Stereotyping

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Stereotyping

• Gender and its Ethics

Anisia Boroznova Ardra Balachandran
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What is Stereotyping?

• Bootzin, Bower and Crocker (1991) defined
  stereotypes as complex mental representations of
  different types of people, containing all the
  information that we know or believe to be
  generally true of them. They argued that a
  stereotype may be either an accurate or an
  inaccurate generalization about what members of a
  category are like.
• The term derives from Greek.
• ste?e?? (stereos) solid, firm
• t?p?? (tupos) blow, impression, engraved mark
• Hence means solid impression.

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Advantages Disadvantages

• Possible prejudicial effects of stereotypes are
• Justification of ill-founded prejudices or
  ignorance
• Unwillingness to rethink one's attitudes
  and behavior towards stereotyped group
• Preventing some people of stereotyped
  groups from entering or succeeding in activities
  or fields
• Stereotypes are necessary and inescapable
• It enables us to simplify, predict, and
  organize our world

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Media Stereotypes

• Stereotypes act like codes that give audiences a
  quick, common understanding of a person or group
  of peopleusually relating to their class,
  ethnicity or race, gender, sexual orientation,
  social role or occupation.

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The reverse of the medal

• STEREOTYPES CAN
• reduce a wide range of differences in people to
  simplistic categorizations
• transform assumptions about particular groups of
  people into "realities"
• be used to justify the position of those in power
• perpetuate social prejudice and inequality

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The language we use in our media..

• Language is a dynamic and socially-informed tool.
  To be truly equal, women and men must be seen
  and heard to be equal.
• The media can be proactive in changing
  perceptions about people in a society by using
  new terms regularly, or explaining why a term has
  become negative and not acceptable to a group of
  people.
• After the 1995 Beijing Conference, UNESCO
  published its Guidelines on Gender-neutral
  Language.

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Gender-insensitive language usage Gender-sensitive language usage
Man, mankind People, humanity, human beings, humankind, the human species, the human race, we, ourselves, men and women, homo sapiens, one, the public, society, the self, human nature
Manpower Staff, labour, work force, employees, personnel, workers, human resources, human power, human energy
Man-hour Person-hour, work-hour
Brotherhood Human fellowships, human kinship, solidarity
Founding fathers Founders
The student is going back to school today. He will continue to learn a lot. The students are going back to school today. They will continue to learn a lot.
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Businessman Business manager, executive, head of firm, agent, representative
Businessmen business community, business people
Cameraman Photographer, camera operator
Cameramen Camera crew
Chairman Chairperson, chair, president, presiding officer
Cleaning lady Cleaner, housekeeper
Craftsman Craftsperson
Delivery boy Messenger
Fireman Fire-fighter (plural) fire crew, fire brigade
Housewife Homemaker, consumer, customer, shopper
Maid Domestic worker
Manpower Workforce
Policeman Police officer (plural) police
Salesman / girl Shop assistant, sales assistant, shop worker (plural) sales staff
Spokesman Representative, spokesperson
Steward / stewardess Flight attendant (plural) cabin crew
Waiter, waitress Server
Watchman Security Guard
Women doctor male nurse Doctor nurse
Workmens compensation Workers compensation
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John and Mary both have full-time jobs. He helps her with the housework. John and Mary both have full-time jobs. They share the housework. Or Mary and John both have full-time jobs they share the housework.
Research scientists often neglect their wives and children. Research scientists often neglect their families.
Men and girls Men and women women and men
Man and wife Husband and wife wife and husband
Better half Wife, spouse
Mr Smith and his wife, Mary. Mr John Smith and his spouse, Ms Mary Smith. Or John Smith and his spouse, Mary Smith. Or John and his wife, Mary.
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Gender Stereotype

• Gender is the social, cultural and psychological
  characteristics of being either male or female. 
• Societies have always had ways of differentiating
  between both men and women, between masculinity
  and femininity through the assertion of different
  attitudes and behaviour patterns onto each
  gender.
• Due to the patriarchal nature of most societies,
  women are sidelined at the receiving end and are
  made vulnerable to manipulation and subjugation.

