Women in Argentinean advertising for men: reinforcing models of male domination through social networks

Abstract

The aim of this article is to identify and to question the narrative, semiotic and interpellative mechanisms that naturalize different expressions of violence in advertisements targeted to men. In order to do so, we use as a primary source the ads published by the brands AXE, Nivea (Nivea Men), Gillette, Rexona (men’s format) and Dove (DoveMen+Care) in their Facebook and/or Instagram accounts from Argentina in 2014, 2015 and 2016, focusing on the constructions they make of women and of the ways to interact with them.
In Latin America, patriarchal hierarchies are manifested through machismo, of which the maximum expressions are sexual oppression and physical violence, but it also includes subtle ways of subordinating women. In this sense, we understand that advertisements are social technologies which are genderized as well as re-producers of gender and that, by displaying reductionist axiological models, they contribute to the maintenance of the established social order.
We found that the market structure of symbolic possessions treats women as trading objects: their bodies are exhibited and examined, generating an objectifying and sexualizing gaze. On the other hand, they are presented as self-sacrificing wives as well as tender and responsible mothers. The macho prejudice about them being too complicated and difficult to understand is reinforced.