Male representation in super bowl commercials

Research on men and their representation in advertisements, hence, is warranted to ensure the balance that should exist in gender studies, as well as to shed light on masculine roles and

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ THỊ PHƯƠNG QUỲNH

MALE REPRESENTATION IN SUPER BOWL COMMERCIALS

(Chân dung nam giới trong quảng cáo Super Bowl)

M.A MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS

HANOI – 2020

MALE REPRESENTATION IN SUPER BOWL COMMERCIALS

(Chân dung nam giới trong quảng cáo Super Bowl)

M.A MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01

Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Hạnh, PhD

HANOI – 2020

i

DECLARATION

I hereby certify the thesis entitled “Male representation in Super Bowl

commercials” as my own work in the fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree

of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Hanoi, 2020

Vũ Thị Phương Quỳnh

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to convey my heartfelt gratitude and utmost appreciation to my beloved supervisor, Dr Hoang Thi Hanh, for her concise guidance and invaluable advice from the beginning to the end of this research Without her, this study would have been left unfinished My deepest thanks also go to the Faculty of Graduate Studies, ULIS, VNU, and Dr Huynh Anh Tuan, who has gone to great lengths to make my study journey feasible once again

Besides, I am extremely grateful to Ms Hoang Phuong, MA, who has wholeheartedly assisted me during the process of doing this study

Last but not least, so as not to sound pretentious, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to myself for being utterly invincible

iii

ABSTRACT

Gender representation in advertising has been a thriving field of research in recent decades However, since most research focus on the comparison between the two genders or the depiction of females, studies regarding male representation are few and far between The aim of this research was to find out the contemporary depiction of men in commercials through both visual and linguistic means The study found a continuation of the overrepresentation of men in advertisements in comparison with women In addition, despite the recent transformation in societal male roles, the depiction of men is still largely confined by traditional male norms They are portrayed as experts, heroes, competitive individuals, and subjects of ridicules The study can be helpful for the reinvention of masculinity in today‘s world, and serve as an appeal to society for more visible, creative effort to challenge

traditional male stereotypes in advertising and media

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF IMAGES vi

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims of the research and research question 3

1.3 Scope of the study 4

1.4 Significance of the study 4

1.5 Structure of the study 4

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Contextual background of the study 5

2.1.1 Gender equality movements 5

2.1.2 Super Bowl commercials 8

2.2.Gender representation in media studies and linguistics: An interdisciplinary approach 10

2.2.1 Gender and media studies 10

2.2.2 Gender and Linguistics 12

2.2.3 A cross-disciplinary approach to gender representation in media 15

2.3 Masculinity in advertising 15

2.3.1 Gender bias in advertising 15

2.3.2 Masculinity ideologies in advertising and their impacts 19

2.3.3 Recent changes in male stereotypes in Super Bowl commercials 23

CHAPTER III: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY 25

3.1 Gender equality assessment in advertising 25

3.2 CDA as a theoretical approach 28

v

3.2.1 Principles of CDA 28

3.2.2 Fairclough‘s CDA analytical framework 31

3.2.3 Multimodal CDA 33

3.3 Data collection 34

3.4 Data analysis 35

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 37

4.1 Men as experts and leaders 37

4.2 Men as heroes 42

4.3 Men of power 48

4.4 The world of men as the world of competition 61

4.5 Men as the subjects of ridicule 68

4.6 Discussion 77

4.6.1 Consistency and change in male representation in Super Bowl commercials 77 4.6.2 The dualism of male representation in Super Bowl commercials 79

4.6.3 Stereotyped vs multi-dimensional male representation in Super Bowl commercials 80

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 82

5.1 Summary of major findings 82

5.2 Limitations and suggestions for further research 83

REFERENCES 84 APPENDIX I

vi

LIST OF IMAGES

Image 1 (AD23) - male technological expert 38

Image 2 (AD30) - male cleaning expert 38

Image 3 (AD27) - male animated expert 39

Image 4 (AD46) - professional male bellhop 39

Image 5 (AD7) - male main guard 42

Image 6 (AD28) – animated male superhero 43

Image 7 (AD36) - male knight 43

Image 8 (AD5) - Andy the powerful influencer 50

Image 9 (AD11) – rich technophilic footballer 51

Image 10 (AD40) - rich male baller 53

Image 11 (AD32) - man with super powers 55

Image 12 (AD44) - creepy masked man 57

Image 13 (AD51) - male monster 57

Image 14 (AD29) – Male bullies 58

Image 15 (AD23) – mermaid 60

Image 16 (AD24) - powerful man vs powerful woman 61

Image 17 (AD9) - competitive younger boys 63

Image 18 (AD52) - father and son playing a console game 64

Image 19 (AD38) - helpless man choking on a cashew 70

Image 20 (AD46) - ―Captain Colon‖ 72

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

This chapter states the rationale of the study, research’s aims, the scope of the study, how it can contribute to the current research landscape in gender and advertising It also proposes the research question that serves as the guiding line for the whole research

1.1 Rationale of the study

Gender representation in media has been a research area that garners attention from scholars across different disciplines The majority of research provides a comparison between female and male depictions; however, recent trends have shown that studies are shifting from gender juxtaposition to the depiction of single sex, which mostly focuses on females (Fowler & Thomas, 2015) Meanwhile, male representation appears only on a minority of studies, and is often employed as

a point for comparing and contrasting to female portrayal According to Gentry and Harrison (2010), this apparent discrepancy could be attributed to the widespread belief that changes should be prioritized in female depiction in advertisement Male portrayal, thus, has received scant attention Studies on men are often disregarded and ridiculed, because male privilege as well as male entitlement still prevail and are deeply engrained in the various strata of society Nonetheless, this does not rule out the fact that men could also be marginalized and have to conform to masculine norms which prevent them from expressing their feelings, getting close to their children or other men, and having the freedom to pursue unconventional roles Research on men and their representation in advertisements, hence, is warranted to ensure the balance that should exist in gender studies, as well as to shed light on masculine roles and the influences of their portrayals in mass media

Previous studies have looked into the representation of males in different forms of advertisements, including print ads and TV commercials, but mostly concentrating on their stereotypical roles Kervin (1990) pointed out the ideal configuration of traits for males that were projected in magazine advertisements

According to Kervin (1990), central to male representation was the capacity to provide for his family as the breadwinner, and this was surrounded by other characteristics such as being admired by others, affording great measures of money and powers, as well as being self-reliant, strong, and confident This has been perpetuated for years and hailed as the desirable, traditional masculine symbol; however, recent societal changes regarding genders, especially with female advancement in equality, means that men‘s roles are being transformed drastically This threat to the bureaucratic breadwinner image urges men to

―reaffirm their status as real men‖, and more often than not men find the instructions to do so in advertisements (Holt & Thompson, 2004, p 245) Therefore, advertisements are of an increasingly important role in navigating men with regards to their definition of masculinity and self-concept Studies on male representation in advertisements, accordingly, are justified, particularly those that focus on the contemporary depictions of men in advertisements and investigate the changes over the last few decades

