In this module, we're going to look specifically at gender roles. We talked quite a bit in the last module about the idea of identity, and we discussed the notion that each of us actually possesses a number of different identities. However, I made the point that some of those identities are more central to our self concept than our others. And there's no doubt that gender identity is a very important component of a consumer self concept. so important that it's worth devoting an entire module, just to looking a little more at how society's expectations of what it means to be a male or female, directly impact, many, many purchase decisions. Gender identity, and again, society's expectations about that identity are often mirrored very, very vividly in the advertising that we see in different cultures.
That includes depictions of men and women. For example, the Indian government banned a TV spot for x men's deodorant. The spot shows a man who turns into a walking chocolate figurine, after he sprays himself with the brand's dark temptation deodorant. As he walks through the city, women throw themselves at him as they lick him and bite off various parts of his body. Although the same ad played in Argentina and Europe without any problem, traditional Indian culture doesn't approve of such blatant imagery. So as I've said, gender identity is a very important component of a consumer self concept.
People often conformed to their cultures expectations about how those of their gender should act. dress or speak, we refer to these sets of expectations as sex roles. It's not clear to what extent gender differences are innate rather than culturally shaped, but they're certainly evident in many consumption situations. Consider the gender differences that market researchers observe when they compare the food preferences of men to those of women. Women eat more fruit, men are more likely to eat meat. As one food writer put it, boy food doesn't grow.
It is hunted or killed. Indeed, consumers do tend to view meat as a masculine product. In one case, a company that sells soy patties found that men viewed the food as feminine. So the solution was to add artificial grill marks on the patties to make them look more like cuts of meat. The sex is also different quite a bit in the quantities of food they eat. When researchers at Hershey discovered that women eat smaller amounts of candy, they created a white chocolate confection called hugs, one of the most successful food introductions of all time.
In contrast, a man in a Burger King Whopper ad, ditches his date at a fancy restaurant complaining that he is quote, too hungry to settle for chick food pumped up on whoppers, a swelling mob of men shake their fists, punch one another. Toss a van off a bridge and sing. I will eat this meat until my ne turns into an Audi and I am hungry. I am incorrigible. I am man. When students write reviews of faculty members on the popular website rate my professors they use different words depends on whether the professor is male or female, women professors usually come out on the losing end of these reviews.
In a study that examine 14 million reviews on the site, positive words like smart, and genius, are much more likely to describe males than females across 25 different disciplines. Other items that fit female stereotypes pop up in reviews of female professors, including bossy, strict and demanding as well as nurturing. Women are also much more likely to be called out by the Fashion Police when students use terms such as frumpy to describe them. Children pick up on the concept of gender identity at an earlier age than researchers previously believed by as young as age one in some cases By the age of three most us children categorize driving a truck as masculine, and cooking and cleaning as feminine. Even characters that cartoons portray as helpless, are more likely to wear frilly or ruffle dresses. Many commercial sources in addition to parents and friends, provide lessons in gender socialization for both boys and girls.
Marketers tend to reinforce cultural expectations regarding the correct way for boys and girls, or men and women to look and act. Many societies expect males to pursue agentic goals with stress, self assertion, and mastery over different tasks. In contrast, they expect females to pursue communal goals which emphasize harmony group welfare and nurturing. However, unlike maleness and femaleness, masculinity and femininity are not biological characteristics. A behavior that one culture considers to be masculine, might get a different response in another. For example, the norm in the United States is that male friends avoid touching each other, except in safe situations, such as on the football field.
In some Latin and European cultures, however, it is common for men to hug and kiss one another as a form of greeting. Note that even this norm continues to evolve, as American teenagers of both sexes adopt the new fad of hugging as a standard form of greeting. Sometimes accompanied by the high five or the fist bump, and male friends, encouraged by the MTV show of the same name, Feel free to talk about having a bromance, or affection between straight male friends. Let's take a quick pop quiz to get things started. solving a difficult puzzle is a, an agentic goal, be a gender bending problem, see a communal goal, or D, a gender socialization vehicle. If you chose a agentic goal, you're off to a good start in this module.
The takeaway here is that gender identity is defined by society and sex roles change over time. expectations regarding how to be a good male or female are great concerned to consumers and their purchase decisions will reflect this