Gender representation in the media has always been important for one to understand what it means to be male or female. Advertising, being one of the most powerful and influential means ever, has encouraged us to mould ourselves into this ideal vision of how men and women should exist in society. In the past, for a woman this meant having beauty, elegance and passivity and for a man this meant being tough, competitive and business minded. However, in our modern world today, these ideals are no longer essential in gaining acceptance into society and have altered significantly but they still may be prevalent. Today, women are self reliant and career focussed whereas many men feel they have the right to self expression and self indulgence. This new outlook might be present in today's society but to what extent are television advertisements an accurate explanation of this new lifestyle? Nowadays, television advertising's inaccurate portrayal of men and women is revealed through two types of commercials: household and beauty. .
Despite the facts that over the past decade, an increasing amount of house husbands have been emerging and more and more women have either been stepping away from housework altogether or combining it with a career, they still stand as the pre-dominant feature in household product commercials. To illustrate, in the OxiClean commercial, the housewife makes an attempt to clean the toilet but she is unsuccessful. OxiClean is presented and provides effective and active tablets to wash away the grime. It is not explicitly stated but we are encouraged to believe that this person is a male since the woman shows her gratitude by blowing him a kiss. This .
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advertisement indicates that a woman needs a man to invent products in order for her to do the work well. Therefore, this commercial is conveying the traditional message that women need men. Although nowadays women have a lot more freedom of choice, we are still to a certain extent living in a patriarchal society which looks through the male gaze.
