Gender - A Cultural Construct

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The Codes of Gender is a film on the sociologist Erving Goffman’s view of advertising and how cultural norms for gender are amplified in the realm of advertising. The film’s goal is explaining how gender is a cultural construct and that advertising is the most concentrated versions of what a male or female should be. This film is narrated by Sut Jhally, who is a professor of communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Professor Jhally proclaims that “…my focus is advertising and consumer culture, I am broadly concerned with ideology, consciousness, and politics” (University of Massachusetts Amherst). The film follows these ideals by asking the audience to realize how advertisement is the biggest purveyor of what we consider masculine or feminine.

Femininity

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The film goes into detail about how women are shown as soft and vulnerable. The model’s body is shown in poses that are not normal for the human body to be in. The film often uses the word “contorted” to express these positions, arms in unnatural positions, bodies twisted, and often off center. Women are shown as vulnerable, defenseless, and sexually available, often shown touching themselves or others in a soft and motherly fashion. Women are never shown in control or in tune with their surroundings. The film talks about how women are shown as detached or unaware of what is going on in the scene around them.

Masculinity

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The film describes masculinity as almost the direct opposite of femininity. Men are
shown in strong and powerful poses. Where women seem detached from the things around them, men are shown as fully aware of what is going on and active in their environment. Advertisers are very careful in their presentations of men to make sure they are not seen as gay. They must walk a thin line between showing the men as sexy and heterosexual. This is often done by adding women to the picture in a sexually available way to dispel any feeling of homosexuality in the photo.

The Code of Hairstyles

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Another code that our culture follows that is often implicit and overlooked is hairstyles. Men with long hairstyles are called lazy or feminine, while women with short hair are lesbian or masculine. As the writer Sharan Dhaliwal found out in her article These Intimate Portraits Examine How Hair Connects to Gender Identity her culture put strong emphasis on long hair. “In my community hair adverts on Indian TV would correlate beauty to long, silky hair and there was almost always a hint to bridal ceremonies in the narrative of the commercials” (Dhaliwal). Dhaliwal continues in her article to take many points of view on how short hair makes women feel nervous at first, followed by exuberance with being able to be themselves.

Jodi Manning, a student at Western Connecticut State University, did a study on The Sociology of Hair:Hair Symbolism Among College Students where students were randomly shown images of different hairstyles and were asked to use the hairstyles to “…respond to questions about the stimuli that were designed to reveal views about personality traits and physical attributes, including: confidence, happiness, and trustworthiness, degree of maintenance (e.g. high or low maintenance)…” (Manning, 2). The study found that most of the participants thought that the blonde females were “more fun” and “more confident” while brunettes were considered “plain”. Manning’s findings were correct that “…the stereotypes of hair have become universal symbols which make up a social language that is commonly accepted in society” (Manning, 14). Further showing how Goffman’s views on society still hold true.

Works Cited:

Dhaliwal, Sharan. These Intimate Portraits Examine How Hair Connects to Gender Identity, VICE, 25 Oct. 2018, www.vice.com/en/article/yw983m/hair-portraits-gender-identity-women.

Manning, Jodi (2010) "The Sociology of Hair: Hair Symbolism Among College Students," Social Sciences Journal: Vol. 10: Iss. 1, Article 11. Available at: https://repository.wcsu.edu/ssj/vol10/iss1/11.

Media Education Foundation. (2009). The Codes of Gender. https://webster.kanopy.com/video/codes-gender.

University of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of Communication. (2021). https://www.umass.edu/communication/people/profile/sut-jhally.