Sex Roles,Vol.49,Nos.1/2,July2003(C 2003)
Gender Stereotypes in Japanese Television Advertisements Akie N.Arima1,2,3
The aim of this study was to reveal gender portrayal types in Japanese television advertisements
through content analysis.Five hundred and thirty-one adult main characters were coded for
sex,age,ethnic background,credibility,role,place,dress,background,persuasion type,camera
work,camera angle,product type,target,and sex of voice-over.Five types were found by
performing quick cluster analysis:“beautiful and wise housewives,”“young ladies attracting
people’s attention,”“young celebrities,”“middle-and old-aged people enjoying private time,”
and“middle-aged worker bee.”The?rst three were mainly women and the latter two were
mainly men.The results indicate that in Japanese television advertisements men and women
are portrayed differently,and the differences correspond with traditional gender stereotypes.
KEY WORDS:advertisements;gender;stereotypes.
Television advertisements are a rich source of data for social scientists to investigate.One reason is that the images they contain are drawn from soci-ety at large,and therefore they can be seen as a re-?ection of prevailing cultural values(e.g.,Manstead &McCulloch,1981).Another reason is that they are likely to play an active role as a socializing agent(e.g. Murray,Rubinstein,&Comstock,1972).According to Millum(1975),an advertisement has to be easily comprehended by its target audience in order to be ef-fective.To be understood easily,advertisements need to represent typical people and typical situations,in other words,stereotypical situations tend to be por-trayed.These ideas were revealed through one major stream of research on television advertisements that employed content analysis.
Since the early1970s,many studies,most of which were done in the United States,have revealed that men and women were depicted differently in televi-sion advertisements and the differences were in accor-dance with traditional gender roles(e.g.,Courtney& Whipple,1974;Dominick&Rauch,1972;Furnham 1Faculty of Law,Heisei International University,Saitama,Japan. 2Akie Arima,n′ee Akie Nobushima.
3To whom correspondence should be addressed at2000 Ohtateno Mizufuka,Kazo-shi,Saitama,347-8504Japan;e-mail: arima@hiu.ac.jp.
&Sho?eld,1986;Harris&Stobart,1986;Manstead &McCulloch,1981;McArthur&Resko,1975).In the1970s and1980s,some changes in the content of television advertisements occurred,but content anal-yses showed that the advertisements have not re-?ected the actual roles that women have ful?lled in American society(e.g.,Bretl&Cantor,1988;Russo, Feller,&DeLeon,1982).For example,Bretl and Cantor(1988)showed that the difference in the fre-quency of depiction between men and women inside the home decreased compared to past studies.How-ever,in terms of occupation,men and women were still depicted differently.Men were signi?cantly more likely than women to be shown as having an occupa-tion,and women depicted as spouses or parents with-out occupations continued to exceed men(Bretl& Cantor,1988).In the United States the working pop-ulation rate of woman is about60%,and75%of them work full-time(Costello&Stone,1994).Furthermore, whether or not a woman has a child under elementary school age does not affect her retirement from work or her work as a part-time employee(U.S.Depart-ment Commerce,1995).Nevertheless,there is still a difference in the wages between men and women.The average wage of women accounts for75%of that of men(Costello&Stone,1994).According to the cen-sus,status and behavioral differences between men and women still exist in American society.Moreover, 810360-0025/03/0700-0081/0C 2003Plenum Publishing Corporation
82Arima
the portrayal of men and women in television adver-tisements exaggerates the difference on some points. In other words,the advertisements depict the stereo-typical gender role and little progress of women.
In Japanese society the number of women who at-tend college and university has been increasing in the 1980s,and it exceeded that of men in1989(e.g.,Inoue &Ebara,1995;Suzuki,1997).Though the number of women who study social science at the university level have been increasing,the tendency for men to major in engineering and social science and women in lib-eral arts,domestic science,and education still exists. In the area of employment,since the1970s the rate of women in the working population has increased to about40%,but the conditions for women are not equivalent to those of men(e.g.,Inoue&Ebara,1995; Suzuki,1997).One-third of female workers are part-time employees,and women are paid only60%of what men are paid(Inoue&Ebara,1995;Morinaga, 1993;Suzuki,1997).At home women do most of the household chores.Inoue and Ebara(1995)showed that on weekdays women who have jobs engage in household chores for over4hr a day,whereas their husbands do household chores for30min;the person who takes the responsibility for child rearing is the woman.Japanese parents tend to raise their children according to their traditional gender roles(Inoue& Ebara,1995).Boys are expected to succeed in aca-demics and win social status in the future.On the other hand,girls are expected to help their mothers with household chores and to get on well with their families and friends.A survey recently revealed the Japanese attitude toward gender roles.Hotta(2000)found that university students think that women should take re-sponsibility for their work and household chores at the same time,but their parents,especially their fa-thers,do not approve of a man’s positive participation in household chores.In other words,the older gener-ation supports the old gender role stereotypes,which are“men at work and women at home,”whereas the younger generation supports the new gender-role stereotypes,which are“men at work,and women at both work and home.”
