One of the biggest problems within gender stereotypes in the media is the differentiation of gender roles. So many advertisements have a woman have women performing stereotypical tasks while cast in a lower position than a man’s. Many commercial place women in subordinate roles, serving the men in one way or another. Malgorzata Wolska of krytyka.org elaborates:
Through the ages men have been considered to be financial providers, career-focused, assertive and independent, whereas women have been shown as low-position workers, loving wives and mothers, responsible for raising children and doing housework.
Wolska’s article on gender stereotypes in mass media discusses the position of stereotypes in advertising and the forward changes that are happening to “become informed viewers instead of manipulated consumers.”
I also came across this video put together by BuzzFeed in which a few commercial are recreated scene for scene with the only difference being a man in a stereotyped role originally intended for a woman.
adv91kevinsamson 