The Construction of Gender Identity: A Semiotic Analysis

Abstract

Gender is considered an axis of social order. Its categorisation into masculinity and femininity is socially constructed and maintained in everyday life through major social institutions (Clark and Page, 2005 ; Mackie, 1994) . Advertising, as an aspect of the mass media, is a major social and economic institution through which notions of masculinity and femininity are promoted at a symbolic level (Gilbert and Taylor, 1991 ; Goldman, 1992) . It is suggested that the role of advertising is to maintain cultural hegemony through providing us with socially constructed ways of viewing and making sense of our world (Goldman, 1992) . It has been remarked that students may be learning more social science from television advertisements than from any other formal or informal educational setting (Langrehr, 2003) . Gender represents a functional dimension of stratified societies, where ideology, power, domination and control play a significant role in maintaining gender inequality in predominantly patriarchal societies. The versions of masculinity and femininity promoted serve to provide the basis for women’s subordination (Gilbert and Taylor, 1991) – this view is reflected in the opportunities for education offered to boys and girls (Oakley, 1972) . It is suggested that the best way to assess the status of women is to analyse the roles that women are being called upon to play (Ghosh and Roy, 1997) .