The representation of men in TV commercials is a field which requires continuous research Mass media have evolved enormously with the invention of the Internet and other advancements of technology Nonetheless, despite the increase in online advertising, TV commercials are still the primary sources of product promotion and marketing This is firstly because the Internet itself also has become a platform for television, and thus TV commercials, as the majority of television networks have applications that operate on mobile phones or computers which allow users to watch television programs as long as they have Internet connection Over-the-top television, or television programs which are broadcasted

on the internet and can be watched on various devices, (Wolk, 2018), has demonstrated its impressive potentials in advertising sales, with a whooping eight-fold year-over-year increase by 2018 (Munson, 2018) In addition to the large scale

on which advertising on connected TV is presented, other compelling reasons for advertisers to pour investment in TV commercials include a safe environment for

brands, high-quality commercials, and correct demographic targeting (Wolk, 2018) Therefore, TV commercials continue to be at the center of attention of the advertising world

Among the major TV programs in which advertisers vie for a spot, the US‘ broadcast of Super Bowl was by far one of the most popular, easily ranking as the most-watched television program in US history (Bon, 2015) The Super Bowl commercials have become a phenomenon themselves, especially when a significant share of the audience reported watching the commercials only (Siltanen, 2014) The commercials are exposed not only to an unprecedented viewership, but also a diverse demographic Since 2010, Super Bowl has recorded an annual audience of around 100,000 million, with 74% of American males and 59% of American females watching the show in 2017 (Gough, 2019), and a roughly balanced distribution of viewership by gender (54% men and 47% women) (Marketing Charts, 2018) Super Bowl commercials have been featured in numerous studies, yet most of these studies focused on advertising impacts (e.g Outra, Hatzithomas & Zotos, 2010), gender stereotypes of both males and females (e.g Vierra, 2014; Hatzithomas, Boutsouki & Ziamou, 2016) Studies that pay exclusive attention to male depiction are few and far between

All the conditions above indicate an expressive need for research on male representation in TV advertising, and the US‘ Super Bowl commercials can be a

relevant and reliable source for gender studies that look at advertisements

1.2 Aims of the research and research question

This study aims to elucidate how men are represented in Super Bowl commercials and how both visual and linguistic factors contribute to male representation In other words, the paper expects to shed light on the contemporary depiction of males in Super Bowl advertising, and to identify, if any, the ideals and beliefs that govern this depiction through both visual and linguistic means Ultimately, the study hopes to provide a balance in understanding of the current gender representation in mass media with the new focus on males instead of females

The research question below is proposed: How are men represented

visually and linguistically through Super Bowl TV commercials?

1.3 Scope of the study

The paper chooses 57 commercials that were aired during Super Bowl 2019

TV broadcasting These commercials feature a wide range of products and services, with diverse audience approaches The study examines the visual and linguistic factors in both the characters in the commercials and the voiceover Movie trailers and TV program teasers are excluded, as well commercials that have no distinctive human visibility

1.4 Significance of the study

The study is hoped to serve three main purposes First, it explores gender representation in contemporary mass media, and provides a balance in gender studies that have long been inclined towards females Besides, the paper attempts to bring new insights in gender portrayal from a multimodal approach, which hopefully will attract more attention and further investigation into the topic Finally, the study can contribute to raising people‘s awareness of the current gender idealization and normalization that pertain to their own self-perceptions and social expectations

1.5 Structure of the study

This chapter has indicated the motivations for this study, the objectives of the research, and the scope of investigation The remaining chapters are organized as follows:

Chapter 2 contextualizes the study in the relevant literature of gender representation in media studies and linguistics In chapter 3, the theoretical background and methodology of the research are described Chapter 4 is a presentation of research findings and discussion over male representation in advertising, together with a comparison with previous literature Finally, in chapter

5, a summary of research findings, limitations of the study, and implications for further research are provided

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides an overview of the contextual background of the study

It also gives the reasons why Super Bowl commercials are chosen for this particular study, and present the current literature in gender representation in media studies and linguistics

2.1 Contextual background of the study

2.1.1 Gender equality movements

The term ―gender equality‖ was defined by UN Women as equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys This is further explained by clarifying separately the meanings of ―equality‖ and ―gender‖

as in the term:

―Equality does not mean that women and men will become the same but that women‘s and men‘s rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female Gender equality implies that the interests, needs and priorities of both women and men are taken into consideration, recognizing the diversity of different groups of women and men Gender equality is not a women‘s issue but should concern and fully engage men as well as women … Gender: refers to the social attributes and opportunities associated with being male and female and the relationships between women and men and girls and boys, as well as the relations between women and those between men These attributes, opportunities and relationships are socially constructed and are learned through socialization processes They are context/ time-specific and changeable Gender determines what is expected, allowed and valued in a woman or a man in a given context In most societies there are differences and inequalities between women and men in responsibilities assigned, activities undertaken, access to and control over resources, as well as decision-making opportunities …‖

(UN Women, n.d.)

It is clear that gender equality, by definition, is the equal access and availability of opportunities and resources for people of both genders In other

words, gender equality means that all people are entitled to fair treatment regardless

of which gender they are (In this study, males and females are considered on a gender spectrum) More importantly, it can also be seen that gender equality should involve the participation of both men and women and concentrate equally on the rights of both sexes instead of being seen as mainly a women‘s concern This means that equality is a shared target and a shared effort, which requires the collaboration

of people of both genders

Nonetheless, the issue of gender equality still seems to revolve around women This is due to an apparent reason: in most cases, it is women that are deprived of their rights because of gender inequality, so they are entitled to demand compensation (Connell, 2005) According to Rampton (2015), identifiable feminism, or the feminist movement, has been around since the middle of the 19th century, and manifested in what is called as ―Four Waves of Feminism‖ Starting with the first wave that consisted of campaigns for reforms on issues related to woman‘s suffrage, feminism has undergone three other phases that tackled financial, social, and cultural inequalities, continuing to challenge gender inequality and help women reclaim their rights and positions (Dorey-Stain, 2018) The last decade has witnessed the newest waves of feminism, with highlights including the

#Metoo movement, in which women shared their stories about sexual assaults and harassment, or the Time‘s Up movement that exposed female assault cases in the entertainment industry, along with an unprecedented number of female figures in politics and leadership (UN Women, 2019) The female movement, therefore, appears to be growing fast, and is expected to continue to exert its influence on the changes in the patterns of gender equality

On the other hand, the male movement appears to have declined steeply in the 1990s According to Clatterbaugh (2000), this systematic collapse was manifested in various forms, including the dramatic decrease in attendance of large male movement institutions, such as the National Organization for Men against Sexism and the Promise Keepers, with the latter having a mass redundancy

of 350 employees Most major publications fell into a moribund state, but both academic and non-academic journals managed to pull through, sometimes by resorting to alternative financial resources In particular, the two non-academic magazines, the Men‘s Journal and the Men‘s Health, survived by selling sexually suggestive imagery(Clatterbaugh, 2000) Since the demise in the 1990s, men‘s movements have slowly been revived, but with significant changes: ―From the 1990s onward, men's movements became highly formalized and aimed at niche groups with various interests, which makes it difficult to claim that men's movements as a whole share any particular ideology other than their general focus

on men in society‖ (Holcomb, 2019, Men‘s Movements section, para 1) This fragmentation of men‘s movements is in contrast with the solidarity of the movements of the opposite sex, as male members of society are left with small, scattered campaigns for equal rights, while females are more clearly oriented on projects with proportionally much larger scales

