Chân dung nam giới trong quảng cáo super bowl

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ THỊ PHƯƠNG QUỲNH

MALE REPRESENTATION IN SUPER BOWL COMMERCIALS
(Chân dung nam giới trong quảng cáo Super Bowl)

M.A. MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS

HANOI – 2020


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ THỊ PHƯƠNG QUỲNH

MALE REPRESENTATION IN SUPER BOWL COMMERCIALS
(Chân dung nam giới trong quảng cáo Super Bowl)

M.A. MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 8220201.01
Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Hạnh, PhD.

HANOI – 2020
[

DECLARATION
I hereby certify the thesis entitled “Male representation in Super Bowl
commercials” as my own work in the fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree
of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam
National University, Hanoi.

Hanoi, 2020

Vũ Thị Phương Quỳnh

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to convey my heartfelt gratitude and utmost appreciation to my
beloved supervisor, Dr. Hoang Thi Hanh, for her concise guidance and invaluable
advice from the beginning to the end of this research. Without her, this study would
have been left unfinished. My deepest thanks also go to the Faculty of Graduate
Studies, ULIS, VNU, and Dr. Huynh Anh Tuan, who has gone to great lengths to
make my study journey feasible once again.
Besides, I am extremely grateful to Ms. Hoang Phuong, MA, who has
wholeheartedly assisted me during the process of doing this study.
Last but not least, so as not to sound pretentious, I would like to extend my
sincere gratitude to myself for being utterly invincible.

ii

ABSTRACT

Gender representation in advertising has been a thriving field of research in
recent decades. However, since most research focus on the comparison between the
two genders or the depiction of females, studies regarding male representation are
few and far between. The aim of this research was to find out the contemporary
depiction of men in commercials through both visual and linguistic means. The
study found a continuation of the overrepresentation of men in advertisements in
comparison with women. In addition, despite the recent transformation in societal
male roles, the depiction of men is still largely confined by traditional male norms.
They are portrayed as experts, heroes, competitive individuals, and subjects of
ridicules. The study can be helpful for the reinvention of masculinity in today‘s
world, and serve as an appeal to society for more visible, creative effort to challenge
traditional male stereotypes in advertising and media.

iii


TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ....................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ....................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ iv
LIST OF IMAGES .................................................................................................. vi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................1
1.1. Rationale of the study...........................................................................................1
1.2. Aims of the research and research question .........................................................3
1.3. Scope of the study ................................................................................................4
1.4. Significance of the study ......................................................................................4

1.5. Structure of the study ...........................................................................................4
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW...............................................................5
2.1. Contextual background of the study ....................................................................5
2.1.1. Gender equality movements ..............................................................................5
2.1.2. Super Bowl commercials ..................................................................................8
2.2.Gender representation in media studies and linguistics: An interdisciplinary
approach ....................................................................................................................10
2.2.1. Gender and media studies ...............................................................................10
2.2.2. Gender and Linguistics ...................................................................................12
2.2.3. A cross-disciplinary approach to gender representation in media ..................15
2.3. Masculinity in advertising ..................................................................................15
2.3.1. Gender bias in advertising ...............................................................................15
2.3.2. Masculinity ideologies in advertising and their impacts .................................19
2.3.3. Recent changes in male stereotypes in Super Bowl commercials ..................23
CHAPTER III: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY ..25
3.1. Gender equality assessment in advertising ........................................................25
3.2. CDA as a theoretical approach ...........................................................................28
iv


3.2.1. Principles of CDA ...........................................................................................28
3.2.2. Fairclough‘s CDA analytical framework ........................................................31
3.2.3. Multimodal CDA ............................................................................................33
3.3. Data collection ...................................................................................................34
3.4. Data analysis ......................................................................................................35
CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .................................................37
4.1. Men as experts and leaders ................................................................................37
4.2. Men as heroes .....................................................................................................42
4.3. Men of power .....................................................................................................48
4.4. The world of men as the world of competition ..................................................61

