Khuôn mẫu giới trong quảng cáo quảng cáo video dịp tết âm lịch việt nam

GENDER STEREOTYPES IN ADVERTISING VIETNAM LUNAR NEW YEAR VIDEO ADVERTISEMENTS KHUÔN MẪU GIỚI TRONG QUẢNG CÁO QUẢNG CÁO VIDEO DỊP TẾT ÂM LỊCH VIỆT NAM PhD, Van Anh T Truong; MSc, Phuong T Nguyen Univer[.]

GENDER STEREOTYPES IN ADVERTISING:

VIETNAM LUNAR NEW YEAR VIDEO ADVERTISEMENTS

KHUÔN MẪU GIỚI TRONG QUẢNG CÁO:

QUẢNG CÁO VIDEO DỊP TẾT ÂM LỊCH VIỆT NAM

PhD, Van-Anh T Truong; MSc, Phuong T Nguyen University of Economics – The University of Danang

vananhtt@due.edu.vn

Abstract

Due to the global economy’s impact, the strong development of the 4.0 technology revolu-tion, and the demographic changes, Vietnam faces new gender equality challenges This study is set out to answer two major research questions: (1) Are there gender stereotypes in the video ad-vertisements for Tet Holiday? and (2) How women and men are portrayed in those advertise-ments? By reviewing previous literature and analyzing qualitative data from video content analysis, the research team unravels gender-based role designation patterns between men and women, which continue to disadvantage women and perpetuate gender stereotypes Several rec-ommendations for measures to make advertisements gender stereotype-free are also provided.

Keywords: gender biased; gender stereotypes; video advertising; Lunar New Year;

Tet Vietnam

Tóm tắt

Dưới tác động của nền kinh tế toàn cầu, sự phát triển mạnh mẽ của cuộc cách mạng công nghệ 4.0 và sự thay đổi về nhân khẩu học, Việt Nam phải đối mặt với những thách thức mới về bình đẳng giới Nghiên cứu này được đặt ra để trả lời hai câu hỏi nghiên cứu chính: (1) Có định kiến giới trong các video quảng cáo dịp Tết không? và (2) Nữ giới và nam giới được miêu tả như thế nào trong các quảng cáo này? Bằng cách xem xét các tài liệu trước đây và phân tích dữ liệu định tính với kĩ thuật phân tích nội dung video, nhóm nghiên cứu đã làm sáng tỏ các khuôn mẫu

về vai trò dựa trên giới giữa nam và nữ, vốn tiếp tục gây bất lợi cho phụ nữ và kéo dài định kiến giới Một số khuyến nghị về các biện pháp để quảng cáo thoát khỏi khuôn mẫu giới cũng được đưa ra.

Từ khóa: định kiến giới; khuôn mẫu giới; quảng cáo video; năm mới âm lịch; Tết Việt Nam

1 Introduction

Since the ratification of the U.N.’s Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrim-ination against Women (CEDAW) in 1982, Vietnam has made encouraging progress on legal pro-visions to promote gender equality, especially in comparison with most other countries with similar levels of income These include the 2006 Law on Gender Equality, the 2007 Law on Do-mestic Violence Prevention and Control, and the National Strategy for Gender Equality for the

period of 2011-2020 (The World Bank, 2011) Particularly, having realized the effects of main-stream media on public perception of social realities, the government resolutely aims to reduce cultural and information products with gender prejudice by 60% by 2015 and 80% by 2020 as well as to increase the airtime of specialized programs and sections on gender equality propaganda and education

However, such persistent efforts to raise social awareness about gender issues have not completely changed gender stereotypes Several studies stated that Vietnam is still a largely pa-triarchal society as evidenced by the high rates of gender-based violence, the representation of women in the media in stereotypical ways, and their discrimination from accessing leadership roles in politics and the workplace (Duong, 2001; Mate Susan, McDonald, & Do, 2019; Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, 2012; Tran Thi Yen Minh, 2015; H T Vu, Barnett, Duong, & Lee, 2019; T Vu, Dương, Barnett, & Lee, 2016) Notably, a series of studies on gender and media conducted in

2007 and 2008 by Oxfam and Center for Studies and Applied Sciences in Gender, Family, Women and Adolescents (CSAGA) revealed a significant amount of gender stereotyping in media report-ing For example, men were typically depicted as strong, decisive, better at economics and poli-tics, and often portrayed in leadership positions while women were presented as gentle, responsible for homemaking, childrearing, and maintaining family stability in low-income posi-tions Research sponsored by UNESCO in 2009 analyzing the content of communication products

in print media and television also pointed to similar conclusions as those findings mentioned above There are few stories and television programs that promote gender equality The media is better at making sure there is an equal number of women and men on television game shows than ensuring gender-sensitive reporting or actively promoting unconventional gender roles for both women and men

