Gender Stereotypes in the Media An Economic View AP Seminar 2018 Word Count Introduction When watching television one can quickly see a pattern in the way that companies advertise their products Advertising is defined by Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary as the action of calling something to the attention of the public especially by paid announcements 2017 In commercials traditional girl products such as Barbies and Cabbage Patch Kids are most often advertised using only female actors and vice versa with traditional boy products such as Legos and action figures This gender casting enforces harmful gender stereotypes in the media and is shown to be increasing with time Rajecki D W et al 1993 Other problems such as price discrimination can also arise indirectly from using gender stereotypes in advertising Duesterhaus M et al Grauerholz L Weichsel R Guittar N 2011 There are many types of advertisements but researchers from Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis and Marian College conducted a study for the Journal of Consumer Psychology that found that companies advertise their products in a way that reinforces gender stereotypes where all boy ads were characterized by a practical subtext boy and girl ads were seen to have a traditional or normative thrust and all girl ads were emotional in tone
