Gender and Sexuality's Effect on Marketing by

efang012_ — 2023-11-28 02:19:07 UTC

Period products are not cheap nor accessible to everyone, yet they are essential to a woman's reproductive health and general well-being. In addition, companies market certain period products to be more appealing to women by making some of them appear more "feminine", whether it be with the light pastel colors and fancy designing they choose to use or marketing them with certain fragrances and comforts (both which in turn, can up the price). This can border on exploitation of a woman's need for feminine hygiene products, making them expensive, inaccessible, and convoluting the purchase of them.

efang012_ — 2023-11-28 04:13:01 UTC

Heteronormativity has a heavy influence on product marketing. Similarly discussed in JN Katz's piece titled "Invention of Heterosexuality", the normalization of heterosexuality has been a gradual and historic build-up, and this has resulted in the marketing of certain products to be oriented towards heterosexuals and leaving out LGBTQ+ folks. In this case, when it comes to greeting cards, anniversary cards for heterosexual couples are abundant because heterosexuality has historically been the norm. Though there are LGBTQ+ anniversary cards available, there are only two sleeves of them available to purchase amongst the dozens of those advertised to heterosexual couples.

efang012_ — 2023-11-28 05:00:19 UTC

Certain products are advertised with the intent of gearing towards of audience of either men or women. In another case regarding greeting cards, birthday cards are separated by gender not only with the pronouns being used, but with the clear distinctions between the use of color, imagery, and designs. For "Her birthday", there are lots of shades of pink, floral designs, and other patterns that would typically be considered "feminine" or "girly"; for "His birthday", there are lots of shades of blue as well as phrases that are commonly seen as "manly" or "masculine". Not only does this perpetuate the stereotypical division of gender between men and women, it reinforces the idea that there are two genders and two genders only, disregarding queer and intersex folk (this is also discussed in detail in Lorber's "The Social Construction of Gender". This dichotomy of the marketing of greeting cards amongst genders reinforces gender stereotypes.

efang012_ — 2023-11-28 07:01:06 UTC

Magazines are notorious for catering advertisements to certain demographics in order to earn more profit. In this case, both a weight loss advertisement and recipes for Thanksgiving dinner is front and center in an edition of the Woman's World magazine. Women's bodies are constantly scrutinized and objectified in media, lowering the self-esteem of women by setting an unobtainable beauty standard; this, in turn, allows companies to profit through advertising weight-loss/dieting programs, appealing to women's desire to fit the current beauty standard.

efang012_ — 2023-11-28 07:47:20 UTC

Majority of the time, makeup is advertised towards women. As seen in this picture, only women/female-presenting people are shown as models for makeup. The main target audience for makeup is women; similarly to the previous photo, companies profit off of women's insecurities, inflating them and pushing these narratives through popular media. Though makeup has since become a bit more revolutionized in recent years, it still has a ways to go.