Little attention has been paid to the depiction of men and women in Japanese television adver-tisements(Nobushima,1998,1999).To reveal the portrayal of male and female?gures in television advertisements,most researchers used content anal-ysis and found out how the sexes were depicted dif-ferently by comparing the proportion of each sex in each categorical variable.In a previous study,I in-vestigated how male and female main characters in Japanese television advertisements were portrayed differently.The results showed that in Japanese tele-vision advertisements women(56.7%)outnumbered men(43.3%),the advertisements for female audi-ences(26.9%)exceeded those for male audiences (15.0%),and women appeared in“household chores-related product,”“cosmetics,”and“service”more often than men,whereas men appeared in“elec-tronic appliances”more often than women.Other portrayal differences were as follows:There were more women than men in their20s,whereas there were more men than women in their30s and40s; the tendency that most of the main characters were Japanese was more evident for women,women played “demonstrator”and“housewife”more often than men,whereas men played“of?ce workers”;there were more women in“casual,”“swim/underwear,”“apron,”and“Japanese Kimono,”but there were more men in“suits.”Whereas men explained“ir-relevant things”and“product name,”women ex-pressed their“impression”or explained“product fea-tures”more than men did.It was found that women’s “mouth,”“hair,”“body,”and“breasts”were pictured more often than men’s were,and women were pic-tured“from the above”more often than men.
Although these results can tell how men and women are portrayed differently in each respect,they do not show the total image of male and female?g-ures.Therefore,in this study I focused on the por-trayal of male and female?gures in Japanese televi-sion advertisements to reveal the major types of main characters depicted in Japanese television advertise-ments and to examine whether such types found in the analysis are related to gender stereotypes. METHOD
Sample of Television Advertisements
All television advertisements that contained one or more adult central characters and that aired be-tween6a.m.and11:30p.m.on a weekday in July1996 were videotaped from NTV,which is a major televi-sion network in Japan.Among the commercial broad-casting televisions,the NTV programs have been the most-watched(Dentsu,1997).Therefore,selecting the television advertisements aired in the NTV pro-grams as a sample of this study was thought to be appropriate.
As a result,401advertisements were recorded, 261different advertisements.The sample comprised
Gender Stereotypes in Television Advertisements83
531main characters and335voice-overs.In this study,each repeated advertisement was counted as one single advertisement because Zajonc and Markus (1982)indicated that being exposed repeatedly to the same advertisement determines the advertisement’s effectiveness.
Coding Procedure and Variables
for Content Analysis
Five undergraduate students(2men and 3women),who were not informed of the aim of the study,were given a written description of the cate-gories and the coding criteria to be followed.They received several hours of training and then engaged in the coding work independently.The coding system employed was similar to that of Harris and Stobart (1986).The variables measured for the main char-acters were as follows:sex,age,ethnic background, credibility,role,dress,place,background,persuasion type,reference to the company and product name, camera work,angle of camera,product type,target audience,and sex of voice-over.The items that were not included in the Harris and Stobart(1986)study were age,dress,camera work,angle of camera,ref-erence to the company and product name,and target audience.Also this study intended several changes on the categories for some of the variables.The criteria of the categories are brie?y explained.
Sex.Main characters were judged as either male or female.
Age.Main characters’ages were estimated and categorized into one of?ve age categories:20–29years old,30–39years old,40–49years old,50–59years old, 60and over60years old.
Ethnic background.Main characters’ethnic backgrounds were categorized into one of the follow-ing:Japanese,White,Black,and East Asian other than the Japanese.But in the data analysis,the latter two categories were combined into the category other be-cause the numbers were small.
Credibility.Main characters’credibility was de-termined by their everyday professions.The cate-gories prepared were user,professional,entertainer, and athlete.
Role.According to the role played,main charac-ters were classi?ed into either introducer,family re-lated by birth,family in-law,private role,authority, offer of the product,user,other,or unknown.“The private role”included intimate friend,boyfriend,girl-friend,etc.The categories were created by performing the KJ inductive method of data analysis introduced by Kawakita(1986).
