Gender Portrayals in Media: TV, Advertising & Stereotypes

Introduction: Gender and Media

Since the advent of television during the latter part of the 1920s, men and women have been portrayed differently in movies, television, radio, music videos, news, and social media. Stereotyping men and women aided in developing sustainability strategies for marketing and advertising efforts. Essentially, it is about appeal and influencing the consumer. Unfortunately, the various mediums are fraught with sexism and racial disparities, which are difficult to overcome since the mediums are controlled by those in power. This level of control may be disguised as marketing techniques aimed at certain target groups. By devising an appealing image with which a consumer may identify, advertisers establish a connection, thus building loyalty and developing a following. Hence, gender portrayals are fundamental practices used to reach a large group of consumers by creating categorical images.

Television as a Gender Socializer

Several popular radio soap operas made the transition to television, and many new ones were created for the medium, which would eventually eclipse radio in audience numbers. As with their radio predecessors, these shows were programmed for the daytime hours and featured commercials aimed at housewives — the dominant stereotype of post-war American culture. Daytime hours on television also included game shows and talk/advice shows, whose rhetorical strategies assumed women's capacity as caretakers of the family's economic and emotional resources.

The makeup of daytime programming on the broadcast networks has remained remarkably consistent over the years, although soap opera plots have evolved to account for the presence of male viewers — not only by making male characters more prominent but also by mixing action-genre elements into the narratives. Perhaps even more significantly as a programming strategy, game shows gradually gave way on the schedule to talk shows.

Primetime Programming and Male-Centered Narratives

Ironically, primetime television — once considered more "serious" than daytime programming — continued to generate controversy in the 1980s and 1990s when dealing with issues such as abortion and homosexuality that were by then regularly discussed on daytime talk shows. Primetime television was regarded by the networks, media critics, and historians as more serious because of the "adult" dramas, mostly featuring male characters as central figures, scheduled in the late 9:00–11:00 P.M. time slots. The unspoken assumption was that these shows were serious because they appealed to male viewers, who were stereotyped as more interested in violence, law, and the socially relevant aspects of nighttime drama.

Many primetime dramas of the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s drew on the "masculine" emphasis of genres that had already succeeded in other media forms — novels, films, and radio. The western, the detective and police thriller, science fiction, and the medical drama all featured controlling male characters having adventures, braving danger, and solving problems through reason or violence. These genre conventions reinforced a media landscape in which gender representation was closely tied to audience assumptions about who constituted the "primary" viewer.

Conclusion

Gender portrayals are fundamental practices used to reach a large group of consumers by creating categorical images. Appeal to the masses has been a fundamental marketing technique that requires the continued use of gender portrayals. As with targeting children, gender portrayals can persuade decision makers to buy a product or to watch a show. Additionally, racial portrayals have appeared in media in an unfavorable light because audience appeal is shaped by assumed audience expectations. Advertisers and marketers believe consumers need to be guided; hence, they will continue to use various media forms to sell and to influence through gender and racial portrayals.