Nicole's FTVNM Blog: Female Stereotypes in Media

Coca Cola Advertisement

Branded name and bottle design appeal to women
Colours - pink (femininity) and white (purity and innocence)
Woman is object of admiration because “if you drink coca cola you will attract all of the boys’ attention”

Dior Advertisement

The woman is beautiful and positioned in a sexy lying-down pose, this pose also shows off her curves and women features
Dark purple colour is mysterious, colour of royalty
“If you use this product you will be as attractive as this woman”
Adam and Eve - snake as a representation of temptation and seduction
The bottle is coloured red (like death and blood)
Her facial expression is trying to hypnotise the viewers

Sup a Soup Advertisement

The girl was pretty
Stereotypical dumb receptionist, she had a blank stare and was twirling her hair in oblivion to every thing around her; she couldn’t even smell the burning toast next to her
If it were a man in her situation, he would have been putting out the fire with his BARE HANDS 'saving-the-day' and being heroic
She is 'too dumb' to do proper work in the office so she is just there to be the eye candy for the men
The girl can’t even make her own soup, she is seen as that stupid. An anonymous man makes the soup for her; (blame it on the Three Thirty-itis?)
In the fire sprinklers situation, women are shown overreacting and screaming, afraid that their new hairdo and nails are going to be ruined, whereas the men are seen being really calm and handling the situation better

Paparazzi Shots:

Paris Hilton:

Her outfit is fabulous and eye-grabbing, this reinforces the idea of external beauty being more important than personality and intellect
Although she looks independent, she is glamorous and attractive enough to capture a man's attention
She wears colours like white which symbolises purity, glitter/gold is girly and beautiful
Accessories: sunglasses, headband, bracelets, handbag

Lindsay Lohan:

Her facial and gestural expressions indicate that she is emotionally unstable
She is crying which is apparently "something women do more than men because men aren't emotional beings and hide their feelings well"
Vulnerable state
She seems to be pleading (possibly to a man asking him not to leave her). This reinforces the lack of control that she has with whoever she is talking to, because she is a woman.

Miley Cyrus:

She wears bright pink sweatpants because pink is the stereotypical colour for girls and every other colour is for boys
Sweet and innocent
Typical teenage girl on her phone smiling
Wearing a shaggy tracksuit
She has makeup on and a gorgeous face - expectation of all women
Her brown hair is lucius and long and that's what society defines as "beautiful" for women.

Twilight:

Erin Brokovich:

Very attractive, slim, and wears revealing clothing all of the time, this is what the film is perceiving the female gender stereotype to look like
She is showing her cleavage the majority of the time
Erin Brokovich is the woman sexual figure of the workplace
Looks after the kids
Willingly puts herself out there for sex
"You're emotional, you're erratic, you make it personal and it isn't" This is the male authoritative figure's opinion on this woman and it says a lot about how stereotypical females would react to a situation; overdramatic and sensitively.

Summary:

Women are seen as either weak or over-sexualised
Unrealistic expectations of women
Based on physical beauty
Superficial ideas of women
Some of these photographs, advertisements and videos send very toxic messages about women and how they should act BUT, in regards to paparazzi photos, the way they present themselves is their decision. If they want to look glamorous and sparkly, it is their choice whether society defines that as "girly", "manly" or what. It is the act of judging what they choose to wear as stereotyping rather than they stereotyping themselves. With that said, they could have been under the influence of the media, society or other people

Nicole's FTVNM Blog