However, it is important to note that men‘s movements and women‘s movements are not mutually exclusive, and men‘s movements often emerge as a response to specific aspects and issues concentrated on by women‘s movements (Wood, 2013) Following the waves of female campaigns that challenged the traditional roles of women, men are starting to take action of similar purposes, in order to break the bounds of social expectations, and to redefine what a ―real man‖

is in the 21st century (Myers, 2016) He argued that like women, men are held back

by ―thousands of years of history that defined what it meant to be a real man: to be strong; to be a provider; to be in authority; to be the ultimate decision maker; and to

be economically, educationally, physically and politically dominant‖ (Myers, 2016, para 1) He also claimed that young men are facing the masculinity crisis which stems from the fact that there is no basis on which to construct a movement to challenge the ideologically backward ideas of masculinity The future of men, or masculinity in the 21st century and onwards, will be rosy if this crisis is acknowledged and measures are taken to deal with it

2.1.2.Super Bowl commercials

Super Bowl commercials are chosen for this study on the grounds of their unparalleled influence on American audience and people around the world Super Bowl advertising is a cultural phenomenon that follows one of the biggest sporting events in the US- the national football league‘s annual Super Bowl game Since its first broadcast in 1967, the game has gradually become a mass media focus with impressive diversity and magnitude of viewership ―Not only is Super Bowl a megamedia in the United States and around the world, this annual telecast is a

‗media happening‘ that transcends all demographic groups Super Bowl advertising

is also the premier advertising vehicle with American adults under 35‖ (Yelkur, Tomkovick, & Traczyk, 2004, p 143) The popularity of Super Bowl is evident in the fact that it is a ―marketing tradition‖ to feature the latest and most invested advertisements (Yelkur, et.al., 2004, p 144) This partly results from the huge amount of media coverage that Super Bowl commercials could gain before the actual game happen An illustration of this is that over 1600 media outlets presented Super Bowl commercials in just about a month before Super Bowl 1999 (McCarthy,

2001, as cited in Yelkur, et al,, 2004)

Super Bowl ratings has consistently reached higher than a whopping 40% since the 1970s, and its audience size, despite a slight decrease after its peak of nearly 114.44 million in 2015, continued to hover at just under 100 million (Paulsen, 2019) In other words, every Super Bowl commercial can reach 4 in 10 American households on average, and over one-third of the American population tune in for the game every year It can also be seen that the rate of streaming the game, or watching it live via online platforms, has steadily increased over the last five years, recording an impressive number of 2.6 million in 2019 Interestingly,

―there is no other media vehicle available that can predictably deliver this size of an American TV audience‖ (Yelkur, et.al., 2004, p 144)

It is this unrivaled attention that makes Super Bowl advertising also rank first

in cost Even though the price to secure a slot for the average 30-second

commercial keeps skyrocketing over time, doubling from $2.69 million dollars in

2008 to $5.25 million over the course of approximately 10 years, it is still a crazy race for companies to be able to run their advertisements during the Super Bowl (Huddleston, 2019) What sets Super Bowl advertising apart is the fact that it attracts both sport fans and non-sport fans, and that almost everyone in the United States has watched a Super Bowl game in their life whether or not they are interested in football (Henry, 2017)

What is worth noticing is that Super Bowl advertising has become a social and cultural phenomenon alongside the game This observation was further solidified when a Nielsen survey revealed that over half of Super Bowl viewers enjoy watching the commercials more than the game (Nielsen, 2010) The audience pays special attention to the commercials partially because of the exorbitant investment that companies are willing to make, and in turn, because of this special attention, companies would not mind parting with a lofty share of their marketing budget It is one of the interesting pop culture situations where companies and audience are equally hyped up for a commercial (Grabianowski, 2012) Normally, for other sports events, people record the events and skip the advertisements as they watch, but when it comes to Super Bowl, it is a common scenario that they go to great lengths to watch them With the Internet comes into play, not only does the event attract a massive TV audience, but it also starts a series of interactions across online social networks According to Nielsen (2019), there were 32.3 million social media interactions about Super Bowl LIII during the course of a single day via popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

It is not just before and during the game that people anticipate these commercials, but it is also weeks after the game that they still discuss them Online social media also play an important role in boosting the number of the post-game mentions of these advertisements According to Bharwani (2012), Super Bowl commercials are watched over a hundred million times in the month following the game, and the audience reach is almost the same as the actual game, with nearly one-third of the viewership coming from online social sharing

Therefore, the grandeur effects of Super Bowl commercials and their pervasive presence in American media make them the ideal subjects for studies concerning the popular culture of the US and its related fields Gender studies, in particular, have been investigating Super Bowl commercials for a long time This is due to the fact that there is a healthy balance between the numbers of male and female viewers of the show - though it still slightly tilts towards the former group, it

is slowly gaining on the latter For example, of the 108 million people who watch the show in 2018, 49% were women, an increase of 9% since 2009 (Salkowitz, 2018) Thanks to this even split of audience between the two genders, Super Bowl commercials can be employed as research subjects for studies that aim at comparing behavioral patterns between male and female viewers, as well as those that explore the influences of the ideologies underlying these commercials on different genders

2.2.Gender representation in media studies and linguistics: An interdisciplinary approach

2.2.1 Gender and media studies

Gender and media is a thriving field of studies that is becoming increasingly complex, and also is one that still requires great attention from researchers ―Gender and media studies have witnessed a resounding revival in recent years, as is testified

by the wide array of published monographs, articles, themed issues of international journals and conferences that bring into focus the diverse features of the relationship between gender and the media of communication‖ (Buonanno, 2014, p 6) The fact that we are living in a ―media-supersaturated‖ environment (Buonanno,

2014, p 6), and that gender equality is gathering more and more concern indicates the need for an intellectual endeavor that applies more diverse approaches and strategies to study gender and media

Gender and media began as a research area first in the US, thanks to the second wave of the feminist movements in the 1960s and 1970s, in which feminist authors gave open criticism of the Western tenet that biased the white male world view (Lugones & Spelman, 1983) During this initial stage, most of the works

focused on gender as a social construct, which was manifested in and maintained by artistic works Over the next decades, the focus of gender and media studies has shifted towards gender representation in literature and popular culture, including various means of entertainments, advertisements, and other cultural products By

1980, international organizations such as the United Nation and UNESCO provided funding for a series of studies which lay the foundation for the academic literature

on women and media (Cerqueira, Cebecinhas & Magalhaes, 2017)

Scholars have taken a multitude of approaches to study gender and media Until now, the majority of research focuses on analyzing at micro level the representation and portrayal of women in media text (Cerqueira, et.al., 2017) According to Cerqueira, et.al (2017), this type of micro analysis has a tendency to describe how women are represented, in ways such as what kinds of news women receive, whether or not they are stereotyped This would usually be done by examining media text and the visual, as well as the auditory aspects of the text This approach can help researchers identify the scope of females‘ exclusion and stereotyping, along with the changes that have occurred over time (Cerqueira, et al., 2017) Content analysis of male and female roles in media is perhaps more thorough and diverse than content analysis of any other area, with studies ranging from comparing the behaviors of men and women in film and television, children‘s books, men‘s magazines, video games, radio talk shows, to postage stamps and birth congratulatory cards (Neuendorf, 2011) Other approaches, namely studies that required fieldworks or real-life interactions with data sources (interviewing audience groups, hunting down source materials), though desirable, are considered

to be both time and financially demanding Overcoming these obstacles to make other progresses in the field of gender and media research is often challenging and requires concerted efforts, which explains why only a few scholars have attempted

to explore this direction (Cerqueira, et al., 2016)

