Gender Paradox

This week we were asked to dig deep and to truly consider the question, “is advertising guilty of creating gender imbalances in society, or does it simply mirror societal attitudes?” Straight of the cuff, my answer is, "Both!" It's neither here nor there; these two entities have a symbiotic relationship. Stereotypes of gender imbalances feed off one another. Advertisers would not be able to exploit men or women if society did not already exploit then, furthermore, most advertisements would be rendered infective without glory of exploitation! Consider this ad below.

If the advertising company reversed the roles of the mother and father; making the mother the ass and the father in-charge of the everyday home up-keep, the advertisement would be ineffective. Using Katherine Frith's levels of analysis we can consider and compare the different levels.

Husband as an Ass
Surface Meaning: Women surrounded by her messy family.
Intended Meaning:This vacuum can keep on cleaning without you.
Cultural Meaning: Women a generally considered to be in charge of house hold cleaning tasks, yet not matter how hard they try the filth of her family prevails! 

Women as an Ass

Surface Meaning: Man surrounded by his messy family.
Intended Meaning:This vacuum can keep on cleaning without you.
Cultural Meaning: Families create a plethora of mess.

Consider the wife as an Ass: Culturally if a husband openly consider his wife to be an ass the marriage would end quickly, further more he probably would not be around to even activate the robot vacuum. The idea would not sell any of these vacuums! Reversed this advertisement would be rendered ineffective.Thus, advertisers simultaneously mirror gender stereotypes and create an imbalance by reinforcing gender imbalances.