Male stereotypes in modern Lebanese print advertising

Abstract

The thesis examines the visual and connotative representations of men in Lebanese print advertising. Historically, studies on female stereotypes in advertising and media have been conducted from every possible angle, but even after extensive research, I have found very few studies on male stereotyping in the same field. The reason behind that lies, I think, in the fact female stereotyping is more controversial and demeaning to women, while male stereotyping seems to be flattering and favorable to men. Controversy sells, and controversial subjects get a lot more attention than non-controversial ones. Due to the lack of literature on the subject, it was necessary to study research done on female stereotyping to reach the counterpart information on male stereotyping. Some parallelism was also done, but kept to a minimum, so that the thesis does not turn into a comparative analysis, which would have required a much longer paper. Moreover, although this study could possibly apply in some of its parts to other societies, whether more conservative or more open, this point will not be approached, as it too, would require a much longer paper. The messages conveyed by both the questionnaire and example ads analyzed in this study are very revealing in terms of how our society views gender roles. "Ideal" men are superior, more important, and the breadwinners while women play specific roles as home keepers, mothers, and followers of these "ideal" men. It would be safe to generalize beyond the sample population asked to fill the questionnaire (50 women and 50 men) and the nine sample ads analyzed, and say that they are quite representative of our society's views on the well-defined line between gender roles and specific role man and woman should and do play in life. Although this study relies noticeably on prior research done on the subject, it offers a fresh view as to the visual analysis conducted on the image content of each advertisement.