That being said, the lack of fieldwork studies in gender and media research does not render analysis of gender representation in media any less important This

is firstly due to the ever-changing nature of media, the accelerating rate at which traditional media are evolving and new media appearing - for example, the popularization of the Internet started just nearly three decades ago, yet how it has transformed media is almost impossible to overstate (Lule, 2018) So diverse and dynamic are the forms of media that scholarship in this field needs constant update

In addition, genders and the representations of genders are also subjected to the influence of media: ―Of the many influences on how we view men and women, media are the most pervasive and one of the most powerful‖ (Wood, 1994, p 31)

As media have radically changed over the recent decades, gender representations in media have also undergone critical changes, and thus there is an expressive need to conduct continuous studies to investigate the trends in gender presentation - these trends can serve as a measurement of how society views men and women (Bartsch,

et al, 2000)

2.2.2 Gender and Linguistics

The realm of research into the relationship and intersections between gender

and language crosses various disciplines, notably applied linguistics, linguistic anthropology, cultural studies, feminist studies, sociolinguistics, and media studies This could be attributed to the fact that gender studies per se is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry (McConnell-Ginet, 2012) Scholarly works had been connecting gender and language prior to the inception of the second-wave American feminism,

as early as the 1920s (Sunderland, 2006) However, it was not until the 1970s that the study of genders in linguistics, precipitated by the second wave of Women‘s Movement, began to thrive Accordingly, McConnell-Ginet (2012) pointed out that the topics of gender research at this stage were ―women‘s language‖ - how women spoke in ways that indicated their feminism, and ―ways of speaking about women‖ - that is, how society spoke of women The focus of studies was, therefore, on how social norms shape women‘s speech, and ―women‖ were mostly those of white, middle-class Americans Needless to say, the apparent lack of male-focus gender studies during this period was not because scholars arbitrarily found women a more

interesting subject of research, but due to the influence of the American feminism, which by that time had started to gain visibility for women in all aspects, including academia

Regarding early research on gender and language, one of the most prominent names is American linguist Robin Lakoff Her 1975 book ―Language and Woman‘s place‖ was said to be the starting point of study of gender and language in sociolinguistics and gender studies (Lakoff, 2004) Though being questioned of its empirical validity, her work marked the milestone of gender studies in linguistics since it adopted an innovative approach - switching the focus from grammar and phonetics towards syntax, style, and semantics (Wright, 2002) Other researchers, since then, have attempted to remedy the deficiencies of Lakoff‘s studies, which were based on the assumptions that one gender is inferior to another and that linguistics behaviors are male-norm Single-sex studies instead of mixed sex studies have been conducted, and gender stereotypes have been questioned rather than enforced (Wright, 2002) Scholars challenged Lakoff‘s arguments and carried out research that helped enlarge the field of gender and language studies, for example,

the deficit approach of Lakoff was later refined by O‘barr and Atkins (1980) as the

dominance approach, which states that the discrepancy in linguistic behaviors

between genders are the results of the power imbalance perpetuated in society (as cited in Borker, Furman, & McConnel-Ginet, 1980)

Jennifer Coates presented the history of the approaches to gendered speech, namely the deficit, dominance, difference, and dynamic approaches in her book ―Women,

Men, and Languages‖ (Coates, 2004) The deficit approach categorizes men‘s

speech as standard, and women‘s as deficient This approach came under a barrage

of criticism, as it uses men‘s language as a benchmark for women‘s and thus posits that there is something inherently wrong with women‘s language (Coates, 2004)

The dominance approach establishes a dichotomy, which views women as the

subordinate group and men as the dominant group, and researchers who employ this model subscribe to the notion that the varied styles of speech between genders

reflect the male supremacy Meanwhile, the difference approach is based on the

argument that men and women belong to different subcultures, resulting from the growing resistance of women to being categorized as the subordinate group:

―Women began to assert that they had ‗a different voice, a different psychology, and

a different experience of love, work, and family from men‖ (Humm, 1989, as cited

by Coates, 2004, p 6) The merit of this approach is that it liberates the study of women‘s speech, allowing it to be conducted beyond a framework of oppression or powerlessness, and shows appreciation of women‘s linguistic strategies Its limitations, however, stem from the problems when it is applied in mixed-group talk analysis, which can be explained by humans‘ tendency to accommodate the style of language to the person with whom they are communicating For instance, a study of Thomson, Murachver, and Green (2001) revealed that in mixed-gender talk, people accommodate to the other gender Accordingly, gender differences are less pronounced in mixed-gender groups, making the difference approach controversial

The forth approach, also the most current one, is referred to as the dynamic

approach It sees gender identity as a social construct instead of putting speech into

a natural gendered category, and researchers who adopt this approach take a social constructionist perspective That means, according to West and Zimmerman (1987,

p 135), speakers should be seen as ―doing gender‖ rather than statically ―being‖ a particular gender

There are perhaps separations among scholars as to which approach is the most appropriate for doing research on the relationship between gender and language, but it should be noted that there is no such thing as a distinct division among the four approaches, because more often than not researchers are exposed to and influenced by more than one theoretical framework However, among these four paradigms, the deficit approach is considered to be backward by the majority

of current researchers, the dominance and difference approaches exerted the most influence in the 1980s and the 1990s and have fallen in popularity since then, while the dynamic approach, or social constructivism, now prevails ―What has changed is

linguists‘ sense that gender is not a static, add-on characteristic of speakers, but is something that is accomplished in talk every time we speak‖ (Coates, 2004, p 7)

2.2.3 A cross-disciplinary approach to gender representation in media

As previously discussed, most studies into gender representation in media involve the analysis of media text, the visual, and the auditory aspects of the text Therefore, it can be seen that the linguistic element plays a significant role in the media description of men or women Even though research into gender representation may encompass other fields, it can be observed that linguistics, media, and genders are intrinsically linked, and it would be virtually unfeasible to delve into gender representation in media and generate well-rounded analysis without considering linguistic factors, nor is it desirable to examine a media representation of gender by looking at its language use only Integrating existing theories from both domains, media studies and linguistics, to provide a more diverse and broader perspective is thus a favorable choice when it comes to analyzing gender portrayals in media