4.5. Men as the subjects of ridicule ...........................................................................68
4.6. Discussion ..........................................................................................................77
4.6.1. Consistency and change in male representation in Super Bowl commercials 77
4.6.2. The dualism of male representation in Super Bowl commercials ..................79
4.6.3. Stereotyped vs. multi-dimensional male representation in Super Bowl
commercials ..............................................................................................................80
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ..............................................................................82
5.1. Summary of major findings ...............................................................................82
5.2. Limitations and suggestions for further research ...............................................83
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................84
APPENDIX ................................................................................................................ I

v


LIST OF IMAGES

Image 1 (AD23) - male technological expert ............................................................38
Image 2 (AD30) - male cleaning expert ....................................................................38
Image 3 (AD27) - male animated expert ..................................................................39
Image 4 (AD46) - professional male bellhop............................................................39
Image 5 (AD7) - male main guard ............................................................................42
Image 6 (AD28) – animated male superhero ............................................................43
Image 7 (AD36) - male knight ..................................................................................43
Image 8 (AD5) - Andy the powerful influencer .......................................................50
Image 9 (AD11) – rich technophilic footballer .........................................................51
Image 10 (AD40) - rich male baller ..........................................................................53
Image 11 (AD32) - man with super powers ..............................................................55
Image 12 (AD44) - creepy masked man ...................................................................57
Image 13 (AD51) - male monster .............................................................................57

Image 14 (AD29) – Male bullies ..............................................................................58
Image 15 (AD23) – mermaid ....................................................................................60
Image 16 (AD24) - powerful man vs. powerful woman ...........................................61
Image 17 (AD9) - competitive younger boys ...........................................................63
Image 18 (AD52) - father and son playing a console game .....................................64
Image 19 (AD38) - helpless man choking on a cashew ............................................70
Image 20 (AD46) - ―Captain Colon‖ ........................................................................72

vi


CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
This chapter states the rationale of the study, research’s aims, the scope of the
study, how it can contribute to the current research landscape in gender and
advertising. It also proposes the research question that serves as the guiding line
for the whole research.
1.1. Rationale of the study
Gender representation in media has been a research area that garners
attention from scholars across different disciplines. The majority of research
provides a comparison between female and male depictions; however, recent trends
have shown that studies are shifting from gender juxtaposition to the depiction of
single sex, which mostly focuses on females (Fowler & Thomas, 2015). Meanwhile,
male representation appears only on a minority of studies, and is often employed as
a point for comparing and contrasting to female portrayal. According to Gentry and
Harrison (2010), this apparent discrepancy could be attributed to the widespread
belief that changes should be prioritized in female depiction in advertisement. Male
portrayal, thus, has received scant attention. Studies on men are often disregarded
and ridiculed, because male privilege as well as male entitlement still prevail and
are deeply engrained in the various strata of society. Nonetheless, this does not rule
out the fact that men could also be marginalized and have to conform to masculine

norms which prevent them from expressing their feelings, getting close to their
children or other men, and having the freedom to pursue unconventional roles.
Research on men and their representation in advertisements, hence, is warranted to
ensure the balance that should exist in gender studies, as well as to shed light on
masculine roles and the influences of their portrayals in mass media.
Previous studies have looked into the representation of males in different
forms of advertisements, including print ads and TV commercials, but mostly
concentrating on their stereotypical roles. Kervin (1990) pointed out the ideal
configuration of traits for males that were projected in magazine advertisements.
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According to Kervin (1990), central to male representation was the capacity to
provide for his family as the breadwinner, and this was surrounded by other
characteristics such as being admired by others, affording great measures of
money and powers, as well as being self-reliant, strong, and confident. This has
been perpetuated for years and hailed as the desirable, traditional masculine
symbol; however, recent societal changes regarding genders, especially with
female advancement in equality, means that men‘s roles are being transformed
drastically. This threat to the bureaucratic breadwinner image urges men to
―reaffirm their status as real men‖, and more often than not men find the
instructions to do so in advertisements (Holt & Thompson, 2004, p. 245).
Therefore, advertisements are of an increasingly important role in navigating
men with regards to their definition of masculinity and self-concept. Studies on
male representation in advertisements, accordingly, are justified, particularly
those that focus on the contemporary depictions of men in advertisements and
investigate the changes over the last few decades.
The representation of men in TV commercials is a field which requires
continuous research. Mass media have evolved enormously with the invention of
the Internet and other advancements of technology. Nonetheless, despite the

