I decided to watch The Codes of Gender as I thought it would be relevant research for the first chapter of my dissertation. As my focus was identity construction within society this documentary helped me get a better understanding of how femininity and masculinity have been presented in advertising.

Sut Jhally, a communications professor focus's on Erving Goffman's investigation on advertising and the way gender identity has been presented in different forms of media. Below are my notes from the documentary in which I found were the key points to acknowledge and get a better understanding of to write about in my chapter. 

'To recognise someone as male or female is absolutely fundamental to our ability to interact with them.'

'Androginist people pose a challenge to the cultural system that is dependent upon those categories being clear'

'Goffman argues there is nothing natural with gender identity'

Sex - Different biological characteristics at birth

Gender - The cultural definitions given to the physical differences

Categories in western culture

Male                                   Female

Strong                                Dependent

Intelligent                          Emotional

Competitive                      Empathetic

Masculine                           Feminine 

'These traits are made sense of through the categories of culture'

'We learn to inhabit the gender category that we have been assigned from outside from the culture'

Some cultures recognise a third sex -> Middle Sex

- Indian sub continent, theres a whole class of people called Heshra (Could not find real name on google) who are neither male or female, but a third intersex category. Close to a million.

- Ideas and attitudes about gender are shaped by the culture and society that we grew up in. 

- Western culture usually operates with a two sex two gender distinction.

- Gender Display: The process whereby we perform the roles expected of up by social convention.

Goffman - Advertising is a form of commercial realism which is trying to present the world in ways it could be real. 

The way hands are presented in advertising as male or female. Goffman argues that female hands have a different relationship to male hands.

Feminine hands

- Letting the environment control them - not assertive

- Resting

- Caressing

- Cradling

- Holding things with the ends of fingers

Masculine hands

- Powerful

- Assertive

- Moulding to their environment

- Commanding

- Firm

Goffman also argues it is rare to find themselves in the same way women do.

Images that suggest fragility, softness and powerlessness have became almost exclusively defined as feminine -> in direct opposition to what is authentically defined as masculine.

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We are conditioned to believe that men utilising these postures are not real men. 

Female sexuality = Submissive

                                Powerless

                                Dependent

Examples:

- Dolce & Gabbana

- Nip tuck

Goffman also argues that occasionally we see the reverse but it is rare.

Ritualisation of subordination 

The category ritualisation of subordination means that women are constantly being portrayed lying down on their sides or their backs, physically positioning them closer to the ground, instead of standing up tall and holding their bodies erect, like men often times do. By lowering themselves, this symbolises being less in control of oneself.

In situations you find men laying down in the same position as women in commercial photography.                                                            

                                                                                   

What seems to connect these stereotypical poses with the stereotypical male poses is the fact they share the same presumes audience - men

- This embodies cultural assumptions about male desire and about what men want