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MEN are / should be WOMEN are / should be
masculine feminine
dominant submissive
strong weak
aggressive passive
intelligent intuitive
rational emotional
active (do things) communicative (talk about things)
MEN like WOMEN like
cars / technology shopping / make up
getting drunk social drinking with friends
casual sex with many partners committed relationships
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Stereotyping in Advertising

• Gillian Dyer comments that advertisements define
  what is style and what is good taste, not as
  possibilities or suggestions, but as
  unquestionably desirable goals.
• Hence stereotyping in the advertising realm
  proves extremely dangerous often contributing to
  wrong ideologies getting validated affecting the
  social order radically.

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Why do advertisers stereotype?

• Stereotypes are easier than getting to know every
  man and women in the world personally.
  Advertisers are especially prone to using them to
  sell products for the same reason.
• They assume that all women or men are similar to
  make targeting audiences a simpler process and
  cost-effective. 

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CEDAW clause

• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
  Discrimination Against Women, the worlds most
  comprehensive legal instrument to outline womens
  rights.
• By 2001, 168 countries, 2/3rd of the members of
  the UN, were party to CEDAW.
• India ratified it in 1993.
• Article 5 enjoins the State parties to take
  appropriate measures
• to modify. practices which are based on the
  idea of the inferiority or superiority of either
  of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and
  women.

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Regulations specific to Advertising

• The Code of Commercial Advertising on Doordarshan
  has a clause that prohibits ads that emphasize
  passive, submissive qualities in women. Also
  indecent, repulsive, offensive treatment shall be
  avoided in all advertisements.
• (No specific mention about treatment that
  involves women or representation of women)
• The Code of Advertising Practice (1985) amended
  in Febraury 1995, and more recently in June 1999
  as The Code for self-regulation in Advertising
  by the Advertising Standards Council of India.
• (Also does not have any women-specific clause to
  be protected from stereotyping and manipulation)

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Instances of Gender Stereotypes

• An analysis of advertisements by Goffman (1976)
  found numerous instances of subtle stereotyping
  including
• 1. functional ranking  the tendency to depict
  men in executive roles and as more functional
  when collaborating with women. (Example Virgin
  mobile)
• 2. ritualization of subordination  an
  overabundance of images of women lying on floors
  and beds or as objects of men's mock assaults.
  (Example Zatak Deo)
• 3. the feminine touch  the tendency to show
  women cradling and caressing the surface of
  objects with their fingers. (Example Prestige)
• 4. family  fathers depicted as physically
  distant from their families or as relating
  primarily to sons, and mothers depicted as
  relating primarily to daughters. (Example
  Airtel)

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Stereotype of Roles

• Men are generally more likely than women to be
  shown in working roles, whereas a large majority
  of female characters was depicted in nonworking
  roles.
• The type of working role and non-working role has
  been found to differ between sexes
• Five types of working roles
• High-level business, entertainer or professional
  sportsperson, mid-level business, white-collar
  worker and blue-collar worker.
• Non-working roles
• Family, recreational and decorative roles.
• 
  Research by Courtney and
  Lockeretz (1971)

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Examples of Role Stereotypes

• Many advertisements show mothers serving meals to
  their families (but very few show fathers doing
  this).
• These advertisements seem to suggest that
  mothers do all the housework and cooking, and
  really enjoy this.
• Men engaged in physically active pastimes such as
  sport, rock-climbing or canoeing (but few show
  women doing these things)
• Teenage girls grooming themselves such as putting
  on make-up, brushing their hair and generally
  worrying about their appearance (but few show
  teenage boys doing these things)
• Young boys playing with action toys such as
  trucks and super-hero figures (but girls are not
  shown doing this).

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Stereotype of Desirability

• For women, "desirable" physical characteristics
  (as they are portrayed in the media) include
  being thin, long-legged, slim-hipped, and
  large-breasted.
• For men, "desirable" physical characteristics
  include being muscular and possessing a full head
  of hair.
• Some characteristics are portrayed as desirable
  in both sexes, such as being tall, fit, athletic,
  young, and light-skinned. 