increase in online advertising, TV commercials are still the primary sources of
product promotion and marketing. This is firstly because the Internet itself also has
become a platform for television, and thus TV commercials, as the majority of
television networks have applications that operate on mobile phones or computers
which allow users to watch television programs as long as they have Internet
connection. Over-the-top television, or television programs which are broadcasted
on the internet and can be watched on various devices, (Wolk, 2018), has
demonstrated its impressive potentials in advertising sales, with a whooping eightfold year-over-year increase by 2018 (Munson, 2018). In addition to the large scale
on which advertising on connected TV is presented, other compelling reasons for
advertisers to pour investment in TV commercials include a safe environment for
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brands, high-quality commercials, and correct demographic targeting (Wolk, 2018).
Therefore, TV commercials continue to be at the center of attention of the
advertising world.
Among the major TV programs in which advertisers vie for a spot, the US‘
broadcast of Super Bowl was by far one of the most popular, easily ranking as the
most-watched television program in US history (Bon, 2015). The Super Bowl
commercials have become a phenomenon themselves, especially when a significant
share of the audience reported watching the commercials only (Siltanen, 2014). The
commercials are exposed not only to an unprecedented viewership, but also a
diverse demographic. Since 2010, Super Bowl has recorded an annual audience of
around 100,000 million, with 74% of American males and 59% of American
females watching the show in 2017 (Gough, 2019), and a roughly balanced
distribution of viewership by gender (54% men and 47% women) (Marketing
Charts, 2018). Super Bowl commercials have been featured in numerous studies,
yet most of these studies focused on advertising impacts (e.g. Outra, Hatzithomas &
Zotos, 2010), gender stereotypes of both males and females (e.g. Vierra, 2014;
Hatzithomas, Boutsouki & Ziamou, 2016). Studies that pay exclusive attention to

male depiction are few and far between.
All the conditions above indicate an expressive need for research on male
representation in TV advertising, and the US‘ Super Bowl commercials can be a
relevant and reliable source for gender studies that look at advertisements.
1.2. Aims of the research and research question
This study aims to elucidate how men are represented in Super Bowl
commercials and how both visual and linguistic factors contribute to male
representation. In other words, the paper expects to shed light on the contemporary
depiction of males in Super Bowl advertising, and to identify, if any, the ideals and
beliefs that govern this depiction through both visual and linguistic means.
Ultimately, the study hopes to provide a balance in understanding of the current
gender representation in mass media with the new focus on males instead of
females.
3


The research question below is proposed:

How are men represented

visually and linguistically through Super Bowl TV commercials?
1.3. Scope of the study
The paper chooses 57 commercials that were aired during Super Bowl 2019
TV broadcasting. These commercials feature a wide range of products and services,
with diverse audience approaches. The study examines the visual and linguistic
factors in both the characters in the commercials and the voiceover. Movie trailers
and TV program teasers are excluded, as well commercials that have no distinctive
human visibility.
1.4. Significance of the study
The study is hoped to serve three main purposes. First, it explores gender

representation in contemporary mass media, and provides a balance in gender
studies that have long been inclined towards females. Besides, the paper attempts to
bring new insights in gender portrayal from a multimodal approach, which
hopefully will attract more attention and further investigation into the topic. Finally,
the study can contribute to raising people‘s awareness of the current gender
idealization and normalization that pertain to their own self-perceptions and social
expectations.
1.5. Structure of the study
This chapter has indicated the motivations for this study, the objectives of the
research, and the scope of investigation. The remaining chapters are organized as
follows:
Chapter 2 contextualizes the study in the relevant literature of gender
representation in media studies and linguistics. In chapter 3, the theoretical
background and methodology of the research are described. Chapter 4 is a
presentation of research findings and discussion over male representation in
advertising, together with a comparison with previous literature. Finally, in chapter
5, a summary of research findings, limitations of the study, and implications for
further research are provided.
4


CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter provides an overview of the contextual background of the study.
It also gives the reasons why Super Bowl commercials are chosen for this
particular study, and present the current literature in gender representation in
media studies and linguistics.

2.1. Contextual background of the study
2.1.1. Gender equality movements
The term ―gender equality‖ was defined by UN Women as equal rights,

responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys. This is
further explained by clarifying separately the meanings of ―equality‖ and ―gender‖
as in the term:
―Equality does not mean that women and men will become the same but that
women‘s and men‘s rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on
whether they are born male or female. Gender equality implies that the interests,
needs and priorities of both women and men are taken into consideration,
recognizing the diversity of different groups of women and men. Gender equality is
not a women‘s issue but should concern and fully engage men as well as women …
Gender: refers to the social attributes and opportunities associated with being male
and female and the relationships between women and men and girls and boys, as
well as the relations between women and those between men. These attributes,
opportunities and relationships are socially constructed and are learned through
socialization processes. They are context/ time-specific and changeable. Gender
determines what is expected, allowed and valued in a woman or a man in a given
context. In most societies there are differences and inequalities between women and
men in responsibilities assigned, activities undertaken, access to and control over
resources, as well as decision-making opportunities …‖