2.3 Masculinity in advertising

2.3.1 Gender bias in advertising

Gender bias is the preference or prejudice based on gender It is a set of

attitudes and behaviors that favor one gender over another, usually men/boys over

women/ girls (Ritzer & Ryan, 2011) Gender bias is often mistakenly used as another term for sexism, yet the two concepts differ significantly The former is based on

gender- a social construct which indicates the social expectations for women/girls and

men/boys, i.e women are expected to possess feminine traits while men are expected

to demonstrate masculinity The latter is based on sex- the biological difference between males and females on the basis of their reproductive functions While sexism refers to the presumed inferiority of one sex (usually females), gender bias is ―more

inclusive, as it includes both prejudice (attitudes) and discrimination (behavior)‖ (Ritzer & Ryan, 2011, p 249) Gender bias is so pervasive that it often goes unnoticed in everyday life It is most commonly found in social institutions of

families, education, the economy, and health, and it is also deeply rooted in media, sport, government, and other social institutions Since gender is a variable that co-occurs with other social positions (race, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation), gender bias is usually intertwined with other forms of bias, namely ethnocentrism, racism, classism, and homophobia (Ritzer & Ryan, 2011)

It is often assumed that the disadvantaged group in gender bias is women/girls, but men/ boys may also suffer from gender bias Gender roles and expectations constrain both women/girls and men/boys, and gender bias shortchanges both groups In medical treatment, for example, men are presented as stoic and reluctant

to admit weakness because they want to appear manly: ―You don‘t like to make a fuss because it‘s a macho thing just to say you are the strong and silent type … You have to be bed-ridden and half-dead before you go to the doctor‘s‖ (Samulowitz et al., 2018, p 5) The expectation of being masculine for men also affects them in their workplace While women are typecast as unfit for leadership positions, men also experience discrimination when they seek jobs that require attributes such as being emotionally supportive (Segal, 2015) This perhaps correlates with gender bias in education as well Most universities have launched the affirmative action programs to encourage women to pursue traditional male careers such as engineering, but very few endorse men in traditional female professions, including nursing, childcare, and primary teaching (―How are men disadvantaged?‖, n.d.)

underrepresentation of women and girls by the international film industry have been revealed by a 2014 UN Women study that examined popular films across different countries and regions According to this research, while women comprise half of the world population, they make up only one third of all speaking characters in movies; and more notably, women represent only a quarter of on-screen workforce, and employed women are extremely underrepresented in high positions (Smith, Choueiti,

& Pieper, 2014) In contrast, regarding hypersexualization, women are twice as likely

as men to be shown in revealing clothes, thinness, or nudity (Smith et al., 2014) Men,

on the other hand, are often encouraged to have control over themselves and other people, to demonstrate aggressive or violent behaviors, and to be financially independent and physically desirable (Mediasmarts, 2019)

As a major part of media, advertising contributes greatly to the media representations of genders It is true that recent waves of feminism have had direct impact on advertising campaigns, with highlights including Always‘ ―Like A Girl‖, Doves‘ ―Real Beauty‖, and Wranglers‘ ―More Than A Bum‖ (Curtis, 2019) This latest trend in advertising is called ―femvertising‖ – that is, ―advertising that employs pro-female talents, message, and imagery to empower women and girls‖ (Skey, 2015) Brands are quick to realize the potential of feminism as a marketing tool to appeal to a larger audience, not only female consumers but also millennial consumers This is because more than 90% of millennials, whose spending power amounts to 30 billion dollars, would choose brands associated with a cause (Martell, 2019)

These women-empowering advertisements, however, do not truly reflect the ideals of the companies that produce them It seems that these companies deploy pro-female advertising campaigns merely for profits, while embracing the opposite ideals For example, despite being one of the pioneers in femvertising with Dove‘s campaigns, Unilever, the parent company of Dove, also is in charge of Axe - a brand notorious for its misogynist, demeaning advertisements Another enterprise that also exhibited this disconnect between words and deeds is State Street Global Advisors: it conducted the ―Fearless Girl‖ project to increase awareness of gender diversity in corporate leadership, while paying black and female executives at its own company less than their white and male counterparts (Martell, 2019) This poses the question of whether or not femvertising is just the commercialization of a social movement, and takes advantage of it rather than brings any structural changes

Recent studies have reaffirmed that these flashy femvertising campaigns may have paradoxically aggravated gender stereotypes as they pull people‘s attention away from the existing under- and misrepresentation of women in the majority of advertisements J.Walter Thompson‘s Female Tribes initiative in 2016 found that

85% women believed the advertising world needed to catch up with the real world

in the representation of women (J.Walter Thompson Worldwide, 2017) In addition, the Green Davis Institute on Gender in Media undertook a 12-year study of more than 2000 English language advertisements and concluded that ―on the whole, the advertising industry has stalled its effort to represent women proportionally and realistically‖ (Green Davis Institute on Gender in Media [GDIGM], 2017, p 5) What was shocking was that the study findings showed no changes to the same study‘s findings in 2006: ―Ten years later, the figure had barely budged… Men get about four times as much screen time as women… speak seven times more than women.‖ (GDIM, 2017, p 6) According to Brent Choi, chief creative officer of J Walter Thompson New York, this research demonstrated that the advertising industry celebrated women in big, awe-inspiring actions and campaigns, but it largely ignore women in ―regular‖ advertisements for ―regular‖ customers (GDIM,

2017, p 6)

On the other hand, menvertising - the use of norm-breaking men‘s portrayals

in advertising - does not fare as well as femvertising: Google Search generated only

214 search results related to ―menvertising‖, compared to 43000 for ―femvertising‖ Little has been done to empower young men, and this extreme unbalance can be traced back to belief that men are the advantaged gender, hence, there is no pressing need to challenge male stereotypes just yet However, there is growing consensus that gender bias in advertising cannot be eradicated by elevating the representation

of women only, and that men need to stop being pigeonholed in advertisements as well Modern masculinity is manifested in various forms, and the advertising industry needs to be aware of that (Maitland, 2018) Changes in demographics and cultures have rendered the traditional one-dimensional ideas of masculinity irrelevant with more imagery depicting men as being emotional, vulnerable, and complex Getty Images‘ data revealed sharp rises in customer searches in 2018 for

―gay dads‖ (53%), ―men meditation‖ (126%), and ―single fathers‖ (60%) (McCourt, 2018) Meanwhile, the majority of male-oriented advertisements still set an

unattainable image of what it means to be a man: sharp jawlines, well-toned muscles, physical and athletic strength, intelligence, and invincibility - the message for young men still is the same ―strong, silent‖ ideal image of men in the 1970s (Maitland, 2018) This outdated perception of advertisers cannot represent men in this modern-day era, and as a result, many brands become out of touch with their targeted audience (Maitland, 2018)

Nonetheless, new campaigns are mounted to raise awareness about the multidimensional masculinity, and to liberate men from harmful masculine stereotypes The ―Masculinity Undone‖ image collection by Ads of the World, for example, commands attention to the gentle and emotional side of men - an attempt

to break the conventional, stereotypical male visual identity in advertising (―2018 Visual Trend: Masculinity Undone,‖ n.d.) The notion that men need to demonstrate domineering and self-seeking behavior is now often regarded as toxic masculinity (Monbiot, 2019)

All in all, gender bias in advertising is taken as given, but it is gaining on visibility as a result of the new waves in gender equality movements The efforts in dismantling stereotypical images for both women and men in advertising are significant yet not enough, and this calls for a collective, mainstreamed elimination

of gender bias in the advertising industry

2.3.2 Masculinity ideologies in advertising and their impacts

While gender bias is the unfair treatment between women and men, gender

ideology refers to ―the attitudes regarding the appropriate roles, rights, and responsibilities of women and men in society‖ (Ritzer & Ryan, 2011, p 149) The constructs of gender ideology vary and are often one-dimensional, ranging from traditional, conservative, anti-feminist to egalitarian, liberal, or feminist While the traditional gender ideologies put emphasis on the distinct difference in roles between women and men, i.e men are breadwinners and women are caretakers of the family, the egalitarian ideologies endorse the equal division between men and women in both parenting and breadwinning However, according to Ritzer and

