Gender Opression :: essays research papers

Through the mass media, our patriarchal capitalist system has created the joke that Womens Liberation has progressed when gender equaliseity policies were introduced, such as equal salaries and the right to vote. It has convinced the common North American woman to call up that she is not socially restrained, that her accomplishments can be unlimited, that she is in total stir up and control of her life. However, conventional norms veiled deeply and expressed indirectly in the mass media continue to dictate and subdue lives according to gender. Seemingly exculpated short TV ads, still remarkably traditional in line drawing gender voices, condone and reinforce gender oppression. This paper will stee resound on the underlying imagery of several advertisements, which help perpetuate gender oppression and reinforce the patriarchial system.The first advertisement was extracted from the popular magazine Cosmopolitan, targeted to a predominantly adolescent female adult audience. Th e ad illustrates a young couple in which the man is kissing the hand of his soon-to-be wife, with an engagement ring on her finger. The picture itself places both the male and the female in their jibe gender lineaments in mainstream society buying his bride an expensive ring, the man fulfills his role as Good Provider and the woman not only willingly accepts this symbol of belonging to the man, but is extremely satisfied and blissful. This ring, of course, does not free fall short of its symbolic expectations. The act of offering her a ring, the man whitethorn be seen as manifesting deep love but he is also making an investment, expressing it in the form of commitment. In a sense, this is also a form of tenure and possession he is expecting her to completely give herself to him. The subtext to the motto Platinum. For a lifetime of love also suggests a lifetime of ensured fiscal security and protection for the woman. It reduces the expression of love to a brand of jewelry, inte rchange it not just as a product, but as a standardized lifestyle. How can a woman become truly emancipate if she is economically dependent of man throughout her life, typically from father to hubby? In the ad, the man has also fallen victim to the expectations of his gender role in society. Under pressure to fit the masculine profile, he essential financially provide for his partner and shower her with pricey gifts, not to mean choose a proper trophy wife feminine, attractive, submissive and dexterous at everything he does.