The recent print ad of Swiffer Bissell Steamboost promotes traditional gender stereotypes because it shows that domestic work is a woman's strength, something that she should be proud of. Because men and women are different in numerous ways, it must not come as a surprise that advertisements depict men and women in a different way. Stereotypes are formed through the continuous, prolonged exposure of viewers to the various devices of imagery. The notion, message, or idea of an array of depictions must be taken into consideration when analyzing stereotypes. As explained by Sheehan (77), a sole ad or any previous depiction of a group will not form a stereotype.
However, a continuous barrage of imagery and/or messages about a group shapes the stereotype. For instance, most adult women in postwar United States were wives and/or mothers, or plain homemakers. However, in a matter of three decades, the number of women involved in the labor force rose to 50 percent of the total population of adult women (Sheehan 78). While women embraced and enjoyed their new obligations outside the home, ads kept on depicting women as plain housewives and seldom acknowledged that women had roles besides domestic responsibilities. Print ads, like this recent one from Swiffer Bissell Steamboost, are still in the habit of depicting women in this domestic role, although empirical studies confirm that this stereotype is false. These images are detested by women today.
Advertising reflects societal values and culture, and thus ads that employ stereotypes not merely mirror but also have a tendency to promote and strengthen the stereotypical images that are existing in a society. With regard to women, there has been numerous findings that show that ads have long been representing “traditional, limited and often demeaning stereotypes” (Firth and Mueller 93). In the Swiffer's print ad, a woman wearing a denim jacket and a bandana while carrying a steam mop poses with obvious pride and dignity. The rolled-up sleeves seemingly portray that she is confident and proud of her role-- a homemaker and, more degradingly, a sweeper. Even the way she embraces the steam mop somehow reflects her full acceptance of her domestic role as a house cleaner. It seems that she takes pride in her domestic responsibilities and does not consciously understand her inferior position in the way she projects her image. Simply put, her image is an unwelcoming distortion of Rosie the Riveter.
Rosie the Riveter is a gendered symbol of the American society, an image of a period when women joined forces to provide service to the nation. She is a fictional image fashioned by the American government that appeared at the advent of the Second World War as a piece of the propaganda operation of the government (Honey 6). She was created to inspire white middle-class women to briefly join the labor force so as to serve in the war campaign and free the men of some of their duties. The Swiffer's print ad is especially insulting to women due to the obvious gender stereotypes it promotes. It uses the image of Rosie the Riveter, a powerful symbol of womanhood, and distorts the message. As already explained, Rosie the Riveter was a symbol that embodied the strong women that served in the war effort during the World War II (Honey 10). This print ad makes use of this influential symbol to strengthen the stereotype that women are ought to sweep or clean the house.
The Swiffer's ad shows gender stereotypes that viewers or consumers do not automatically identify or notice when they see TV ads. It is understood that the ad will be associated with women because it is their natural or traditional role to clean, a household duty. Numerous viewers do not have second thoughts when they recognize gender stereotypes expressed in this manner because it is deeply embedded into the contemporary culture (Honey 22). In spite of the gender bias that bolstered Rosie the Riveter and other ads about war women, the strategies that advertisers employed are still being practiced until now to convince consumers or viewers to embrace prevailing cultural values and ideals as absolute reality. Although Rosie the Riveter was not depicted as a homemaker, numerous of the war ads directed at women were. Women were supposed not merely to join the labor force to serve their nation, but also to still fulfill their duties as homemakers. This formed a dual identity for women in contemporary print ads, as shown in the Swiffer's ad.
In the Swiffer's ad, it seems that women were, on the one hand, psyched up to be strong, burly, and able-bodied so they could perform the laborious household tasks that have to be accomplished and, on the other hand, to be womanly and willing to serve their household and care for their families as they were expected to do. In truth, advertising built on the societal ideals espoused in the postwar period to preserve and disseminate the domestic images and generally identify women into two-- as mother and wife (Firth and Mueller 61). Afterward, the Swiffer's ad expresses specific characteristics required to thrive and sustain these roles, especially in terms of their domestic responsibilities-- wives have to be trendy, docile, and submissive, and mothers should possess both the attributes of the wife, including being frugal, nurturing, and agreeable. In addition, the Swiffer's ad shows that women cannot merely take on these responsibilities and simply because a woman is a wife or a mother does not imply she performs the roles ads portray. Rather, it implies that young girls need to be trained to possess these characteristics for them to be future homemakers. In other words, the ad promoted the idea of domestic roles or household work and even if women deviate from these traditional roles and had participation in the workforce, she never severed her ties to her homemaking duties.
Moreover, the woman is depicted in the Swiffer's ad as a passive decoration and an active product user. The woman is shown clutching a steam mop and seems to be actively interacting with the product, but, at the same time, she portrays a passive image of a decoration (Otnes and Tuncay-Zayer 142). As explained by Bordo (459), “the notion of women-as objects suggests the reduction of women as 'mere' bodies, when actually what's going on is often far more disturbing than that” Decorative images are believed to be embodying society's belief of the proper or correct position of women-- assuming a submissive, docile position. When decorative images are employed, just like how Swiffer's ad used it, ads usually insert nonverbal hints as a suggestion that women do not have control or power even in their own household. In the Swiffer's ad, these hints involve holding a cleaning tool and posing as a working class capable of performing only 'dirty' jobs. Numerous ads still depict women in this form of traditional gender stereotypes. Nonetheless, representations of womanhood were totally obsolete and that girls and women are depicted wrongly. Women had accomplished a great deal during the Second World War in careers that had been prohibited from them for so long.
In fact, numerous women refused to discontinue working after the war. There were women who needed the additional earnings to contribute to their household. Others plainly reveled in the privilege and freedom of going after or getting involved in what had been a male-dominated domain. Men and women nowadays have quite complicated lives with diverse roles. Women today are not just homemakers; they are also employees, corporate executives, colleagues, and so on. This is highly distinct from the 1950's society, where gender roles were far more clear-cut: women as homemakers, and men as breadwinners (Honey 28). Nowadays, unfortunately, society remains under the grips of the 1950's gender stereotypes, as clearly proven by the Swiffer's ad. Without a doubt, advertising has vigorously preserved and disseminated such traditional depiction of women as domestic workers and makes use of these images to endorse all kinds of products, especially those associated with household chores.
Conclusions
Traditional gender stereotypes still run rampant in contemporary advertising. The Swiffer's ad is a perfect example. The woman in the ad is a clear distortion of the powerful image of Rosie the Riveter, a symbol of strong womanhood and the dual role that women perform--- as part of the labor force and as homemakers. This form of gender depiction has trickled down from the postwar period, particularly during the 1950s, when society was markedly divided into two genders- men and women-- and their specific roles. However, these traditional gender stereotypes shown in contemporary ads are no longer applicable and true, because women nowadays take on multiple roles.
Works Cited
Bordo, Susan. “Never Just Pictures.” The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader. Amelia Jones. UK: Psychology Press, 2003. 454-465. Print.
Firth, Katherine Toland and Barbara Mueller. Advertising and Societies: Global Issues. UK: Peter Lang, 2010. Print.
Honey, Maureen. Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda During World War II. Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1985. Print.
Otnes, Cele and Linda Tuncay-Zayer. Gender, Culture, and Consumer Behavior. London: Routledge, 2012. Print.
Sheehan, Kim. Controversies in Contemporary Advertising. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2013. Print.