(UN Women, n.d.)
It is clear that gender equality, by definition, is the equal access and
availability of opportunities and resources for people of both genders. In other
5


words, gender equality means that all people are entitled to fair treatment regardless
of which gender they are. (In this study, males and females are considered on a
gender spectrum). More importantly, it can also be seen that gender equality should
involve the participation of both men and women and concentrate equally on the
rights of both sexes instead of being seen as mainly a women‘s concern. This means

that equality is a shared target and a shared effort, which requires the collaboration
of people of both genders.
Nonetheless, the issue of gender equality still seems to revolve around
women. This is due to an apparent reason: in most cases, it is women that are
deprived of their rights because of gender inequality, so they are entitled to demand
compensation (Connell, 2005). According to Rampton (2015), identifiable
feminism, or the feminist movement, has been around since the middle of the 19th
century, and manifested in what is called as ―Four Waves of Feminism‖. Starting
with the first wave that consisted of campaigns for reforms on issues related to
woman‘s suffrage, feminism has undergone three other phases that tackled
financial, social, and cultural inequalities, continuing to challenge gender inequality
and help women reclaim their rights and positions (Dorey-Stain, 2018). The last
decade has witnessed the newest waves of feminism, with highlights including the
#Metoo movement, in which women shared their stories about sexual assaults and
harassment, or the Time‘s Up movement that exposed female assault cases in the
entertainment industry, along with an unprecedented number of female figures in
politics and leadership (UN Women, 2019). The female movement, therefore,
appears to be growing fast, and is expected to continue to exert its influence on the
changes in the patterns of gender equality.
On the other hand, the male movement appears to have declined steeply in
the 1990s. According to Clatterbaugh (2000), this systematic collapse was
manifested in various forms, including the dramatic decrease in attendance of
large male movement institutions, such as the National Organization for Men
against Sexism and the Promise Keepers, with the latter having a mass redundancy
6


of 350 employees. Most major publications fell into a moribund state, but both
academic and non-academic journals managed to pull through, sometimes by
resorting to alternative financial resources. In particular, the two non-academic

magazines, the Men‘s Journal and the Men‘s Health, survived by selling sexually
suggestive imagery(Clatterbaugh, 2000). Since the demise in the 1990s, men‘s
movements have slowly been revived, but with significant changes: ―From the
1990s onward, men's movements became highly formalized and aimed at niche
groups with various interests, which makes it difficult to claim that men's
movements as a whole share any particular ideology other than their general focus
on men in society‖ (Holcomb, 2019, Men‘s Movements section, para. 1). This
fragmentation of men‘s movements is in contrast with the solidarity of the
movements of the opposite sex, as male members of society are left with small,
scattered campaigns for equal rights, while females are more clearly oriented on
projects with proportionally much larger scales.
However, it is important to note that men‘s movements and women‘s
movements are not mutually exclusive, and men‘s movements often emerge as a
response to specific aspects and issues concentrated on by women‘s movements
(Wood, 2013). Following the waves of female campaigns that challenged the
traditional roles of women, men are starting to take action of similar purposes, in
order to break the bounds of social expectations, and to redefine what a ―real man‖
is in the 21st century (Myers, 2016). He argued that like women, men are held back
by ―thousands of years of history that defined what it meant to be a real man: to be
strong; to be a provider; to be in authority; to be the ultimate decision maker; and to
be economically, educationally, physically and politically dominant‖ (Myers, 2016,
para. 1). He also claimed that young men are facing the masculinity crisis which
stems from the fact that there is no basis on which to construct a movement to
challenge the ideologically backward ideas of masculinity. The future of men, or
masculinity in the 21st century and onwards, will be rosy if this crisis is
acknowledged and measures are taken to deal with it.
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2.1.2.Super Bowl commercials

