After several weeks of searching for the perfect advertisement for my Gender in the Media paper, I finally came across one that served my purposes perfectly. Not surprisingly, this advertisement, depicting a woman and a man in very traditional roles, was found in a wedding magazine. More specifically, Martha Stewart Weddings. Such magazines are popular with a very specific crowd: those hoping, dreaming, wishing, and planning for their perfect wedding. Who typically does this hoping, dreaming, wishing and planning? It is, of course, the bride, typically a woman in her twenties or early thirties. These magazines prey on the dreamers, and dictate what a beautiful wedding, and therefore, a fairytale marriage, truly is made of. .
Most advertisements in this publication feature fabulous wedding dresses, the ultimate honeymoon locations, and stunning engagement bands. This advertisement caught my eye for an interesting reason; unlike most of the other advertisements, this one actually featured a man and a woman. A novel idea considering this far into the magazine I was beginning to question whether a man would even be involved in the wedding.
It was harder than I had expected to find an advertisement that displayed what I considered an image worth evaluating. This advertisement is for the Gift Registry at JC Penny, and it does what few other advertisement companies (still) do; it depicts a man and a woman as extreme opposites in traditional roles. This paper will examine how these roles are developed; the models' physical appearance as well as the use of environment and surroundings, gives the reader an idea of what the typical male and female roles in a marriage are.
In the foreground, it shows a typical engaged couple: a man and a woman (the woman, of course, has a large engagement ring on her finger). They are Caucasian and appear to be upper middle-class. This stays in keeping with most of the other advertisements, since the magazine's target audience is mostly in those same categories (though not necessarily Caucasian).