Dress.The clothes worn by main characters were evaluated.A central?gure often wore more than one dress in the same advertisement,so the coders checked whether or not the?gure put on the fol-lowing items:dressing gown,casual wear,sportswear, suit,formal wear,work clothes/uniform,almost un-dressed,swimsuit/underwear,apron,yukata,kimono, other.“Yukata”is an informal cotton kimono for the summer.Because the sample advertisements were aired in the summer and some main characters wore yukata,this category was introduced.
Location.The places in which main charac-ters appeared were categorized into one of seven categories:home,workplace,leisure,store,outside, multiple,other.When a central?gure appeared in more than one place,the place for him/her could be “multiple.”
Background.The type of person(s)or animal or cartoon character that appeared on the screen with the central?gure(s)was categorized into one of nine categories:mostly males,mostly females,both male and female,mainly children,male(s)and child(ren), female(s)and child(ren),male(s),female(s),and child(ren),other,none.
Persuasion type.Words spoken by main charac-ters were divided using the KJ method(Kawakita, 1986).As a result,words were categorized into irrel-evant thing,relevant thing,product name,recommen-dation,impression,explanation of product features,or explanation of ef?ciency.The?gures that did not talk about anything were classi?ed into no words.The cat-egory“irrelevant thing”means that the words and the product advertised were not related at all.“Relevant thing,”on the other hand,indicates that the words were somewhat associated with the product.
Reference to the company and product name. Whether main characters referred to product name and the name of the company that sells the product were examined.
Camera work.The focus of the camera used for?lming the main characters was examined.The checked categories were face,eye(s),mouth,neck, pro?le,hair,body without face,waist,leg(s),?nger(s), breasts,hand(s),and other.
Angle of camera.The categories prepared for an-gle of camera used for?lming main characters were from below,from above,from both below and above, and none.
Product.The advertised products were catego-rized into one of seven types:food,alcohol/cigarettes,
84Arima
Table I.Intrarater and Interrater Reliability
Reliability
Variables Intrarater(%)Interrater(%) Product type100100
Target audience7580
Sex of central?gure100100
Age7580
Ethnic background10080 Credibility100100
Role10080
Dress100100
Place100100 Background100100 Camera work100100
Angle of camera100100
Sex of voice-over100100 Average96.293.8
medicine,beauty goods,tools for housework,electrical appliances,automobile,service,and other.“Beauty goods”includes cosmetics,hair spray,shaver,etc.Mi-crowave oven,refrigerator,washing machine,vacuum cleaner,etc.are electrical appliances but they were classi?ed into“tools for house work”because they are used for housework.
Target audience.Target audience of each adver-tisement was judged and classi?ed into one of three: mainly males,mainly females,both male(s)and fe-male(s).
Sex of voice-over.Sex of voice-over for each ad-vertisement was categorized into one of four:male, female,child,none.
Coding Reliability
In order to con?rm intrarater and interrater reli-ability,several randomly selected samples were allo-cated to each coder.The former was96.2%and the latter was93.8%,which show that the coding of the data was quite reliable(see Table I).
RESULTS
In order to determine the major types of main characters portrayed in the advertisements and to consider the interdependencies between the coded variables,a cluster analysis was performed upon the codings for each central?gure using quick cluster analysis.Because most of the variables had more than two categories,the data were recoded into binary dummy variables.As a result,?ve clusters were ex-tracted.These?ve clusters were determined to be op-timum because the variance of numbers among clus-ters was quite small and the interpretation of each cluster was easy.Table II shows the features of the clusters.In the table,the traits of voice-overs are also shown to illustrate the relationship between main characters and voice-overs of each cluster.The fea-tures of each cluster will be explained one by one, and each cluster was named to illustrate the features more easily.
The?rst cluster was named“beautiful and wise housewives,”and50main characters(9.4%of all), most of whom were women(2men,48women),were classi?ed into this cluster.Many of them were in their20s or50s,and they included Whites as well as Japanese.They appeared in an apron or kimono,and advertised food,beauty goods,or services to a female audience.Their main roles in the advertisements were as introducers and housewives.They talked about the products’features or their impressions of the prod-ucts,otherwise they did not say anything.On the other hand,the voice-overs who were mainly women,ex-plained the utility and function of the product,re-inforced the explanation of the main characters,or announced the products’and enterprises’names.The main characters were often?lmed with a shot from above,with close-up pictures of eyes and breasts. Those shots may indicate that the advertisers intend to show the ideal re?ned housewives who had beauty and wisdom.
