I've noticed recently that advertisements are extremely sexed. Although I admit that the following are basically generalizations, the fact that these generalizations can even be drawn from a variety of commercials advertising a variety of miscellaneous goods remains to say something about the state of our society. Men are likely to be portrayed in the traditional sense of "materialistic manliness", in that they care for nothing but having reckless fun, sports, and acquiring women. Most advertisements directed toward men tend to reinforce and reiterate the idea of "man standards" as perpetrated through American society, as something like a threat of castration. "This product will enhance your maleness," these advertisements imply. As for products meant for an older male audience, the male would be assumed to be the respectable head of the family who makes all the important decisions, and is portrayed as such in the setting of the commercial.
Women, on the other hand, are portrayed as weak and hysterical when they are not too busy playing the sideshow eye candy to a male "protagonist." The tone of these ads are also much more patronizing, though that could just be because it's considered less acceptable to patronize a man than it is to patronize a woman. Women are allowed to admit that they have no idea what is going on, while men are expected to act as if they know what they are doing, especially when they do not. All of these stereotypes are deeply embedded within our society. Even if some of us consciously believe these to be horrendously exaggerated, the fact that it has been thought to be true at some point is severely detrimental to the prospect of gender equality in society. After all, it would not be a stretch to think that these stereotypes must have originated from somewhere, and attribute it to some kind of fundamental difference between men and women that might not actually exist.
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