Super Bowl commercials are chosen for this study on the grounds of their
unparalleled influence on American audience and people around the world. Super
Bowl advertising is a cultural phenomenon that follows one of the biggest sporting
events in the US- the national football league‘s annual Super Bowl game. Since its
first broadcast in 1967, the game has gradually become a mass media focus with
impressive diversity and magnitude of viewership. ―Not only is Super Bowl a
megamedia in the United States and around the world, this annual telecast is a
‗media happening‘ that transcends all demographic groups. Super Bowl advertising
is also the premier advertising vehicle with American adults under 35‖ (Yelkur,
Tomkovick, & Traczyk, 2004, p. 143). The popularity of Super Bowl is evident in
the fact that it is a ―marketing tradition‖ to feature the latest and most invested
advertisements (Yelkur, et.al., 2004, p. 144). This partly results from the huge
amount of media coverage that Super Bowl commercials could gain before the
actual game happen. An illustration of this is that over 1600 media outlets presented
Super Bowl commercials in just about a month before Super Bowl 1999 (McCarthy,
2001, as cited in Yelkur, et. al,, 2004).
Super Bowl ratings has consistently reached higher than a whopping 40%
since the 1970s, and its audience size, despite a slight decrease after its peak of
nearly 114.44 million in 2015, continued to

hover at just under 100 million

(Paulsen, 2019). In other words, every Super Bowl commercial can reach 4 in 10
American households on average, and over one-third of the American population
tune in for the game every year. It can also be seen that the rate of streaming the
game, or watching it live via online platforms, has steadily increased over the last
five years, recording an impressive number of 2.6 million in 2019. Interestingly,
―there is no other media vehicle available that can predictably deliver this size of an
American TV audience‖ (Yelkur, et.al., 2004, p. 144).
It is this unrivaled attention that makes Super Bowl advertising also rank first

in cost.

Even though the price to secure a slot for the average 30-second
8


commercial keeps skyrocketing over time, doubling from $2.69 million dollars in
2008 to $5.25 million over the course of approximately 10 years, it is still a crazy
race for companies to be able to run their advertisements during the Super Bowl
(Huddleston, 2019). What sets Super Bowl advertising apart is the fact that it
attracts both sport fans and non-sport fans, and that almost everyone in the United
States has watched a Super Bowl game in their life whether or not they are
interested in football (Henry, 2017).
What is worth noticing is that Super Bowl advertising has become a social
and cultural phenomenon alongside the game. This observation was further
solidified when a Nielsen survey revealed that over half of Super Bowl viewers
enjoy watching the commercials more than the game (Nielsen, 2010). The audience
pays special attention to the commercials partially because of the exorbitant
investment that companies are willing to make, and in turn, because of this special
attention, companies would not mind parting with a lofty share of their marketing
budget. It is one of the interesting pop culture situations where companies and
audience are equally hyped up for a commercial (Grabianowski, 2012). Normally,
for other sports events, people record the events and skip the advertisements as they
watch, but when it comes to Super Bowl, it is a common scenario that they go to
great lengths to watch them. With the Internet comes into play, not only does the
event attract a massive TV audience, but it also starts a series of interactions across
online social networks. According to Nielsen (2019), there were 32.3 million social
media interactions about Super Bowl LIII during the course of a single day via
popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
It is not just before and during the game that people anticipate these

commercials, but it is also weeks after the game that they still discuss them. Online
social media also play an important role in boosting the number of the post-game
mentions of these advertisements. According to Bharwani (2012), Super Bowl
commercials are watched over a hundred million times in the month following the
game, and the audience reach is almost the same as the actual game, with nearly
one-third of the viewership coming from online social sharing.
9


Therefore, the grandeur effects of Super Bowl commercials and their
pervasive presence in American media make them the ideal subjects for studies
concerning the popular culture of the US and its related fields. Gender studies, in
particular, have been investigating Super Bowl commercials for a long time. This is
due to the fact that there is a healthy balance between the numbers of male and
female viewers of the show - though it still slightly tilts towards the former group, it
is slowly gaining on the latter. For example, of the 108 million people who watch
the show in 2018, 49% were women, an increase of 9% since 2009 (Salkowitz,
2018). Thanks to this even split of audience between the two genders, Super Bowl
commercials can be employed as research subjects for studies that aim at comparing
behavioral patterns between male and female viewers, as well as those that explore
the influences of the ideologies underlying these commercials on different genders.
2.2.Gender

representation

in

media

studies

and

linguistics:

An

interdisciplinary approach
2.2.1. Gender and media studies
Gender and media is a thriving field of studies that is becoming increasingly
complex, and also is one that still requires great attention from researchers. ―Gender
and media studies have witnessed a resounding revival in recent years, as is testified
by the wide array of published monographs, articles, themed issues of international
journals and conferences that bring into focus the diverse features of the
relationship between gender and the media of communication‖ (Buonanno, 2014, p.
6). The fact that we are living in a ―media-supersaturated‖ environment (Buonanno,
2014, p. 6), and that gender equality is gathering more and more concern indicates
the need for an intellectual endeavor that applies more diverse approaches and
strategies to study gender and media.
Gender and media began as a research area first in the US, thanks to the
second wave of the feminist movements in the 1960s and 1970s, in which feminist
authors gave open criticism of the Western tenet that biased the white male world
view (Lugones & Spelman, 1983). During this initial stage, most of the works
10


focused on gender as a social construct, which was manifested in and maintained by
artistic works. Over the next decades, the focus of gender and media studies has
shifted towards gender representation in literature and popular culture, including
various means of entertainments, advertisements, and other cultural products. By

1980, international organizations such as the United Nation and UNESCO provided
funding for a series of studies which lay the foundation for the academic literature
on women and media (Cerqueira, Cebecinhas & Magalhaes, 2017).
Scholars have taken a multitude of approaches to study gender and media.
Until now, the majority of research focuses on analyzing at micro level the
representation and portrayal of women in media text (Cerqueira, et.al., 2017).
According to Cerqueira, et.al. (2017), this type of micro analysis has a tendency to
describe how women are represented, in ways such as what kinds of news women
receive, whether or not they are stereotyped. This would usually be done by
examining media text and the visual, as well as the auditory aspects of the text. This
approach can help researchers identify the scope of females‘ exclusion and
stereotyping, along with the changes that have occurred over time (Cerqueira, et al.,
2017). Content analysis of male and female roles in media is perhaps more thorough
and diverse than content analysis of any other area, with studies ranging from
comparing the behaviors of men and women in film and television, children‘s
books, men‘s magazines, video games, radio talk shows, to postage stamps and
birth congratulatory cards (Neuendorf, 2011). Other approaches, namely studies that
required fieldworks or real-life interactions with data sources (interviewing
audience groups, hunting down source materials), though desirable, are considered
to be both time and financially demanding. Overcoming these obstacles to make
other progresses in the field of gender and media research is often challenging and
requires concerted efforts, which explains why only a few scholars have attempted
to explore this direction (Cerqueira, et. al., 2016).
That being said, the lack of fieldwork studies in gender and media research
does not render analysis of gender representation in media any less important. This
11


is firstly due to the ever-changing nature of media, the accelerating rate at which
traditional media are evolving and new media appearing - for example, the

popularization of the Internet started just nearly three decades ago, yet how it has
transformed media is almost impossible to overstate (Lule, 2018). So diverse and
dynamic are the forms of media that scholarship in this field needs constant update.
In addition, genders and the representations of genders are also subjected to the
influence of media: ―Of the many influences on how we view men and women,
media are the most pervasive and one of the most powerful‖ (Wood, 1994, p. 31).
As media have radically changed over the recent decades, gender representations in
media have also undergone critical changes, and thus there is an expressive need to
conduct continuous studies to investigate the trends in gender presentation - these
trends can serve as a measurement of how society views men and women (Bartsch,
et al, 2000).
2.2.2. Gender and Linguistics
The realm of research into the relationship and intersections between gender
and language crosses various disciplines, notably applied linguistics, linguistic
anthropology, cultural studies, feminist studies, sociolinguistics, and media studies.
This could be attributed to the fact that gender studies per se is an interdisciplinary
field of inquiry (McConnell-Ginet, 2012). Scholarly works had been connecting
gender and language prior to the inception of the second-wave American feminism,
as early as the 1920s (Sunderland, 2006). However, it was not until the 1970s that
the study of genders in linguistics, precipitated by the second wave of Women‘s
Movement, began to thrive. Accordingly, McConnell-Ginet (2012) pointed out that
the topics of gender research at this stage were ―women‘s language‖ - how women
spoke in ways that indicated their feminism, and ―ways of speaking about women‖ that is, how society spoke of women. The focus of studies was, therefore, on how
social norms shape women‘s speech, and ―women‖ were mostly those of white,
middle-class Americans. Needless to say, the apparent lack of male-focus gender
studies during this period was not because scholars arbitrarily found women a more
12


interesting subject of research, but due to the influence of the American feminism,