One hundred and ten main characters(20.7%) were classi?ed into the second cluster,named“young females attracting people’s attention.”Most of them were Japanese(104Japanese,6Whites)and women (11men,99women).Many of them were young, dressed in swimsuits,underwear,or yukata.They ap-peared at home,leisure,or outside,and they adver-tised beauty goods and tools for housework aimed at women.It was rare that they were in the advertise-ments with someone else or that they were supported by voice-overs.However,they only mentioned the product name and company name,product features, or relevant things.Their mouths,bodies,waists,legs, or hands were shown in close-ups from above and below.Those features may be meant to attract the at-tention of the audience.Therefore people in this clus-ter were named“young females attracting people’s attention.”
The third cluster,“young celebrities,”consisted of136main characters(25.6%).Of them,106were women and many of them were famous young Japanese celebrities,including athletes.The traits of
Gender Stereotypes in Television Advertisements85
Table II.Features of the Clusters(Comparison Among Clusters)
Cluster
Variables1st cluster2nd cluster3rd cluster4th cluster5th cluster
Categories(n)(n=50)(n=110)(n=136)(n=110)(n=125) Sex
Male(230)2(0.9%)11(4.8%)30(13.0%)69(30.0%)?118(51.3%)?
Female(301)48(15.9%)?99(32.9%)?106(35.2%)?41(13.6%)7(2.3%)
Age
20–29(265)35(13.2%)?84(31.7%)?130(49.1%)?5(1.9%)11(4.2%)
30–39(125)2(1.6%)14(11.2%)2(1.6%)52(41.6%)?55(44.0%)?
40–49(85)1(1.2%)7(8.2%)2(2.4%)28(32.9%)?47(55.3%)?
50–59(32)11(34.4%)?5(15.6%)1(3.1%)7(21.9%)8(25.0%)
60–(24)1(4.2%)0(0%)1(4.2%)18(75.0%)?4(16.7%)
Ethnic background
Japanese(407)31(6.9%)104(23.3%)?126(28.2%)?104(23.3%)?82(18.3%)
White(61)19(31.1%)?6(9.8%)7(11.5%)6(9.8%)23(37.7%)
Black(5)0(0%)0(0%)0(0%)5(100%)?
Other Asian(18)0(0%)0(0%)3(16.7%)0(0%)15(83.3%)?
Credibility
User(130)8(6.2%)40(30.8%)?31(23.8%)16(12.3%)35(26.9%)
Profession(12)1(8.3%)0(0%)4(33.3%)2(16.7%)5(41.7%)
Entertainer(365)40(11.0%)?70(19.2%)87(23.8%)?91(24.9%)?77(21.1%)
Athlete(24)1(4.2%)0(0%)14(58.3%)?1(4.2%)8(33.3%)
Role
Introducer(146)22(15.1%)?59(40.4%)?22(15.1%)20(13.7%)23(15.8%)
Family related by birth(65)0(0%)16(24.6%)10(15.4%)39(60.0%)?0(0%)
Family in law(58)25(43.1%)?6(10.3%)12(20.7%)15(25.9%)0(0%)
Private role(13)1(7.7%)2(15.4%)6(46.2%)1(7.7%)3(23.1%)
Authority(6)1(16.7%)0(0%)1(16.7%)1(16.7%)3(50.0%)
Offer(20)1(5.0%)0(0%)17(85.0%)?0(0%)2(10.0%)
User(135)0(0%)1(0.7%)47(34.8%)?16(11.9%)71(52.6%)?
Other(14)0(0%)0(0%)2(14.3%)3(21.4%)9(64.3%)?
Unknown(74)0(0%)26(35.1%)?19(25.7%)15(20.3%)14(18.9%)
Dress
Dressing gown(39)1(2.6%)12(30.8%)9(23.1%)13(33.3%)?4(10.3%)
Casual(197)23(11.7%)37(18.8%)56(28.4%)77(39.1%)?4(2.0%)
Sportswear(31)1(3.3%)5(16.7%)13(43.3%)?2(6.7%)9(30.0%)
Suit(128)2(1.6%)26(20.5%)26(20.5%)3(2.4%)70(55.1%)?
Formal wear(34)2(6.1%)7(21.2%)12(36.4%)0(0%)12(36.4%)
Working clothes,uniform(40)5(12.8%)2(5.1%)21(53.8%)?3(7.7%)8(20.5%)
Almost undressed(14)1(7.7%)0(0%)6(46.2%)3(23.1%)3(23.1%)
Swimsuit,underwear(27)0(0%)15(57.7%)?7(26.9%)2(7.7%)2(7.7%)
Apron(29)18(64.3%)?3(10.7%)3(10.7%)4(14.3%)0(0%)
Yukata(36)0(0%)11(44.0%)?5(20.0%)8(32.0%)1(4.0%)
Kimono(35)18(52.9%)?1(2.9%)6(17.6%)8(23.5%)1(2.9%)
Other(29)0(0%)3(10.7%)2(7.1%)3(10.7%)20(71.4%?)
