Mass Media
Mass media is a major agent of socialization that shapes the behaviors of a culture. In today’s society, we are exposed to constant images of sex and gender roles through advertisements in the media. An average North American citizen consumes thousands of advertisements a day making advertising a powerful communication tool in modern societies (Lindstrom, 2010:1). “The social learning theory developed by Albert Bandura argues that people learn about their social worlds in two distinct ways. First, following in tradition of behaviorism, individuals learn through direct experience with their environments, and secondly, the rewards and consequences that follow” (Ritzer and Ryan, 2011:564). “The social learning theory develops a basis understanding of why advertisements have a large impact on humans behaviors from such a young age within a society” (Brasted 2010). The following analysis will form the basis of knowledge to understand the significance of sexism and gender in North American cultures through various sociological topics and secondary sources.
Sexual revolution
In order to understand the modern influence advertisements have on consumer society we have to look into history. A key event in North American societies was the sexual revolution in the 1960’s. “The sexual revolution is illustrated as “the turn of the 20th century which conveyed a change in North American’s sexual behavior. This created casual sex partners and challenged the role of women in western society. This period was also known as the feminist period” (Mager and Helgeson, 2011:239). “Before the sexual revolution, advertisements clearly displayed males in the public sector of society while women were portrayed in the private sector, usually in the home” (Mager and Helgeson, 2011:239). “Changes that were observed after this period included, changes in role portrayals of men and women; however differences still existed, women’s bodies were more frequently shown in fragments and women were shown in a sexually explicit manner” (Mager and Helgeson, 2011:240).
“After this period Courtney and Lockertz(1971) published one of the first major studies on women in magazine advertising. In the magazines they found that the perspectives in the ads were that (a) a women’s place was in the home, (b) women did not make important decisions or do important things, (c) women were dependent upon men and need a man’s protection, and (d) men regarded women primarily as sex objects and were not interested in women as people” (Mager and Helgeson, 2011:239). Although women began to have more rights, the image of women’s roles was maintained in advertisements.
As women began to enter the work force and earn money for themselves they began to enjoy an increased level of freedom and sense of equality. “Rising economic wealth and increased leisure time triggered an increase in consumption