Gender Ideologies and Advertisement

There are many commercials out there that are extremely sexist and rigid in their gender views. One of the latest Cheer commercials put me in such a rage that I instantly sat down at my desk to write this essay. This particular commercial had three characters in it, a woman on a hospital bed with her boyfriend sitting next to her and a male doctor. The doctor who came into the room had on his white coat that was so white it shown brilliantly. The woman was also dressed in perfect white and was utterly taken with this doctor’s clean apparel. She practically melted upon viewing him and he recommended to her the product cheer. Her boyfriend was shown in dirty clothing and the last line was, “What will she choose?”

The problem with this commercial is that this is how all of the commercials function. I have yet to see a laundry detergent commercial where a male character is choosing the product that will get his clothes as bright as day. Examples of some gender assigned advertisements include the Pine Sol commercials which are all done by the same female character. The mop commercials, which are all females who have detached themselves from their old brooms and mops, also display this female gender association with cleaning. The only house cleaning commercial I can think of that had a male character as a productive member in the cleaning process is Mr. Clean and he was fictitious!! Are there no men out there willing to get on TV and promote a house hold cleaning product as their top choice when they clean?!

I understand that all of these companies have one goal in mind and that is to sell their product. However, right now I have one goal in mind and that is to not come home after a twelve hour day of school and work to find my husband sitting in front of the TV while the laundry is piled high, dirty dishes remain in the sink, and dinner is waiting to be cooked by me while my husband maintains the façade that he is “lazy,” and that this laziness has nothing to do with the fact that he believes this is all women’s work.

What do I want from you? I want women and men who believe in this argument to take a stance. How do we take a stance? We live in a consumer society. It is survival of the fittest, and if your product does not sell then you change your strategy. We must put this into action. We simply cannot just write these companies and tell them how we are feeling (although I do believe it is important for the public to do this), but we must stop buying from companies that produce sexist advertisements. Only then will they have accountability and perhaps change their strategies.