Portrayal of Women Within The Media

The image on the left shows an example of a print advert that was around during the 1950s. It shows a woman with a surprised look on her face next to a bottle, with the caption, ‘You mean a woman can open it?’ The image below is of a woman with wide-eyes and a bitten lip clutching a steering wheel in a print advert for the Mini Automatic during the 1970s. The caption reads, ‘The Mini Automatic. For simple driving.’

These two pictures convey a similar message, which is that women are unable to use everyday objects unless they’ve been ‘dumbed down’ first. In the first advert, the underlining of the word ‘woman’ gives emphasis to the fact that a woman couldn’t possibly be able to open the bottle beforehand, instead needing the help of a husband or another male in her life. This advert deliberately belittles and infantilizes women, mostly for the amusement of men. It is proven that men bond over joking and complaining about women, so the advert has taken advantage of this fact. It also shows the media’s view of women’s intelligence, showing that they do not believe that women are capable of even simple tasks.

In the second advert, it is clearly portraying the age-old stereotype that women are terrible drivers. Her expression and posture give the viewer the impression that she’s inexperienced behind the wheel and therefore needs driving to be simplified before she can drive confidently. If this advert had a man in place of a woman with the same expression, the effect would simply be humorous. This is because there are no previous stereotypes that imply men to be unintelligent or easily baffled by simple tasks. Because these hurtful stereotypes are in place, this makes the advert detrimental to the general public’s view of women. Even if they are not aware of it, the fact that this kind of advert was a regular occurrence, and still is, raises a lot of questions.