Place
Home(127)20(15.7%)?36(28.3%)?16(12.6%)51(40.2%)?4(3.1%)
Work place(51)1(2.0%)1(2.0%)27(52.9%)?0(0%)22(43.1%)?
Leisure(31)0(0%)11(35.5%)?8(25.8%)6(19.4%)6(19.4%)
Store(15)1(6.7%)0(0%)4(26.7%)9(60.0%)?1(6.7%)
Outside(88)1(1.1%)28(31.8%)?22(25.0%)9(10.2%)28(31.8%)?
Plural(58)2(3.4%)12(20.7%)24(41.4%)?8(13.8%)12(20.7%)
Other(161)25(15.5%)?22(13.7%)35(21.7%)27(16.8%)52(32.3%)?
Background
Mainly male(116)2(1.7%)9(7.8%)51(44.0%)?5(4.3%)49(42.2%)?
Mainly female(129)46(35.7%)?2(1.6%)38(29.5%)20(15.5%)23(17.8%)
Male and female(95)1(1.1%)9(9.5%)29(30.5%)34(35.8%)?22(23.2%)
Child(16)0(0%)3(18.8%)7(43.8%)5(31.3%)1(6.3%)
Male and child(23)0(0%)7(30.4%)0(0%)14(60.9%)?2(8.7%)
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Table II.(Continued.)
Cluster
Variables1st cluster2nd cluster3rd cluster4th cluster5th cluster
Categories(n)(n=50)(n=110)(n=136)(n=110)(n=125) Female and child(24)0(0%)9(37.5%)?0(0%)13(54.2%)?2(8.3%)
Male,female,and child(2)0(0%)0(0%)0(0%)1(50.0%)1(50.0%)
Other(29)0(0%)11(37.9%)?4(13.8%)1(3.4%)13(44.8%)?
None(97)1(1.0%)60(61.9%)?7(7.2%)17(17.5%)12(12.4%)
Persuasion type
No words(103)18(17.5%)?19(18.4%)23(22.3%)12(11.7%)31(30.1%)
Irrelevant(111)0(0%)15(13.5%)46(41.4%)?27(24.3%)23(20.7%)
Relevant(49)2(4.1%)19(38.8%)?10(20.4%)8(16.3%)10(20.4%)
Product name(59)2(3.4%)12(20.3%)13(22.0%)5(8.5%)27(45.8%)?
Recommendation(21)0(0%)2(9.5%)8(38.1%)5(23.8%)6(28.6%)
Impression(85)15(17.6%)?11(12.9%)24(28.2%)31(36.5%)?4(4.7%)
Explain features(68)13(19.1%)?23(33.8%)?8(11.8%)14(20.6%)10(14.7%)
Explain ef?ciency(35)0(0%)9(25.7%)4(11.4%)8(22.9%)14(40.0%)?
Reference to the product/
company name a
No words(103)18(17.5%)19(18.4%)23(22.3%)12(11.7%)31(30.1%)
no/no(227)24(10.6%)?34(15.0%)64(28.2%)60(26.4%)45(19.8%)
yes/no(146)5(3.4%)35(24.0%)35(24.0%)29(19.9%)42(28.8%)?
no/yes(11)2(18.2%)4(36.4%)2(18.2%)2(18.2%)1(9.1%)
yes/yes(44)1(2.3%)18(40.9%)?12(27.3%)7(15.9%)6(13.6%)
Angle of camera
From below(48)0(0%)10(20.8%)23(47.9%)?6(12.5%)9(18.8%)
From above(15)5(33.3%)6(40.0%)?2(13.3%)0(0%)2(13.3%)
From both below and above(5)0(0%)3(60.0%)?1(20.0%)1(20.0%)0(0%)
None(463)45(9.7%)?91(19.7%)110(23.8%)103(22.2%)?114(24.6%)
Camera work
Face(253)14(5.5%)38(15.0%)99(39.1%)?57(22.5%)45(17.8%)
Eyes(5)2(40.0%)1(20.0%)0(0%)1(20.0%)1(20.0%)
Mouth(22)6(27.3%)?9(40.9%)?3(13.6%)1(4.5%)3(13.6%)
Neck(1)0(0%)0(0%)1(100%)0(0%)0(0%)
Pro?le(90)5(5.6%)19(21.1%)22(24.4%)31(34.4%)?13(14.4%)
Hair(5)0(0%)0(0%)5(100%)?0(0%)0(0%)
Body without face(10)0(0%)8(80.0%)?2(20.0%)0(0%)0(0%)
Waist(3)0(0%)2(66.7%)?1(33.3%)0(0%)0(0%)
Leg(15)0(0%)9(60.0%)?4(26.7%)0(0%)2(13.3%)
Finger(5)1(20.0%)2(40.0%)0(0%)0(0%)2(40.0%)
Breasts(26)14(53.8%)?8(30.8%)0(0%)1(3.8%)3(11.5%)
Hand(24)0(0%)9(37.5%)?12(50.0%)?2(8.3%)1(4.2%)
Other(10)1(10.0%)2(20.0%)5(50.0%)0(0%)2(20.0%)
Product
Food(167)22(13.2%)?10(6.0%)56(33.5%)?34(20.4%)45(26.9%)
Alcohol/cigarettes(47)0(0%)5(10.6%)16(34.0%)21(44.7%)?5(10.6%)
Medicine(58)0(0%)16(27.6%)9(15.5%)13(22.4%)20(34.5%)?
