Gender Roles in Pop Culture Essay Example
On television commercials, billboards, the radio, public transportation advertisements, planes, the internet, and almost everywhere people go there is always directed broadcasting of advertisements for companies to sell their product; a product that is never promoted for all of the general public to use, but instead to emphasize on specific categories of consumption . Whether it may be categorized in the decadent, the money saving, health, cleaning, cooking, automotive, or whatever sub category it may be; and bigger roles that play in to commercialism are gender roles . Men and women have very different lifestyles, what they buy, do, consume, and produce. As stated in Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes, “Popular conceptions of femininity and masculinity instead revolve around hierarchical appraisals of the “natural” roles of males and females. Members of both genders are believed to share many of the same human characteristics, although in different relative proportions” (Maasik 568). Differences such as women buying more feminine clothing, shopping at brand name stores such as Victoria’s Secret, Aeropostale, and Hollister, or working around the household, and other things traditionally projected in the 1930’s and earlier eras . Although there is great similarity amongst males and females, advertisements which segregate gender roles vary profoundly between each product they advertise, and the methods companies choose to advertise in. It seems as if the only way companies attract customers is to profile commercials and target the consumer on a personal level; but it’s a hit or miss state of affair . Corporations must judge the consumer perfectly to grab his or her attention; otherwise the advertisement is simply seen as ignorant and is ridiculed for its lack of empathy towards its consumers . Corporations are always searching for better ways to advertise and sell their product. They study, research, test, analyze, and in the end butcher methods of interest to