Gender Norms

The gender norms presented in the first adverts is the idea of women wearing make-up. This idea was relevant when the patriarchal society was heavily influenced around the world. Women had to be married and had to look presentable by wearing make-up (which is presented in this ad). The make-up is evident in the advert as the woman is facing towards the camera. Even though the woman is not making direct contact with the audience we can still see the make-up she has used. She is wearing pink lip stick. The colour pink is associated with women, this makes it clear that the advert is targeted at women. The pink background along the pink costume and jewellery. This idea of being presentable is evident in her hair. Her hair has been carefully designed to also look presentable. Women wanted to look presentable because that was the norm. The idea was that men would come home from work and their significant other would look beautiful.

The second advert shows a man hanging on railings. The man is shown in a long shot with his top off. The gender norm shown in this advert is that men 'have' to be strong and they have to have muscles. This has become increasingly popular in the eyes of women over time as women are becoming more attracted to muscle on men and they want a man to be strong and protective. This has put a lot of pressure onto men. If women like men who have muscles, men will been pressure and more inclined to want to get muscles to become 'attractive' towards women. Men typically take more risks.

The third advert shows a cake with a male figure of the cake. The other side of the cake shows a hole in the cake and it can be interpreted that the woman figure has fallen through the cake. This could represent her weight. This links to the cover line 'need to lose a little weight before your wedding'. Also, the title of the drink is called slim fast which could relate to woman having to lose weight. This could link back to the idea that women have to look presentable. Instead of looking at make-up as one way of looking presentable, this advert is targeting women who are maybe a little bit over weight.