Blog #4: Gender Stereotyping

Gender stereotyping is everywhere is advertisements and products.  It even exists for products that have no need for gendering.  One area of this being products like shampoo and body wash.  One company that comes to mind is Dove with they regular dove line, and then Dove Men + Care.  Although Dove is a very progressive company in their advertisements, they still have no reason to gender these items.  Shampoo for a "woman" will still have the same effect as their shampoo for "men".  This one advertisement I found really shows the gendering that is placed on woman's care products




this ad was for Dove in Brazil, and mocks how woman's shampoo ads are typically made, although it still makes the distinction that men shouldn't be using Dove's regular "woman's" shampoo, but instead need to be manly and use their men's line of shampoos.

Another main brand that comes to mind that focuses heavily on gendering is Old Spice.  It's always been known as the "manly" products and their commercial completely emphasize that fact.  Most of the commercials focus on the idea that if you don't use old spice, you're not a man, like this classic old spice ad




The thing with products such as hygiene and body care that I have noticed is that only men's products get over done and focus on the fact that you're not a man if you don't use this, or that you shouldn't be using "woman's" products, because body care has really always been seen as feminine to begin with, and thus shampoo commercials for woman tend to focus on what the shampoo actually does, and not on the way it smells or the way it's packaged.  With men's shampoos, they typically don't focus on what the shampoo does for your hair, but simply for your societal image.  This shows a huge issue in why things such as shampoo can be advertised so differently for what is essentially the same product.  Men don't want to seem feminine and so companies plaster "MEN" on the product, and then advertise it saying that they won't be a girl for using it, instead they will be a manly man for doing so and they will get all the girls.  None of this is necessary though because the product is still exactly the same, and there should be no reason why it should be split into male and female when it's all the same product.