Beauty goods(50)11(22.0%)?18(36.0%)?12(24.0%)3(6.0%)6(12.0%)
Tools for house work(20)0(0%)10(50.0%)?3(15.0%)7(35.0%)0(0%)
Electrical appliance(28)0(0%)1(3.6%)10(35.7%)2(7.1%)15(53.6%)?
Automobile(10)0(0%)0(0%)3(30.0%)2(20.0%)5(50.0%)?
Service(86)17(19.8%)?24(27.9%)16(18.6%)21(24.4%)8(9.3%)
Target
Male(69)0(0%)3(4.3%)3(4.3%)3(4.3%)60(87.0%)?
Female(136)49(36.0%)?66(48.5%)?13(9.6%)4(2.9%)4(2.9%)
Male and female(326)1(0.3%)41(12.6%)120(36.8%)?103(31.6%)?61(18.7%)
Sex of voice over
Male(335)5(1.5%)51(15.2%)118(35.2%)?72(21.5%)89(26.6%)?
Female(111)45(40.5%)?15(13.5%)12(10.8%)23(20.7%)16(14.4%)
Child(14)0(0%)14(100%)?0(0%)0(0%)0(0%)
None(71)0(0%)30(42.3%)?6(8.5%)15(21.1%)20(28.2%)
Gender Stereotypes in Television Advertisements87
Table II.(Continued.)
Appeal of voice-over
No voice-over(71)0(0%)30(42.9%)?6(8.5%)15(21.1%)20(18.2%)
None(74)0(0%)20(27.0%)240(32.4%)11(14.9%)19(25.7%)
Irrelevant things(19)2(10.5%)0(0%)7(36.8%)1(5.3%)9(47.4%)?Relevant things(46)1(2.2%)1(2.2%)14(30.4%)11(23.9%)19(41.3%)?Indirect image(70)3(4.3%)13(18.6%)21(30.0%)23(32.9%)?10(14.3%)
Direct image(29)3(10.3%)1(3.4%)16(55.2%)?6(20.7%)3(10.3%)
Explanation of features(130)22(16.9%)?11(8.5%)31(32.8%)32(24.6%)34(26.2%)
Explanation of utility and ef?ciency(93)19(20.4%)?34(36.6%)?17(18.3%)11(11.8%)12(12.9%) Reference to product
and company names of
voice-overs a
No voice-overs(71)0(0%)30(42.9%)?6(8.5%)15(21.1%)20(28.2%)
No/No(74)0(0%)10(13.5%)26(35.1%)29(39.2%)?9(12.2%)
Yes/No(168)5(3.0%)42(25.0%)?48(28.6%)40(23.8%)33(19.6%)
No/Yes(21)0(0%)3(14.3%)06(28.6%)1(4.8%)11(52.4%)?Yes/Yes(198)45(22.7%)?25(12.6%)50(25.3%)25(12.6%)53(26.8%) Note.The asterisks represent the main traits of the clusters.
a“No”represents no product or company name,“yes”illustrates that reference to the product or company name was made.
this cluster are as follows.They acted as providers and users in the role of of?ce workers or salespersons with male colleagues.They were often shown in uniforms, however they did not tell much about the product ad-vertised.Instead,they said some irrelevant things,and male voice-overs said the relevant things.Foods were advertised to both male and female audiences.As for the camera work,their faces were shown in close-up. This camera work technique could be used in order to associate the product advertised with the celebrity.In addition,female main characters who belonged to this cluster often smiled no matter what role they played. On the other hand,men rarely smiled;instead their mind or ability seemed to be the focus.The constant smile could be understood as one of the gender traits women should show.
