Gender Representation And Identity Construction In Pakistani Print Advertisements Of Clothing Brands: A Socio- Semiotic Analysis

Abstract

The linguistic choices and graphical representations used in Pakistani print advertisements offer an interesting dimension in studying the ways in which gender identities are constructed. This study focuses on the nature of gender representation in Pakistan print advertisements of clothing brands and examines the general attributes given to men and women in Pakistani print advertisements. The purpose of the study is to explore the ways in which the print advertisements serve as a tool to construct, communicate and reinforce the long standing perceptions about gender identities. For this purpose a total of 102 advertisements are selected from a Pakistani weekly magazine Daily Times Sunday Magazine. Data is collected from 8 issues of this magazine published over a period of two months. All the advertisements of various clothing brands are taken to study how male and female identities are constructed and represented in the advertisements. A socio-semiotic approach to discourse analysis is used to study discourse, signs, symbols and other extra linguistic (semiotic) features used in the advertisements to construct and represent gender identities and to examine how the male and female models are portrayed in these advertisements with respect to style, posture, attitude, gaze, age, identity etc. The paper provides useful insights into the phenomena of gender representation and identity construction in the current Pakistani context.