing give some influence into how people gain tolerance of these new attitudes. The Score advert is over exaggerating the traditional roles of masculinity and gender means people will become less tolerant to LGBTQ attitudes as they haven't been subjected to these attitudes in a positive way, they have just been ignored by main stream media.

11) What examples from advertising does Gauntlett provide for the changing nature of gender in society (from the section on Judith Butler's Gender trouble)?

The CK One fragrance slogan, 'for a man or a women', reminds viewers that there are similarity in genders. Other ads like Impulsive deodorant and  Kronenbourg played with homosexual desires to show that gender is changing in society and that the increasing number of fluid representations mean that unpredictability in sexuality is also increasing.

12) How can the Maybelline 'That Boss Life' advert be applied to Judith Butler's work on 'gender trouble'? ("The binary division of 'male' and 'female' identities should be shattered, Butler suggested, and replaced with multiple forms of identity...")

Instead of the traditional roles of male and females in gender, Gutierrez' representation is a new form of gender is a new 'performance' that represents a large demographic that is otherwise alienated in mass advertising. Instead both aspects of each gender are being shared by individuals, where only a binary attitude is no longer tolerated in all consumption of the media.

13) How can our two advertising CSPs be used to argue that power has shifted from media institutions to audiences? (Clue: how did Manny and Shayler from the Maybelline advert first become famous?)

Before the digital media was around, traditional media like the Score advert was the only type of consumerism in advertising. It was the only main route where dominant roles were portrayed in society. The audience didn't have any power to regulate advertising unlike today. The modern advertising we have today feature starts that aren't just picked out by producers. Platforms like YouTube and Instagram allow audiences to choose who becomes successful and in turn the media institutions decreased in power with choosing the stars.

14) Why is advertising such a good example of the 'contradictory elements' that Gauntlett discusses with regards to the mass media? In other words, how does advertising continue to both reinforce and challenge gender stereotypes?

The mass media like magazines give a wide range of views from all types of individuals in the modern day. But these stars or role models tell us to 'be yourself', while the advertising is giving us a view of what we should aspire to be like. Media institutions present stars as a guide to create our identities while still telling us to create our own identities. The contradictory leads to gender trouble as portraying identity gives us confusion as to what our identity should be.

15) Finally, Gauntlett makes a clear case that things change and modern identities are increasingly fluid. How do our advertising CSPs demonstrate the changing attitudes towards gender and sexuality in society?

The score advert presents to us that there are only binary genders and sexuality. Gender in the 60s was more geared towards 'the male gaze' and that these representations give us a clear picture that only patriarchal and traditional roles gave advertising a safe space to attract audiences - by appealing to the already dominant gender roles. The Maybelline advert gives a more fluid representation of society and how far advertising has accepted that non-binary oppositions can exist in mainstream media. The 50 year gap between the two CSPs show how far advertising had to change to appeal a variety of identities.