Male and female created they them: The depiction of gender in the advertising of traditional women's and men's magazines

Abstract

Images from advertisements in six traditional women's and men's magazines in the United States are analyzed for the ways they depict objects and figures, sex segregation, and sex differentiation in the posing of figures through size, stance, smile, touch, and gaze. Evaluation of the data considers the landscape of advertising, representation of self and other in men's and in women's magazines, and gender differences in total advertising from all magazines. Analysis reveals that advertising offers a world of material objects detached from people, of individuals disengaged from others in general, and disassociated from others of the opposite sex in particular. Ads from gender-typed magazines depict a sex-segregated world populated by figures of the same sex as potential viewers. While representatives of the “other” sex seek connection through touch or gaze, representatives of the “self” remain self-absorbed and unresponsive. In addition, certain differences in gender representation of female figures remain constant in both types of magazines: female figures are more likely than male to be stance-subordinated and to display connection through smile, touch, and gaze. A final section on content analysis augments the descriptive statistical findings.