Defying Gendered Stereotypes: A Multimodal Analysis of Pakistani Advertisements

Abstract

This study aims to explore the feministic strands in Pakistani advertisements. The focus of this paper is to analyze the implied meanings of these advertisements, which seem to break the gendered stereotypes and normalize feministic viewpoints about the ideal body, complexion and gender roles. This paper presents the linguistic and visual analysis of the ads, focusing on their breakdown of gender-based stereotypes and their demonstration of feministic messages in the Pakistani cultural context. The interdisciplinary theoretical underpinning for this study includes the visual multimodal of Kress and Leuwen (1996). A close analysis of Pakistani advertisements shows that most of the companies are defying the socio-cultural stereotypes regarding women and are presenting the feministic stances as a new normal. By focusing on the notion of change, this paper argues that this altered approach of the advertisement companies is an attempt to transform the traditional attitude of Pakistani patriarchal society towards social and cultural gender roles of women.