The Oppression of Females in Advertising :: essays papers

Our society is a complex collection of institutions, status, roles, values, and norms, and the best way to conceive and learn about them is through the use of cultural artifacts. These can be anything from music to art to literature, or as in the example of this discussion, the modern day creation of advertisement as seen in womens magazines. As Homo Sapiens moved from the hunter - gatherer way of life to industrial society , it was obligatory to construct a framework for living so that such a concentrated number of people could exist together. This framework as come to make up of a myriad of expectations based on values and norms in the underframe of roles status and institutions. Desirable bearing is sought by people throughout the uncouth based on how one is brought up and the expectations one is bombarded with on a daily basis. These expectations are reflected in every part of our culture and are employ by people so as to know how to act in any given situation. The main examples are the family, education, health and medicine, religion, and the law. I have free-base that certain mediums reflect the judge roles in these institutions better than others. I originally focused on gender roles as a depiction of stereotypical behavior as reflected by advertising especially the portrayal of women, but I discovered that there were other stereotypes beingness perpetuated as well that were just as institutionalized if not just simply less noticed or studied. Therefore, although this argument will focus on the depiction of females and the female role in advertising. It will also mention the general use of American values , norms, and institutions to influence consumers. An institution is defined as a stable cluster of values, norms, status, roles, and groups that relegate around a basic social need with a status being a persons position in society and a role being the behavior expected from that, and a value being a socially shared idea of what is good, right, and desirable and a norm being the behavior expected from those ideas. When people begin to form certain expectations in life there begin to be formed stereotypes. People recognize them universally and use them to form opinions and act or not act in a certain way when they are confronted with a situation or person.