which by that time had started to gain visibility for women in all aspects, including
academia.
Regarding early research on gender and language, one of the most prominent
names is American linguist Robin Lakoff. Her 1975 book ―Language and Woman‘s
place‖ was said to be the starting point of study of gender and language in
sociolinguistics and gender studies (Lakoff, 2004). Though being questioned of its
empirical validity, her work marked the milestone of gender studies in linguistics
since it adopted an innovative approach - switching the focus from grammar and
phonetics towards syntax, style, and semantics (Wright, 2002). Other researchers,
since then, have attempted to remedy the deficiencies of Lakoff‘s studies, which
were based on the assumptions that one gender is inferior to another and that
linguistics behaviors are male-norm. Single-sex studies instead of mixed sex studies
have been conducted, and gender stereotypes have been questioned rather than
enforced (Wright, 2002). Scholars challenged Lakoff‘s arguments and carried out
research that helped enlarge the field of gender and language studies, for example,
the deficit approach of Lakoff was later refined by O‘barr and Atkins (1980) as the
dominance approach, which states that the discrepancy in linguistic behaviors
between genders are the results of the power imbalance perpetuated in society (as
cited in Borker, Furman, & McConnel-Ginet, 1980).
Jennifer Coates presented the history of the approaches to gendered speech, namely
the deficit, dominance, difference, and dynamic approaches in her book ―Women,
Men, and Languages‖ (Coates, 2004). The deficit approach categorizes men‘s
speech as standard, and women‘s as deficient. This approach came under a barrage
of criticism, as it uses men‘s language as a benchmark for women‘s and thus posits
that there is something inherently wrong with women‘s language (Coates, 2004).
The dominance approach establishes a dichotomy, which views women as the
subordinate group and men as the dominant group, and researchers who employ this
model subscribe to the notion that the varied styles of speech between genders
13

reflect the male supremacy. Meanwhile, the difference approach is based on the
argument that men and women belong to different subcultures, resulting from the
growing resistance of women to being categorized as the subordinate group:
―Women began to assert that they had ‗a different voice, a different psychology, and
a different experience of love, work, and family from men‖ (Humm, 1989, as cited
by Coates, 2004, p. 6). The merit of this approach is that it liberates the study of
women‘s speech, allowing it to be conducted beyond a framework of oppression or
powerlessness, and shows appreciation of women‘s linguistic strategies. Its
limitations, however, stem from the problems when it is applied in mixed-group talk
analysis, which can be explained by humans‘ tendency to accommodate the style of
language to the person with whom they are communicating. For instance, a study of
Thomson, Murachver, and Green (2001) revealed that in mixed-gender talk, people
accommodate to the other gender.

Accordingly, gender differences are less

pronounced in mixed-gender groups, making the difference approach controversial.
The forth approach, also the most current one, is referred to as the dynamic
approach. It sees gender identity as a social construct instead of putting speech into
a natural gendered category, and researchers who adopt this approach take a social
constructionist perspective. That means, according to West and Zimmerman (1987,
p. 135), speakers should be seen as ―doing gender‖ rather than statically ―being‖ a
particular gender.
There are perhaps separations among scholars as to which approach is the
most appropriate for doing research on the relationship between gender and
language, but it should be noted that there is no such thing as a distinct division
among the four approaches, because more often than not researchers are exposed to
and influenced by more than one theoretical framework. However, among these
four paradigms, the deficit approach is considered to be backward by the majority

of current researchers, the dominance and difference approaches exerted the most
influence in the 1980s and the 1990s and have fallen in popularity since then, while
the dynamic approach, or social constructivism, now prevails. ―What has changed is
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linguists‘ sense that gender is not a static, add-on characteristic of speakers, but is
something that is accomplished in talk every time we speak‖ (Coates, 2004, p. 7).
2.2.3. A cross-disciplinary approach to gender representation in media
As previously discussed, most studies into gender representation in media
involve the analysis of media text, the visual, and the auditory aspects of the text.
Therefore, it can be seen that the linguistic element plays a significant role in the
media description of men or women. Even though research into gender
representation may encompass other fields, it can be observed that linguistics,
media, and genders are intrinsically linked, and it would be virtually unfeasible to
delve into gender representation in media and generate well-rounded analysis
without considering linguistic factors, nor is it desirable to examine a media
representation of gender by looking at its language use only. Integrating existing
theories from both domains, media studies and linguistics, to provide a more diverse
and broader perspective is thus a favorable choice when it comes to analyzing
gender portrayals in media.
2.3. Masculinity in advertising
2.3.1. Gender bias in advertising
Gender bias is the preference or prejudice based on gender. It is a set of
attitudes and behaviors that favor one gender over another, usually men/boys over
women/ girls (Ritzer & Ryan, 2011). Gender bias is often mistakenly used as another
term for sexism, yet the two concepts differ significantly. The former is based on
gender- a social construct which indicates the social expectations for women/girls and
men/boys, i.e. women are expected to possess feminine traits while men are expected
to demonstrate masculinity. The latter is based on sex- the biological difference

