In Erving Goffman's ground breaking book Gender Advertisments, he argued that advertisements did not portray men and women the way they actually behave and interact; but, they portray the way in which we (as members of society) think men and women should want to be or should be-the ideal male and the ideal female. For this assignment, you will find three magazine (or similar print) advertisements and do an analysis of either race, gender or both. You will pay special attention to portrayals of social status, power, traditional roles and stereotypes.
In writing your paper:
1) Write an introduction which demonstrates an understanding of stereotypes, power, social status, gender roles, and inequalities. Also, analyze the influence of media and advertising on socialization-why should we care if inequalities are perpetuated in advertising? What are the consequences?
2) Analyze each advertisement for the race and/or gender content, using the concepts we have learned in class. You will also need to consider the source of the ad-what magazine was it printed in? Who is the magazine aimed at? Who is the intended 'audience' of the ad? What is being sold?
3) Write a paragraph or two comparing and contrasting the portrayals of gender and/or race in your selected advertisements. From your analysis, what conclusions can we draw? In our society what, in Goffman's words, should a woman be? What should a man be? How do we expect a white person to behave? How do we expect a black person to behave? An Asian person? What do these advertisements say about the existing inequalities in our society? Were you surprised by what you found?
4) You must use a least one empirical source for your paper. Both of your textbooks are sufficient but we also recommend looking at Goffman's Gender Advertisements, a copy of which will be put on hold in Bierce Library for this class.