Ryan (2011), gender ideology can also mean the set of societal beliefs that legitimizes gender inequality In this sense, gender ideology and gender bias are closely linked, with the former being the precursor of the latter

Though gender ideologies can be explained by biological reason, the majority of scholars concur that gender ideologies are a function based on interest and exposure (Bolzendahl & Myers, 2004) Specifically, whether a person‘s interests can benefit from a gender ideology have a major influence on their endorsement of it Empirical research has shown that men generally support traditional gender ideology more than women since traditional ideology maintains the gender-based power structure that benefits men (Levant, 1996) Meanwhile, exposure through intergenerational family transmission or other socialization processes such as education, the media, labor force participation, and religion can also construct gender ideologies For example, women and men are exposed to more egalitarian standpoints as they enter higher education Besides, the media is also a prominent factor that shapes gender ideologies Most researchers point out that the media upholds traditional gender roles, for instance, women are often objectified and shown in traditionally feminine roles However, it has also been shown that gender ideologies have tilted closer to the egalitarian view over the later

The current femininity ideologies are largely influenced by the Cult of True Womanhood, a concept which emerged and dominated the views of society on

judged herself and was judged by her husband, her neighbors and society could be divided into four cardinal virtues: piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity‖ (Welter, 1966, p 152) By possessing the combination of these characteristics, women are promised ―happiness and power‖, while not having such characteristics

is synonymous to having a meaningless life At the core of the four virtues of True Womanhood have is submission - a woman have to be submissive to a God, a society, or a husband Meanwhile, men are seen to be the opposite of women as in

being domineering, coarse, mentally and physically strong Early masculinity ideologies were established on two basic themes: men should be accomplished on their own, and they should be incompetent in all feminine activities (Thompson & Pleck, 1986) Harley (1959) and Turner (1970), as cited in Thompson and Pleck (1986, p 532), stated that the more powerful social norm that influenced the male roles was the ―antifemininity standard‖ Generally, seeking achievements and suppressing emotions are the behaviors expected of men In contrast to the four standards that women are socially expected to uphold, the four major principles of masculinity include ―No Sissy Stuff, Be a Big Wheel, Be a Sturdy Oak, and Give

‗em Hell‖ (Debonah, & Brannon, 1976, p 12) By these concepts, men need to avoid feminine characteristics (No Sissy Stuff), gain power and status (Be a Big Wheel), be tough and self-reliant (Be a Sturdy Oak), and be aggressive and violent (Give ‗em Hell) This idealization of women and men remained unchanged for centuries, because both stereotypes and symbols are difficult to alter Though the ideals of both femininity and masculinity did experience some changes in the later part of the twentieth century, the image of men seemed to be more constant than that of women (Mosse, 2010)

The ideals of masculinity can be reflected, or projected in recent advertising images (Schroeder & Zwick, 2004) This is because social norms can be both reflected and generated by advertising: advertising can shape how people perceive themselves and the world around them, their available choices, and the standards by which they judge themselves and others (Schroeder & Zwick, 2004) Accordingly, advertisements are the mirrors of how society perceives men, but they also construct social expectations of men The impact of the masculinity ideologies built by advertisements on how men think of themselves is thus significant, but perhaps without their conscious awareness of it

Advertisements influence how we conceptualize masculinity, men‘s sexiness and desirable traits The most common types of advertising usually portray men as the superior gender, whether it is in physical, financial, or psychological aspect

(Kolbe & Albanese, 1996; Nixon 2003; Schroeder & Borgerson, 1998) OASIS (Organization Against Sexism and Institutionalized Stereotypes) believed that like women, men have to suffer from impossible comparison to the ideal male body in advertisements (Nakayama, n.d.) For example, advertisements that depict men as having extraordinary physical prowess often put men under pressure of living up to such an unrealistic image (Danna, 1992)

The masculinity ideologies delivered by advertisements are mainly masculinity, which has pernicious influences on both men and the society as a whole (Krans, 2013) Hyper-masculinity was first coined by Mosher (1993) as a gender-based ideology of exaggerated beliefs on how to be a man, such as

hyper-―toughness as emotional self-control, violence as manly, danger as exciting, and callous attitudes towards women and sex‖ (Vokey, Tefft, & Tysiaczny, 2013, p 562) The promotion of hyper-masculinity in advertisements can lead to an internalization of hegemonic masculine ideals, which are considered to be detrimental to men‘s social and health issues, especially when the advertisements target at young men Hyper-masculinity beliefs and behaviors have been proven to

be associated with ―interpersonal violence, drug and alcohol abuse, dangerous driving, accidents, treatment program drop-out rate, medical mistrust, and high-risk sexual behaviors‖ (Vokey et al., 2013, p 573) Men are constantly told to ―be a man‖, or ―man up‖, refrain from expressing their emotions and conceal their weakness However, these behaviors go against the natural, biological part of being

a human, and can damage the male psyche (Maff, 2018) The concept of ―masculine men‖ in advertisements that defines a desirable man as having perfectly sculptured muscles, wearing expensive outfits, and being surrounded by women can be a societal pressure It threatens men‘s self-confidence, and causes them to construct unhealthy self-images (Maff, 2018)

In addition, as hyper-masculinity is perpetuated and reinforced by advertisements, the consequences can be extended to women and society as well Hyper-masculinity ideologies tell men to treat women as inferior, which is the

fundamental cause of domestic violence, and violence against women and girls in general (Mbabazi, 2018) If boys are not allowed to show their emotions, it is unlikely that they will have healthy and positive relationships with their co-workers and spouses Stopping men from communicating their feelings can also lead to a breakdown of the society, as sharing emotions contributes to the construction of the community (Maff, 2018) Hyper-masculinity also has implications for economic growth - when men are opposed to the idea of women being financially independent because they believe the breadwinning role is for men (Mbabazi, 2018)

2.3.3 Recent changes in male stereotypes in Super Bowl commercials

Even though there are perhaps some tentpole moments that challenge the gender norms, the majority of Super Bowl advertisements up to now still set men‘s

perception of manliness inside the proverbial box Research into gender stereotypes

men were overrepresented in comparison with women (Drewniany, 2003, as cited in Hatzithomas, Boutsouki, & Ziamou, 2016) Drewniany (2003) also pointed out that traditional masculinity was preserved in Super Bowl commercials in this period Almost 10 years later, King (2012) found the same overrepresentation of men in Super Bowl advertisements (as cited in Hatzihomas et al., 2016) However, this time a more frequent depiction of women was shown in business settings or in

promotion of high-end products

Like women, the representation of men in Super Bowl commercials is also mutable, albeit at a slower pace Since the first millennium ended, stereotypes of both men and women have been inclining towards the egalitarian side (Hatzihomas

et al., 2016) Though traditional masculinity still commands the depiction of men, its influence seems to abate gradually In particular, the most common male stereotypes in two decades (1990-1999 and 2000-2009) both were ―authority figures‖, ―career-oriented‖, and ―activities and life outside the home‖, but the later decade saw a sharp decline in the representation of men as ―authority figures‖ (Hatzihomas et al., 2016, p 897) Men, according to Hatzihomas et al (2016),

appear to have lost their power status in Super Bowl commercials Yet, on the whole, advertising still continues to represent men in their iconographic stereotypical roles despite the considerable changes in male roles since the millennium (Gentry & Harrison, 2010)