between males and females on the basis of their reproductive functions. While sexism
refers to the presumed inferiority of one sex (usually females), gender bias is ―more
inclusive, as it includes both prejudice (attitudes) and discrimination (behavior)‖
(Ritzer & Ryan, 2011, p. 249). Gender bias is so pervasive that it often goes
unnoticed in everyday life. It is most commonly found in social institutions of
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families, education, the economy, and health, and it is also deeply rooted in media,
sport, government, and other social institutions. Since gender is a variable that cooccurs with other social positions (race, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation),
gender bias is usually intertwined with other forms of bias, namely ethnocentrism,
racism, classism, and homophobia (Ritzer & Ryan, 2011).
It is often assumed that the disadvantaged group in gender bias is women/girls, but
men/ boys may also suffer from gender bias. Gender roles and expectations
constrain both women/girls and men/boys, and gender bias shortchanges both
groups. In medical treatment, for example, men are presented as stoic and reluctant
to admit weakness because they want to appear manly: ―You don‘t like to make a
fuss because it‘s a macho thing just to say you are the strong and silent type … You
have to be bed-ridden and half-dead before you go to the doctor‘s‖ (Samulowitz et
al., 2018, p. 5). The expectation of being masculine for men also affects them in
their workplace. While women are typecast as unfit for leadership positions, men
also experience discrimination when they seek jobs that require attributes such as
being emotionally supportive (Segal, 2015). This perhaps correlates with gender
bias in education as well. Most universities have launched the affirmative action
programs to encourage women to pursue traditional male careers such as
engineering, but very few endorse men in traditional female professions, including
nursing, childcare, and primary teaching (―How are men disadvantaged?‖, n.d.).
Gender

bias

also

pervades

media.

Embedded

stereotyping

and

underrepresentation of women and girls by the international film industry have been
revealed by a 2014 UN Women study that examined popular films across different
countries and regions. According to this research, while women comprise half of the
world population, they make up only one third of all speaking characters in movies;
and more notably, women represent only a quarter of on-screen workforce, and
employed women are extremely underrepresented in high positions (Smith, Choueiti,
& Pieper, 2014). In contrast, regarding hypersexualization, women are twice as likely
as men to be shown in revealing clothes, thinness, or nudity (Smith et al., 2014). Men,
16


on the other hand, are often encouraged to have control over themselves and other
people, to demonstrate aggressive or violent behaviors, and to be financially
independent and physically desirable (Mediasmarts, 2019).
As a major part of media, advertising contributes greatly to the media
representations of genders. It is true that recent waves of feminism have had direct
impact on advertising campaigns, with highlights including Always‘ ―Like A Girl‖,

Doves‘ ―Real Beauty‖, and Wranglers‘ ―More Than A Bum‖ (Curtis, 2019). This latest
trend in advertising is called ―femvertising‖ – that is, ―advertising that employs profemale talents, message, and imagery to empower women and girls‖ (Skey, 2015).
Brands are quick to realize the potential of feminism as a marketing tool to appeal to a
larger audience, not only female consumers but also millennial consumers. This is
because more than 90% of millennials, whose spending power amounts to 30 billion
dollars, would choose brands associated with a cause (Martell, 2019).
These women-empowering advertisements, however, do not truly reflect the
ideals of the companies that produce them. It seems that these companies deploy profemale advertising campaigns merely for profits, while embracing the opposite ideals.
For example, despite being one of the pioneers in femvertising with Dove‘s
campaigns, Unilever, the parent company of Dove, also is in charge of Axe - a brand
notorious for its misogynist, demeaning advertisements. Another enterprise that also
exhibited this disconnect between words and deeds is State Street Global Advisors: it
conducted the ―Fearless Girl‖ project to increase awareness of gender diversity in
corporate leadership, while paying black and female executives at its own company
less than their white and male counterparts (Martell, 2019). This poses the question of
whether or not femvertising is just the commercialization of a social movement, and
takes advantage of it rather than brings any structural changes.
Recent studies have reaffirmed that these flashy femvertising campaigns may
have paradoxically aggravated gender stereotypes as they pull people‘s attention
away from the existing under- and misrepresentation of women in the majority of
advertisements. J.Walter Thompson‘s Female Tribes initiative in 2016 found that
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