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Stereotype of Commodification

• Ads often turn women into commodities that
  please men and project women's images as
  male-defined as against individuals of inherent
  worth.
• Example Lux
• Women are wooable.
• Example - BrylCreem
• The association of beauty with these commodities
  (women) is so strong that society tends to look
  at an ugly woman almost with abhorrence. While
  male ugliness can be overcome, female ugliness
  becomes the ultimate shortcoming.
• Example Fair and Lovely

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Stereotype of Children

• Majority advertisements featuring children had
  little boys in varying shapes, sizes and moods.
• They are dirty, naughty, rowdy, intelligent and
  made to appear as more desirable to parents.
• Example Life Buoy cleaning campaign
• When you do see two children in ads, its usually
  a boy and girl or two boys and rarely is a family
  with two girls spotted.
• Example Surf Excel (Daag Achae Hai!)
• A few ads that did feature young girls, projected
  them with their mothers in ads for beauty
  products. Most reinforced stereotypical images of
  being chatterboxes, or sweet delicate things.
• Example Mediker

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Stereotype of Food Habits

• The number of ads for food in mens magazines is
  very few whereas a wide range of food products
  appear in womens magazines. Already the notion
  that women are more involved in food purchasing
  and preparation is introduced.
• The ads that do appear in mens magazines are
  Cuppo Noodles, Chocolate bars and other ready
  -to-eat stuff and convey mens supposed
  inability to cook proper meals. In cooking
  anything beyond these simple products, women
  should help their men out.
• 
  Research by Helen
  Macdonald in 2007

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Some pertinent questions..

• Do advertisers turn women into commodities that
  please men, or do they portray them as human
  beings conscious of their own worth?
• Are women shown preponderantly serving others or
  as pursuing profitable careers?
• Are they shown as objects of men's fancy, relying
  on their largesse, or as persons of value,
  capable of managing their own lives?
• Are they shown silly, stupid and mindless, or are
  they portrayed intelligent, strong and assertive,
  capable of successfully undertaking
  responsibilities and contributing to productivity
  in society?
• Are women shown fanatical about cleanliness
  around the house?

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And the Big Ethical Question...

• Is it Right?

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Convenience of not having Ethics

• Businesses can make profits their sole aim
• Can save the time required to explore new paths
• Little thought to spare for social responsibility

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Solutions?

• Social Change
• Advertisers, ad creators and social order in
  general need to become gender sensitive.
• Advertising work need not necessarily translate
  into a radical anti-thesis. Of course, non-sexist
  advertising alone is not guaranteed to remove
  the detrimental effects of hundreds of years of
  oppression and subjugation that have been womens
  lot. But sexist advertising works subliminally,
  justifying the status quo.
• While agencies cant change society purely
  through representation in advertising, they
  should look for opportunities to highlight
  instances where society has changed or is
  changing.
• Examples Ads for TVS Scooty / ICICI Prudential
  Life Insurance

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Solutions?

• Alternate Programming
• Conscious and deliberate effort to brainstorm
  and come up with fresh ideas rather than choose
  the easy way out. Defying gender stereotypes in
  execution of your campaign, even as you are
  guided by womens ways of buying to develop it,
  is a challenge but worth undertaking.
• Example - Vodafone
• Ammendment of Code of Ethics
• Government policies to promote fair and
  equitable portrayals in all mass media.

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Make A Choice!

• Growing number of ads that features body as a
  traitor by highlighting problems such as
  dandruff and body odour.
• Isnt there a moral duty for media persons
  to foster ethical promotion of products? Cant
  psychological misalignment be done without?
• The woman is now out of the home, but she still
  lives within her skin. Anxieties have shifted
  from performing within the home to appearing
  outside.

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Make A Choice!

• The booming of an entire personal care product
  and cosmetic industry is heavily dependent on the
  surmise that a woman has to be beautiful to be
  accepted, and hence the proliferation and immense
  success of beauty parlours.
• Is business profit the only concern? Does not
  a generation of women with low self-esteem and
  confidence bother you?
• Is society losing the perspective that
  celebrates physical uniqueness and other aspects
  of a persons identity a trivial issue?
• Ours is a caste-conscious, tradition-bound,
  superstitious, feudal and intensely patriarchal
  society.

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Abdul Bahas quote

• The world of humanity is possessed of two wings
  the male and the female. So long as these two
  wings are not equivalent in strength, the bird
  will not fly. Until womankind reaches the same
  degree as man, until she enjoys the same arena of
  activity, extraordinary attainment for humanity
  will not be realized humanity cannot wing its
  way to the heights of real attainment.
• Abdul Baha is the son of Bahaullah who
  founded the Bahai faith.

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Thank You!

• Suggested Readings
• Privileging the Privileged
• Sharada Jotimuttu Schaffter
• Gender Stereotyping in Advertising -
• Gouri Shah
• (livemint.com)