Regarding the portrayal of men in different product categories, studies into commercials of food and drinks, alcoholic beverages, and cars also illustrated the changes in the depiction of men The food and drinks category and alcoholic beverage category showed a visible decrease in men‘s power, while commercials of automobiles and food and drinks demonstrated a shift from men in corporate world

to men in outdoor activities (Hatzihomas et al., 2016) Messner and Montez de Oca (2005), as cited in Hatzihomas et al (2016), studied beer and liquor Super Bowl advertisements in two years, 2002 and 2003, to investigate the manifestations of masculinity in these commercials The findings of the research indicated changes in male portrayals, for example, men started to be depicted as losers Continuing this approach, Green and Van Oort (2013) looked into the shifting construction of male representations in 2010 Super Bowl commercials According to this research, men

as losers were still depicted, but they were portrayed as silly and miserable, rather than lovable and happy This stereotype of men as losers appeared highly frequently

in commercials of alcoholic beverages, with stupid behaviors and public humiliation (Hatzihomas et al., 2016) To sum up, the loss in power coupling with a tendency to detach from the corporate environment and behave stupidly is the theme of the recent changes in male representation in Super Bowl commercials

In a sense, changes in male depiction are predictable - after all, societal male roles have become more diverse and less traditional (Oláh, Kotowska, & Richter, 2018), and as the mirror of the American society, Super Bowl advertisements are supposed to reflect that change However, it appears that Super Bowl advertisers have been quick at catching up with any trend but the transformation in male roles

so far: the changes in male representation of these commercials seem inadequate,

disappointing, and leave a lot to be desired

CHAPTER III: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the discussion of theories relevant to the research with

an aim to forming an appropriate framework for the analysis of the data from a critical and multimodal approach

3.1 Gender equality assessment in advertising

According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, 2012), gender equality in media can be gauged by different areas of concern, including gender equality within media organizations and gender portrayal in media content Regarding media content, gender equality can be assessed in two categories, news & current affairs, and advertising Gender equality assessment in advertising is guided towards two strategic objectives: Strategic

Objective 1- Fair portrayal of women and men in commercial messages in the

media, and Strategic Objective 2- Identification of gender-based stereotypes in commercial messages in media There are two frameworks to assess gender

portrayal in advertisements in accordance with two strategic objectives For Strategic Objective 1, the framework consists of ten indicators that measure the percentage difference between women and men in ten categories, while for Strategic Objective 2, the framework has two indicators that focus on the difference among advertisements regarding gender stereotypes The details of the two frameworks are as follows:

Strategic Objective 1: Fair portrayal of women and men in commercial messages in the media

1 Proportions of women and men in advertisements (voices and images)

2 Proportions of women and men as ad voice-overs (voice of authority)

3 Proportions of women and men appearing assertive rather than passive in advertisements (voices and images)

4 Proportions of women and men featured in ads as expert/advisor, informed/intelligent/ conscious/cautious consumer, uninformed / gullible / pliant consumer, decorative prop

5 Occupations of women and men in ads

6 External or societal orientation of women and men in ads (e.g work-related, related, family/relationship-related, etc.)

home-7 Appearance (including clothing and posture) of women and men in ads that are

presented

as primary, and other characteristics only secondary or absent

8 Proportions of women and men in ads for various product categories that stereotype

or naturalize gender roles (e.g household goods associated with cooking and cleaning, food, beverages (alcoholic/non-alcoholic), grooming & hygiene products, products for children, electronic goods, automobiles, sports equipment/accessories, etc.)

9 Proportions of women and men in ads for different categories of services/activities which

stereotype or naturalize gender roles (e.g travel & leisure, hospitality, education, health, childcare, telecommunications, banking & investment, real estate, sports events)

10 Depiction of sexuality in ads (e.g relevant or not)

Strategic Objective 2: Identification of gender-based stereotypes in commercial messages in media

1 Percentage of ads depicting subtle stereotypes (which emphasize traditional

―feminine‖/―masculine‖ characteristics and male/female roles, making them appear

normal and inevitable)

2 Percentage of ads that include multi-dimensional representation/portrayal of men and women (indicating creative efforts to challenge/counter gender-based stereotypes and

other forms of sexist representation)

(UNESCO, 2012, pp 46-47)The second indicator of Strategic Objective 2 concerns with the multi-dimensional representation of both genders This type of gender representation is progressive as it challenges gender stereotypes and seeks to represent women and men in non-sexist images However, multi-dimensionality should be distinguished

from the two concepts of dualism and duality in gender portrayal Dualism

dichotomizes masculinity and femininity and posits that they are mutually

exclusive, whereas duality means the combination of both masculine and feminine

characteristics, making them appear to work together (Balwin, et al., 2014)

Though duality seems to be liberal and inclusive of differences in gender identity, it

also entails identity dissonance It exploits gender anxieties and the conflicts between traditional societal standards and the expectations of equal treatment

between genders Advertisements that are built around the idea of duality may look

as if they promote multiplicity in gender identity, but in fact they can exacerbate the

pressure that has already been put on each gender To be specific, with duality,

women are expected to fulfill both the traditional roles as housewives and be successful as modern, strong individuals, while men are deemed desirable only when they have perfect traditional masculine features, but also have so-called feminine characteristics such as lack of body hair and seductive behaviors (Balwin,

et al., 2014)

Between the two genders, men are more likely to be portrayed in dualisms more than women, for example, ―hard, stoic, strong, resourceful, and independent as opposed to dependent or communal, traits that have been represented as synonymous with weakness and a lack of masculinity‖ (Balwin, et al., 2014, p 216) Men who behave against traditional masculinity are perceived as inferior or abnormal Even when men appear in dualities, masculinity is still confined by heterosexuality This means that gay men are excluded from the masculine group, and further implies that men are not entitled to gender multiplicity, ―instead suggesting that they are either feminine or masculine, gay or straight, and these identities cannot be congruent or simultaneous‖ (Balwin, et al., 2014, p 216) In this aspect, a man has to choose one side, and cannot embrace both femininity and masculinity

In short, gender equality in advertising can be assessed by analyzing gender portrayals according to two different analytical frameworks that either evaluates fairness in representation of men and women, or identifies gender stereotypes in advertising messages Gender equality promotes gender multiplicity, or multi-

in dialectical relations with other social factors, in social processes and changes (Fairclough, 2013) CDA strives to answer social scientific questions and detect social changes by examining how these changes may be happening at discursive level In this study, these changes are related to gender ideologies and gender inequality

