It has been established that media plays an influential role in disseminating gender norms and shaping gender roles in society (Trolan, 2013, 215). Gender roles are defined as a set of behaviours and attitudes that, based on societal and cultural norms, individuals are expected to exhibit based on their sex (Fawkner, 2012, 196). Gender roles, especially the traditional notion that men should be masculine and take on masculine roles whilst women should be feminine and adhere to feminine roles, can be damaging to the individual and society as a whole. For example, the media often sexualises and objectifies women, be it in film, advertisements, television or magazines. As George Gerbner’s “Cultivation Theory” suggests, the more we consume media with this narrative, the more we will accept this ideology as our reality, even when it’s not or not supposed to be. Hence, from this example, women then become victims to the societal pressure of having to act and present themselves a certain way in order to be socially accepted. Men also will internalise this narrative and treat the opposite gender in sexually objectifying ways; this is where the problem arises, leading to recurrent gender and societal issues such as inequality and even violence against women (Seabrook, et al., 2019, 536).
A notable form of media that participates in the influence of gender roles is advertisements, be it in magazines, newspapers or television. For example, women are commonly placed in traditionally feminine roles, such as a homemaker, non-professional, parent or wife in media advertisements (Collins, 2011, 290). These representations are often an exaggerated version of gender role assumptions, which society then wrongly identifies with and imitates (Kumari and Joshi, 2015, 44), which leads to a reinforcement of existing gender disparities and inequality within societies (Mateos de Cabo, et al., 2014, 56). Moreover, it also perpetuates the stereotypical gender perception that women are “dependent, weak, incompetent…passive, modest, soft-spoken, gentle, caretakers”, in comparison to men who are expected to be “powerful, competent, important, logical, decision-makers, aggressive, focused, strong and assertive” (Sharda, 2014, 44). This submissive-dominant or dependent-provider power play that media advertisements instigate may well be one of the predominant factors for the rising levels of inequality and violence against women. Another notable example is the fact that advertisers tend to sexually objectify women in advertisements, focusing on women’s appearance, beauty and sexual attractiveness to promote products and brands rather than using their intelligence, competency and reliability, unlike their male counterparts (Heathy, 2020, 45-46).
Moving on, it is widely known that Malaysian society holds on to the traditional Asian values and conventions that women should stay home and care for the household while men should work and provide as the breadwinner (Tan, et al., 2002, 853). These gender roles are believed to be predominantly shaped by “family upbringing, tradition and culture” (Goh, et al., 2021, 463). Unsurprisingly, Malaysian media, including TV advertisements, have capitalised on and catered to these traditional values, creating stereotypical gender representations in media that not only reflect traditional Malaysian society, but continue to perpetuate old-fashioned gender norms and roles. This is a significant issue because traditional gender roles are a prime motivator and maintainer of gender inequality in societies (Sørensen, 2005, 108), and as we have seen with skyrocketing cases of domestic abuse, murder, rape and child marriage in Malaysia, just like Unicef (n.d.) has affirmed, gender inequality can present itself as painstakingly violent and dangerous. Moreover, do note that the national language of Malay, religious practices of Islam and government-regulated advertising codes are salient influencers of Malaysian mass media (Wee, et al., 1995, 52).
Therefore, this research aims to investigate and observe the portrayal of women in Asian, more specifically, Malaysian TV advertisements. Using Gerbner’s “Cultivation Theory” as the supporting theory, the research will then relate how these representations in media can influence society’s standard and expectation of gender roles and the gender issues that originate from this. Though there is existing research on the portrayal of gender roles in media, the literature presents a gap in terms of a Malaysian perspective as well as in the media form of Malaysian TV advertisements, which this research aims to fill. A quantitative library-based research method will be utilised to provide observations and analyses on how women are depicted in Asian and Western TV advertisements. Existing literature on this topic will serve as a solid basis for the argument that stereotypical gender representations in media have the power to develop and/or perpetuate harmful gender norms and roles in Malaysian society. Finally, a case study on Malaysia and the UK, based on a specific example of an international TV advertising campaign, will be conducted to compare the differences between the common narratives and presence of gender stereotypes in Western and Eastern TV advertisements; these advertisements will be sourced from YouTube.
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