Gender stereotyping has been extensively researched since the 1970s across cultures and countries (Courtney & Lockeretz, 1971) The portrayal of gender in different media, including print, radio, television, and, increasingly, the Internet, has likewise received extensive attention (Aramendia-Muneta, Olarte-Pascual, & Hatzithomas, 2020; Eisend, 2010; Fowler & Thomas, 2015; Grau & Zotos, 2016; Kitsa & Mudra, 2020; Middleton, Turnbull, & de Oliveira, 2020; Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, 2015) Regarding gender and media research in Vietnam for the past decade, most focus on linguistic perspectives and apply Critical Discourse Analysis (Nguyen Hong Lien, 2016; Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, 2012; Tran Thi Yen Minh, 2015) Others turn their attention to female leadership and representation in media (H T Vu, 2019; H T Vu et al., 2019; T Vu et al., 2016) Thus, this study will fill this gap by reviewing the extant literature on gender and media, specif-ically in the context of gender stereotyping, and exploring how genders are represented in Viet-namese advertising The main aim is to identify the pattern of gender stereotypes in video advertisements for the Tet Holiday – the biggest and the most important celebration in Vietnam and the different roles played by men and women in those ads

2 Literature review

2.1 Gender stereotypes in media

Gender issues are mentioned along with female visions expressed by metaphor images,

es-pecially in magazines’ female time/spaces (Cronin, 2005) Similarly, media for children tend to show males more actively and dominant than females (Browne, 1998; Fitzpatrick & McPherson, 2010; Golden & Jacoby, 2018; Weitzman, Eifler, Hokada, & Ross, 1972) The portrayal of gender has been the concerned matter in media studies (Murphy, 1998), where women usually appear with body shape characteristics, dependence, and blurred roles in the labor force (Anjalin, 2015) Notably, gender bias in media discourse can be seen in politics (Aaldering & Van Der Pas, 2018; Dolan, 2013; Kittilson & Fridkin, 2008; Kotzaivazoglou, Hatzithomas, & Tsichla, 2018; Liu, 2019; Sriwimon & Zilli, 2017), sports (Arslan & Koca, 2007; Harris, 2013; Petca, Bivolaru, & Graf, 2013), and art (Wang, 2009) In other words, media influences on gender stereotypes (Arm-strong & Nelson, 2005; Goodall, 2012; Wille et al., 2018)

2.2 Gender stereotypes in advertising

According to Grau and Zotos (2016), social and historical contingencies due to feminism rise, labor force changes, and role structure changes in the family are reflected through dominant values (mirror debate) or prevailing values (mold debate) in advertising However, a recent study

of Aramendia-Muneta et al (2020) has shown that both gender groups are not inequally portrayed, and males outnumbered females as central figures

Besides, gender bias is popular in various advertisement types, such as video games (Behm-Morawitz, 2017; Scharrer, 2004); television commercials (Coltrane & Adams, 1997; Furnham & Voli, 1989; Kitsa & Mudra, 2020; Knoll, Eisend, & Steinhagen, 2011; Neto & Pinto, 1998; Prieler, 2016; Signorielli, McLeod, & Healy, 1994; Valls-Fernández & Martínez-Vicente, 2007) Recently, O’Driscoll (2019) stated that advertising seems to stimulate gender tension be-cause of men’s and women’s opposite positions The author studied the gender perception of ad-vertisers or cultural intermediaries who transfer social focus from disturbing women’s imagery

to men’s masculinity She dug in gender knowledge with gender essentialism, feminism, prob-lematic and burdensome sex, although almost limited to female voyeurism, female (dis)empow-erment, and men’s reverse stereotype

2.3 Gender biased categories

Goffman (1976) examined gender portrayal in his classic study considering gender com-mercials Picture frames of gender commercials are characterized by relative size, the feminine touch, function ranking, the family, ritualization, and withdrawal These categories are repeated

in many other researches (Chhabra, Andereck, Yamanoi, & Plunkett, 2011; Cohen, 1993; Döring

& Pöschl, 2006; Hovland, McMahan, Lee, Hwang, & Kim, 2005; Kang, 1997; Lindner, 2004; Marshment, 2005; Oppermann & McKinley, 1997; Pritchard & Morgan, 2000; Sirakaya & Son-mez, 2000) Additionally, Furnham and Voli (1989) considered gender stereotypes by classifying central figures into gender, mode, credibility, role, location, reward, product price, argument, background, humor, and comment