CDA is well suited for investigating gendered discourses ―The starting point for CDA is social issues and problems, and it does not begin with text and interaction‖ (Fairclough, 2001, p 229), and ―one such social issue is gender, which

is a problem for women and girls; in different ways, for men and boys; and accordingly for gender relations‖ (Sunderland, as cited in Atanga, 2010, p 31) Remlinger (as cited in Atanga, 2010, p 31), also claimed that CDA can help language and gender study through ―a critical examination of discourses and can provide it with a particularly developed understanding of the linguistic constitution

of gender ideologies‖ More importantly, CDA focuses on the intrinsic relation between language and power, and how social domination is demonstrated in discourse ―CDA is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context‖ (Van Dijk, 2001, as cited

approach for research in gender ideologies and inequality

Van Dijk (2001) pointed out the requirements for doing CDA In order to achieve its objectives, CDA must give fundamental focus on social problems or political issues, which are critically analyzed with a multidisciplinary perspective Besides, CDA must also try to provide explanation, not just description, of discourse structures in relation to social interaction and social structure In particular, CDA primarily investigates how discourse structures ―enact, confirm, legitimate, reproduce, or challenge‖ relations of power and dominance in society (Van Dijk, 2001, as cited in Tannen, Schiffrin, & Hamilton, 2018, p 353)

The basic principles of CDA are summarized by Fairclough and Wodak These include ―CDA addresses social problems‖, ―power relations are discursive‖,

―discourse constitutes society and culture‖, ―discourse does ideological work‖,

―discourse is historical‖, ―the link between text and society is mediated‖, ―discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory‖, ―and discourse is a form of social action‖ (Tannen, Schiffrin, & Hamilton, 2018, p 353) However, according to Van Dijk (2001), some of these principles still require a more systematic approach Jorgensen and Phillips (2011) drew on this Fairclough and Wodak‘s overview to identify the five main tenets of CDA as follows

First, discourse, or discursive practice, is regarded as a social practice A

practice means a routinized behavior comprised of various elements that are interconnected with other elements, and thus a social practice refers to a conventional activity which has strong relations with other in a social structure (Reckwitz, 2002) CDA perceives discursive practices (in which texts are produced, received and interpreted) as an integral part of the social world that aids and

constitutes social processes, social identities, and social relations The term

discourse embraces both written and spoken language, and it also can refer to visual

images, hence CDA often tends to analyze images in the same fashion as linguistic texts However, for multi-modal texts- that is, texts which include different semiotic

systems such as written/spoken language, visual images, and sounds, a comprehensive approach which take into account the special characteristics of audio-visual semiotics and the relationship between language and other forms of communications should be considered

Second, discourse is both socially constitutive and constituted In other

words, discourse makes up part of the social world, and is conditioned by other social practices The relationship between discourse as a social practice and other social dimensions is a dialectical one Discourse contributes to the forming and reforming of social structures, but it also reflects social structures and social reality

by complying with other social conventions Fairclough (2013, p 11) suggested that the essential characteristics of CDA should be the ―systematic transdiscliplinary analysis of relations between discourse and other elements of the social process‖, and the tendency to ―address social wrongs in their discursive aspects and possible ways of righting or mitigating them.‖

Third, discourse should be analyzed within its social context This

principle is what sets discourse analysis apart from other discourse theories (including Laclau and Mouffe‘s and discursive psychology) - it conducts text analysis with regard to context and other discourses CDA focuses on the relationship between texts, the processes of creating and interpreting texts, as well

as their social conditions- which consist of not only the immediate conditions of the situational context, but also the more peripheral conditions of institutional and social structures (Fairclough, 2013)

Forth, discourse functions ideologically In CDA, discursive practices play

an important role in shaping and reshaping the unequal power relations between social groups These effects are perceived as ideological effects Fairclough (2001,

p 64) claimed that ―conventions routinely drawn upon in discourse embody ideological assumptions which come to be taken as mere ‗common sense‘, and which contribute to sustaining existing power relations.‖ This intimate relationship between discourse and ideologies shows that CDA does not diverge from Marxist

traditions like other discourse theories- it posits that discourse can be used to perpetuate or restrain ideologies Accordingly, discursive practices maintain and further the interests of a particular social group, which creates and complies with certain sets of values, or ideologies More often than not, the ideologies of a group can clash with those of another, so CDA can be used as a tool to unearth the underlying ideologies that advantage one group and disadvantage another In other words, CDA deals with ideological values that sustain power inequality, and CDA attempts to raise the awareness of these ideologies for social and political freedom and rights

Fifth, CDA is critical research CDA is critical in the sense that it does not

take a neutral stance Rather, CDA has a clear political commitment to social changes, and it usually sides with the disadvantaged, less powerful social groups since it aims to bring about radical changes to society and disseminate social inequalities Nonetheless, this explicit position does not mean that CDA practitioners are biased in their views The fact that researchers and writers of social issues are unavoidably influenced by their experiences and commitments does not inhibit the rationality in their argument and how they should support their statements with adequate evidence Fairclough (2001) acknowledged the influence

of personal experiences, but he also emphasized that this should not rule out the validity of CDA He argued that a neutral stance about social matters is often spurious, and that ―the scientific investigation of social matters is perfectly compatible with committed and opinionated investigators‖ (Fairclough, 2001, p 4)

3.2.2 Fairclough’s CDA analytical framework

Fairclough‘s CDA model (2001) is selected for this study because of its emphasis on the relationship between texts, the processes of production and interpretation of texts, and their social conditions In other words, since this study partly aims to explicate the ideologies underlying certain social practices, the model‘s focus on analyzing what is beyond texts is beneficial Fairclough organized

CDA into three dimensions, or three stages, including description, interpretation, and explanation for every discursive event

The first dimension- the description of texts involves different analytical

steps, from grammar, vocabulary to textual structures These steps are guided with lists of questions designed by Fairclough (2001) for textual analysis; however, these questions are not applicable to audio-visual investigation Though stating that the focus of his approach is the analysis of verbal texts, Fairclough (2013) also pointed

out that visuals –such as gesture, facial expression, movement, or posture –are

indispensable in the understanding of the texts, especially in written, printed, filmed, or televised materials As the subjects of this study are TV commercials, or advertisements in the form of videos, it is important to examine both verbal and visual elements in equal measure For the analysis of visual elements, the study applies the visual grammar framework of Kress and van Leuween (1996), which will be presented in detail in the following 3.2.3 For verbal texts, the study focuses

on the voiceover, dialogues, or monologues of the actors in the advertisements; together with written texts presented in the advertisements

The second dimension of Fairclough‘s CDA model is interpretation This is

the stage that addresses discourse processes and their dependence on background common-sense assumptions The values of textual features are socially operative only when they are integrated in social structures, where the production and interpretation of texts are conducted against a set of common background knowledge, or the members‘ resource (MR) There are four domains of

interpretation, including surface utterance, meaning of utterance, local coherence,

text structure and point Surface utterance concerns with the conversion of sounds

or marks into recognizable units of a language This often requires the aspect of MR that is referred to as the proficiency in that language Meaning of utterance is the attribution of meanings to the constituent parts of a text Interpreters draw upon the semantic and pragmatic parts of MR to figure out the meanings of the utterances The third level of interpretation, local coherence, deals with the connections among utterances and the possible interpretations of sequences of utterances This level does not depend entirely upon formal cohesion, but can draw upon implicit