In the fourth cluster,“middle-and old-aged peo-ple enjoying private time,”there were110main char-acters(20.7%).Men(69)outnumbered women(41) and most of them were Japanese(104).People in this cluster were mainly entertainers in their30s,40s,or 60s,whose faces were often shown in close-up.They wore casual clothes and appeared at home or in stores with other adults or adults and children,usually play-ing parents’roles.They often expressed their impres-sion of the products with smiling faces while the voice-overs were saying indirect things.Their smiling faces seemed to be happy,and the aim of the advertise-ments seemed to be to transmit to the audience the message that their smile resulted from using the prod-uct.They advertised alcohol and tobacco more often than did people in other clusters.The target audience was both sexes.The main characters in this cluster were depicted as though they were enjoying private time with family and friends.From those features,this cluster was named“middle-and old-aged people en-joying private time.”
The last cluster,“middle-aged worker bees,”con-sisted of125main characters(23.5%),and most of them were men(118people).Compared to the other clusters,there was more variety on ethnic background (23Whites,5Blacks,and15East Asians other than the Japanese)and more of?ce workers wearing suits or people who were acting in irrelevant roles to the prod-uct advertised.They appeared in of?ces,outside,or in the studio with male characters,animals,or cartoon characters.They announced the names of medicine, electrical appliances,or automobiles,or explained the utility or ef?ciency of the products to a male audience. The voice-overs were men also,and they told the au-dience irrelevant or relevant things or the companies’names.
DISCUSSION
The objective of this study was to show the main gender portrayal pattern in Japanese television ad-vertisements.In this study,I found the existence of ?ve types of main characters.Three of the types are mainly women,and the rest are men.Women appear as“beautiful and wise housewives,”“young ladies at-tracting people’s attention,”and“young celebrities,”whereas men are portrayed as“middle-and old-aged people enjoying private time”and as“middle-aged worker bees.”Therefore women and men are depicted differently in Japanese television advertisements.The
88Arima
gender portrayal traits in Japanese television adver-tisements suggested by the existence of those central ?gure types are discussed below.
Gender-Roles in Japanese
Television Advertisements
Many researchers investigating gender portray-als in television advertisements have indicated that “men at work and women at home”is a main gen-der stereotype(e.g.,Courtney&Whipple,1974).This is true for Japanese television as well because,com-pared to male main characters,female main charac-ters appeared at home more often.More men play of?ce worker roles,and more women play house-wives(Nobushima,1998,1999).The?nding of“beau-tiful and wise housewives”and“middle-aged worker bees”is good evidence that in Japanese television advertisements traditional gender-role stereotypes continue to exist,although women now take on responsibility both at work and at home(Inoue& Ebara,1995),and people,especially of the younger generation,think that men should do more household chores(Hotta,2000).
As discussed,it is certain that the depiction of “men at work and women at home”in television ad-vertisements is not consistent with the reality in Japan. It is a stereotypical depiction.However,the Japanese audience expects that depiction of men and women to correspond to traditional stereotypes,and they re-spond positively to such depictions.In a recent sur-vey,Arima(2000)found that audiences prefer male main characters to be of?ce workers or specialists and women to be housewives.
The fact that the target audience of the advertise-ments in which“beautiful and wise housewives”ap-pear is mostly female,whereas90%of advertisements that depicted“middle-aged worker bees”targeted men is problematic.Those advertisements may trans-mit to the target audience certain values concerning gender,and they could interfere with women’s ad-vances in society or men’s sharing household chores with women.
“Middle-aged worker bees”give the audience an impression of the working man’s robustness and strongness.There are many advertisements showing that working men must have those traits.In advertise-ments men go to the of?ce no matter how sick they are;they are shown taking medicine or drinking nutri-tious drinks.They do not go home after work.Instead they have an alcoholic session with their colleagues or attend receptions.Women rarely appear in those advertisements.Working outside the home is treated as a matter for men.
Commercializing Female Sexuality
Some researchers are worried about the com-mercializing of female sexuality(Forum for Citi-zen’s Television,1991;S.Inoue,1998;Y.Inoue,1998; Suzuki,1995)and the?lming techniques that focus on some parts of women’s bodies(Forum for Citizen’s Television,1991;Nobushima,1998,1999).“Young ladies attracting people’s attention”indicates that Japanese television advertisements do commercialize female sexuality.They are depicted as objects to be-hold,and what is important in these advertisements is the women’s youth and beauty.Needless to say, one can conclude that youth and beauty are factors of commercializing female sexuality(Y.Inoue,1998; Suzuki,1995).As Suzuki(1995)indicated,commer-cializing female sexuality is one example of sexism.In the process of making an advertisement,men’s point of view,which is to regard women as sex-objects,can be utilized as eye-catchers.Therefore,those advertise-ments considered sexist should be banished because the mere existence of“young ladies attracting peo-ple’s attention”itself is undesirable.