In Vietnamese advertisements, Nguyen Thi Thu Ha (2015) pointed out that women are usu-ally depicted as homemakers (doing housework, family roles of working women), caregivers (taking care of children, men, and the elderly) whose jobs are less important than men’s Besides,

they are represented as physically and mentally weaker than men, are not the ones who give so-lutions, emphasize on traditional femininity, and need to be beautiful to seduce men This result

is similar to the study of Nguyen Hong Lien (2016) with portrayals of women as family cook, teachers, caretakers of children/family members, subordinate partners of their spouses, household chores performers, linked to children’s parenthood

3 Research methodology

Video content analysis

Content analysis is an appropriate method of understanding gender stereotypes via system-atically unfolding the message (Kerkhoven, Russo, Land-Zandstra, Saxena, & Rodenburg, 2016; Taylor, 2003) Lune and Berg (2017) explained this method as a qualitative data collection and analysis with an objective coding scheme Because of its diverse application ability, content analy-sis is discussed by Hsieh and Shannon (2005) that contains conventional, directed, and summative approaches

In examining sexual stereotypes, video content analysis is proved as a useful methodology (Combs, 2010; Cowan & O’Brien, 1990; Lynch, Tompkins, van Driel, & Fritz, 2016) More de-tails, Hua, Li, and Mei (2010) divided it into 4 steps:

iDecomposing a video structure into sub-shots;

iExtracting intention-oriented features from the sub-shots;

iDetermining intention units via the extracted features;

iClassifying the intention units into the intention categories via the extracted features

Sampling method

This study selects advertisements videotaped for Lunar New Year of the mouse (2020) that appeared on YouTube As Kotler and Armstrong (2018) stated, advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and ideas, goods, or services promotion by an identified sponsor Not limited to traditional television commercials, the year 2020 is remarked by the presence of many videos performed by Vietnamese singers or celebrities Hence, the chosen videos are any pub-lished forms intentionally attached by specific brands Their contents are built for the Tet holidays – the traditional vacation that is meaningful to Vietnamese people They reflect Vietnam’s cultural values, which are appropriate to examine Vietnam’s gender stereotypes

Coding scheme

Based on steps for video content analysis proposed by Hua et al (2010) and the conceptual framework, extracted features in advertisements are coded into intention units representing gender stereotypes (see Table 1)

Table 1 Coding scheme

Source: Compiled by the authors

4 Results and discussion

Female is homemaker

Based on the frequency of mentions, the first gender stereotype is detected with 70% of videos in total, similarly to the results shown in previous studies (Nguyen Hong Lien, 2016; Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, 2015) It is about the role of the female as a homemaker They naturally think about their home-related responsibilities with housework, caregiving, the harmony of rela-tionships The focal figures are mostly mothers-in-law, daughters-in-law who always be the main characters that prepare for the Tet holidays They appear within homing scenes and take over cleaning, cooking, while males appear with the tasks related to planting, repairing, and taking their children out Although women sometimes seem not to care much about these tasks, they are immediately blamed by the elderly For instance, a middle-aged woman enjoying street food

Extracted features Intention units Gender stereotypes

Mode of presentation

Disembodied voice-overs

Visual portrayal, no speaking part

Visual portrayal and a speaking part

Voice-over Visual (Dis)empowermentFemale appearance

Physical/Mental health

Credibility

Users of advertised product

Source of information

User Authority Solution giver Role

Parent, spouse, partner, sex object, homemaker

Professional

Interviewer/narrator (including celebrity)

Dependent Independent Inspirator

Household role Gender essentialism Community role Location

Home

Occupational

Leisure

Homemaking Job importance Household roleGender essentialism

Feminism/Masculinity

Argument

Factual evidence or technical information

Personal views or testimonials

Other

Subjective Objective Neutral

Rational Emotional Neutral Reward Type

Approval from opposite gender, family, friends

Improvement in health and/or appearance

Saving time and/or money and/or effort

Pleasure

Social Approval Self-enhance-ment

Practical Enjoyment

Perfection burden Self-enhancement Rational

Drama PositiveNegative

is scolded by an older adult with a feather broom (vid4), or a grandfather is only a helper to his wife while making jam (vid17) Similarly, the visual and voice-overs in vid5 emphasize that Viet-namese women are busying shopping for their families At the same time, men gather for year-end parties or riding on vehicles to pick their spouses up

Male is competent

The second stereotype is the competence of males (60% of mentions) They are expected

to earn higher, more successful than women in their professional careers In vid10, the parents mention gifts from their sons (motorbike, house) Besides, the young man repeats his father’s re-minders regarding great spirit and the ability to fill the ocean or move the mountains, focusing

on his pressure because of the family expectations So does the young men in vid24 or the husband

in vid26 (the salary has not been increased, the financial stress):

“Lòng buồn hấp hối, lắng lo đủ thứ trên đời Vợ thì ngồi một góc, đếm hóa đơn để rồi bật khóc Lương thì chưa kịp tăng, xe thì hết cả xăng, ăn còn không đủ no, trăm ngàn thứ phải lo.” (Temporarily translated: Overwhelmed with sadness and wories about everything The wife is sitting in the corner, crying due to overdue bills The salary has not increased yet; the car is out

of gas, the stomach still not be full, hundreds of thousands of worrying things.)

