F**K Gender Stereotypes!

        There is too much gender stereotyping in the media. Men and women are categorized into cultural norms of ideas on what it means to be male or female. These stereotypes are greatly used in television ads, as they are short and to the point in selling a product. Women are the chief consumers of ads as voice overs are 90% male in America. Men have the voice of authority whereas women are weaker and domesticated. But how did these stereotypes begin? Why are men and women categorized in this way and what benefit does it serve? The media aims for consumers to fall in these stereotypical traps, so that they can feel obligated to purchase the same products to fit in cultural norms. Well...

F**K GENDER STEREOTYPES!

and in place of the two *'s, is first C - then U.

= FCUK!

Which stands for French Connection, the clothing store.

They recently did an ad campaign satirizing gender stereotypes in the media. In these commercials, "the man" and "the woman" are routinely defined by a male voice over. 

THE MAN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI9XhQ1IIWs&feature=player_embedded

"Strong" - "Beard" - "Verile" - "Laugh from the heart" - "He knows not what sequins is"

THE WOMAN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKMzboGUB6s&feature=player_embedded

"She needs not a man, but they come" - "Pretty" - "This is the woman and this is the way of things"

While the man is described as a strong character, the woman's bodily appeal is focused upon. In the woman's commercial when the voice over says: "This is not so provocative," the camera quickly pans to all the places on the woman's body that are seen as sensual. However, the ad does it in a tasteful manner. The purpose for this ad campaign was not to ignore the stereotypes of a man or woman, but to define them in a classical way with the voice over's relaxed tone and sophisticated words. The man and the woman are not defined with the extreme stereotype - white-dominant authoritative male versus the passive domesticated female - that most other ads use...

I think that FCUK's ad campaign is a brilliant way to combat the issue of gender stereotypes in the media. I think it would be impossible to completely ignore these cultural norms in advertisements, but FCUK shows a way in which it can be done tastefully.