The fact that advertisements in which“young ladies attracting people’s attention”appear are tar-geted toward a mostly female audience is surprising. In other words,these advertisements are not pro-duced to attract a male audience.So the probability of enforcing men’s degradation women is estimated to be rather small.On the other hand,by watching these advertisements women themselves will receive the message that youth and beauty are important and will learn how they are desirable.According to Krugman(1965),watching television advertisements is low involvement learning.People exposed to the same advertisements repeatedly will be persuaded by them.Female audiences may accept the values that are contained in the advertisements that portray “young ladies attracting people’s attention”and?-nally begin to practice these values without noticing. What Is Requested from Celebrities
in Television Advertisements
Many of the“young celebrities”and the“middle-and old-aged people enjoying private time”were famous entertainers.In Japanese television advertise-ments we can?nd many entertainers(Kojima,1993;
Gender Stereotypes in Television Advertisements89
Nishina,Tanaka,&Maruoka,1991).The aims of the advertisements in which entertainers appear are(1)to attract the audience’s attention and interest toward the advertisement,(2)to enhance people’s interest in products or the advertisements by utilizing the audi-ence’s interest in certain entertainers,and(3)to take advantage of people’s image of or familiarity with entertainers,thus increasing favorability toward the product and the company(Kojima,1993).
In the advertisements in which young celebrities appear,the central?gure’s image of healthiness and pleasantness is related to the product.The fact that many of the words spoken by the main characters have nothing to do with the product,but are jokes or just calling to the audience,and the fact that their faces are often shown in close-up suggests that the producers of the advertisements try to draw people’s attention toward the advertisements and encourage them to associate the central?gure with the prod-uct.The female main characters must smile in the ad-vertisements,which is one of the gender stereotypes. Female main characters who are“young celebrities”played social roles as salespersons and of?ce workers. Their behavior portrayed in the advertisements was to smile at male guests and to do work in the uniforms that were given to them by their companies.Those acts remind the audience of one aspect of the a feminine gender role,which is that women help men.Young men,on the other hand,do not smile in the advertise-ments.What is important is their competence.Those facts indicate that the advertisers and producers re-quest from young celebrities smiles or competence according to gender role.In Japan,girls are expected to have good relationships with people around them, whereas boys are expected to show their abilities (Inoue&Ebara,1995).It is interpreted that the adver-tisers and producers express socially desirable gender traits by allocating the gender stereotypic actions to young celebrities in advertisements.
No matter whether they are male or female,“middle-and old-aged people enjoying private time”are portrayed happily in the advertisements.They are happy because they are surrounded by their families and good friends.Therefore,the smile of“middle-and old-aged people enjoying private time”is differ-ent from that of young female celebrities. CONCLUSION
In sum,this study showed the representatives of gender portrayals in Japanese television advertise-ments and demonstrated that male and female main characters are portrayed differently according to gen-der stereotypes.Japanese television advertisements mainly concerned these gender stereotypes:(1)men at work and women at home,(2)men need to be com-petent and women should be good to other people, and(3)women’s sexuality.
The traditional method of content analysis,which is to compare the rate of male and female?gures for some variables one by one,can of course con?rm the gender portrayal features of the main characters. However the method can not explain the portrayal pattern of female and male main characters more comprehensively.Cluster analysis was performed in this study and?ve types of main characters were ex-tracted.In order to make content analysis to be more productive,the method of content analysis including cluster analysis and category based analysis utilizing chi-square analysis must be further re?ned.
In addition,the sample of this study was collected in1996.Therefore,we have to be careful when we interpret the results of this study,because it is said that social values are re?ected in advertisements,and it is possible that over5or10years,the values in a society,gender roles for instance,change.In order to investigate the changes of gender stereotypes de-picted in Japanese television advertisements,a longi-tudinal study should be conducted.It is also necessary to collect advertisements aired on various networks, because it is provable that different networks air dif-ferent advertisements.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was supported by a grant(No.5040) for scienti?c research from the Ministry of Education, Science,and Culture of Japan,1997–1999.The author gratefully acknowledges Dr Sumiko Iwao,Musashi Institute of Technology,Dr Shigeru Hagiwara,Keio University,and Dr Kazufumi Manabe,Kwansei University.
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