This burden is the reason why the image of men who choose working far from home is re-curring in clips videotaped for the Lunar New Year They face many internal conflicts of returning

to their hometown to spend time with parents and grandparents This result consolidates the state-ment of Nguyen Hong Lien (2016) that images of success or relaxation attach Vietnamese males

Disempowerment

Half of video advertisements represents the disempowerment of Vietnamese women In most cases, they are unconditionally waiting for their husbands or sons to enjoy the Lunar New Year with their beloved ones It seems that their happiness and joyfulness depends solely on males

in their family Furthermore, in terms of relative size, the sizes of female characters are mostly smaller than males’, showing the hidden message that men are the breadwinners

This gender-based pattern confirms that women are subordinate partners of their spouses analyzed by Nguyen Hong Lien (2016) It is matched with a Vietnamese traditional female portrait who always passively waiting for their husbands This image can be easily found in Vietnamese poem or songs, such as “Sao chưa thấy hồi âm” (temporarily translated: Why haven’t (I) seen any reply?) The lyrics are filled with the image of an anxious woman linking herself with the petrified wife named To Thi because of holding her child to wait for her husband

Gender essentialism

Males are often characterized by jobs that need strong physical health, tech-savviness, cre-ativeness, dynamism, while women are preoccupied with works that need meticulousness (tai-loring, housework), psychological knowledge (human resources) As can be seen, there is progress

in the perception of gender stereotypes in Vietnam because career is not the object of comparison anymore, more positive than the findings of Nguyen Thi Thu Ha (2015)

Female has perfection burden

More than one-third of video advertisements clearly depict female portrayal as perfect

wives, caring mothers who also know how to treat their beloved people and friends (i.e., “<brand name> women” of vid20) It can be seen that they have the burden of being perfect In other words, they tend to attain approval from the opposite gender, family, and friends This stereotype

is similar to the associations of working women’s housing roles, as Nguyen Thi Thu Ha (2015) mentioned, and the depiction of a Vietnamese woman who has very little time for herself because

of doing so many tasks In vid32, “Mom is always busy, while dad is holding a smartphone to read the newspaper all day” - in Vietnamese: “Mẹ luôn tất bật, ba suốt ngày cầm phone đọc báo” Besides, childbearing pressure is a common worry of any married woman However, different from the traditional questions in Tet holidays, marriage is considered the private information that not any female is ready to share For example, in vid28, “When will you marry?” (Bao giờ lấy chồng?) has become a susceptible question in the sarcastic conversation between two females

Picture of Vietnamese men and women

Vietnam males appear with masculinity (35%), being rational (25%) and positive (22.5%)

No matter challenges and difficulties males faced, they overcame them with better physical and mental conditions as compared to females

In line with gender essentialism mentioned above, Vietnamese women is illustrated as emo-tional (27.5%) and compassionate (22.5%) Although female appearance is no longer the main focus of advertisements, it is indicated that women always care about their appearance

Implications

Gender identities and gender relations are critical aspects of culture because they shape the way daily life is lived in the family, but also in the wider community and the workplace Hence, there is need for studies of gender issues in different cultural contexts to understand different as-pects of gender (in)equality all over the world The main contribution of this study to the research stream therefore lies in providing a qualitative analysis of gender stereotypes perpetuated by the Vietnamese media’s Lunar New Year advertisements The results show that despite decades of socialist policies emphasizing gender equality, gender-based role designation pattern between men and women appears to have changed little A popular theme found in the Tet-related video advertisements is that women are mostly described in the context of their traditional homemaking and caregiving roles while men are strong, decisive, and the primary breadwinners Women are less likely to play the central figure, which may undermine their role as leaders or the brand’s main image This suggests the lingering hold of Confucian principles of women’s subordinate position within the household With such stereotypical representations, advertisers have generally contributed to creating and perpetuating stereotypes of what a successful woman should look like in contemporary Vietnamese society The study further points out that marketers apparently use existing gender-related values in a society to promote their brands rather than trying to alter these values These findings support the arguments of stereotypical depictions of gender roles in advertising previously discussed in Vietnamese context by Nguyen Thi Thu Ha (2012), Tran Thi Yen Minh (2015), Nguyen Hong Lien (2016)

Having said that, the research also provides evidence of changing perceptions, require-ments, and desires This needs to be incorporated as soon as possible in actual practice concerning visual online marketing content Marketers, advertisers, and enterprises should consider changing