MALE GAZE:

Historically conceived and written by men, advertisements have long depicted women as men want them to be, instead of as they actually are. Ads from the first half of the century assign women to the diametrically opposed roles of ‘good girl’ and ‘bad girl’ rather than acknowledging that women in fact fill any number of divergent roles–from mother to lover, housekeeper to money-maker–on a daily basis. In addition to reflecting overly simplistic concepts of femininity, these ads imply that women are defined by the male gaze, not their own actions, by positioning women as objects, not subjects.

In contrast, modern advertising has replaced the objectifying male gaze with an empowering, self-reflective female one. This shift is significant because it illustrates the fact that, thanks to the political and social changes of the 1960s, women today live lives that are infinitely more varied and complex than those of their mothers. No longer posed mutely in domestic settings, women in contemporary ads are typically represented as physically active and mentally engaged. Female stereotypes do persist, however, and their continued existence is equally significant because it reminds us that– for all women’s social and political progress–American society has yet to embrace genuine male-female equality.