Proposal and Annotated Bibliography 1
Proposal and Annotated Bibliography: The Gendered Language of Advertisements Directed
at Children
Proposal and Annotated Bibliography 2
1. Statement of Research Question
The research thesis I plan to pursue is the gender stereotypes in advertisements lead to
behaviors that reflect gendered attitudes by attaching supposedly gender – specific behavior
with personal rewards and fulfilment. The issue of this topic is the gendered language of
advertising media and how this language both reflects and contributes to stereotypes about
younger males and females. My interest is in younger males and females because they
represent a market that is considered by advertisers as increasingly important. Though many
advertisements target children, these advertisements originate from the “adult world”. This
means that adults create and deliver these advertisements based on their own adult-centred
understanding of young tastes and opinions. For example, the most words we can see and
hear in toy advertisements for boys are always about battle, power, heroes, beat, mission,
arena, vehiecle, attack, etc., these word cloud for boys’s list shows the emphasis on action
and violence, with others depicted as opponents, a nemesis, or enemies. Thus, the project will
assume that the language of gender stereotyping in advertisements is part of a deliberate
strategy adopted by marketers. The research question of my paper is attempting to answer
how and why do gender stereotypes in advertisements lead to behaviors that reflect gendered
attitudes?
2. Statement of Interest
I am exploring this question in order to gain a general sense of how pervasive genderstereotyping has become in the lives of children and how this impacts their perceptions of
gender. While in some cases children are critical of advertising and its messages, studies have
shown that there is some warrant for concern over the influence of advertisements on
children’s notions of gender. Writing about this topic will be beneficial to me because it will
help me understand the pervasive nature of gendered advertising, as well as characteristics of
children’s advertising that distinguishes it from advertising directed at adults. Writing about
Proposal and Annotated Bibliography 3
this topic will be beneficial to my field of study by showing how gendered advertising
impacts other areas of a child’s life, including their experiences at school and their personal
relationships. While this has been covered previously in the discipline of media studies, there
are a number of research gaps pointed out by researchers that can be addressed by the
proposed research paper.
3. Audience and Purpose
There are two possible audiences for the research paper. First, my initial audience is
my Instructor/TA. Another possible audience (hypothetical or otherwise) includes a group of
non-experts, perhaps including an employer or a grad school administrator. These audiences
are most likely comprised of individuals who are both interested in the topic at hand and
looking for new types of work that need to be done in their field. What I am trying to do in
regard to reaching these audiences is present a clear and organized argument that contributes
information to this field. In other words, in addition to forming a strong argument I hope to
illustrate why this topic and my work/research in the field of media research are important.
4. Annotated Bibliography
Baker-Sperry, L. (2006). Gendered Agency: Power in the Elementary Classroom. Women
and Language, 29(2), 38-46.
Baker-Sperry (2006) explores how children negotiate ideas about gender while
interacting with peers in an elementary school setting. In regards to recency, Baker-Sperry
(2006) views today’s children as “active agents” who take an authoritative part in filtering
messages and perceiving meaning on their own terms, even within settings such as
elementary school, which are controlled mostly by adults. The reliability of this source is
indicated by the fact that it contains theories and scientific observations that provide an indepth account of how children process values and meanings. This source complements my
position by explaining how children filter meaning and messages about gender and how this
Proposal and Annotated Bibliography 4
process influences their behavior with others, including, students, teachers, and parents. Of
particular relevance is Baker-Sperry’s observations on the fact that there are sometimes social
repercussions to “crossing gender lines,” including humiliation and chastisement (p. 41). This
is highly relevant to the proposed paper because it raises the possibility that advertising
strongly reinforces gender stereotypes.
Bakir, A., & Palan, K.M. (2010). How are Children’s Attitudes Toward Ads and Brands
Affected by Gender-Related Content in Advertising? Journal of Advertising, 39(1),
35-48.
Bakir and Palan (2010) explore the impact that children’s television advertising has
on children’s attitudes about gender. This is a recent study which employs the idea that
television advertisements tend to perpetuate gender stereotypes because “stereotyping
functions as a way to categorize information about what it means to be male and female...”
(Bakir & Palan, 2010, p. 35). This source is relevant to my paper because it discusses how
often children are exposed to ads and how this exposure shapes the development of gender
stereotypes. The reliability of this source is reflected by its use of previous academic studies
and its testing method of interviewing a sample of children. This source supports my position
in two ways. First, it provides specific measures of how children respond to ads, including
their attitudes toward the ad and the brand. Second, it provides a close look at the degree to
which children encounter gender stereotypes in the media.
Childs, N.M., & Maher, J.K. (2003). Gender in food advertising: boys eat first. British Food
Journal, 105(7), 408-419.
This study looks at advertisers’ use of gender in food advertising to children.
This study makes the unique contribution of looking at gender roles of characters in
advertisements, such as the major character roles, narrators, and the gender of the main user
of the product. In regards to recency, this source was published in 2003, during which time
Proposal and Annotated Bibliography 5
annual spending on advertising for children amounted to approximately US3.35 billion
dollars (Childs & Maher, 2003, p. 408). The reliability of this source is conveyed by multiple
hypotheses and a variety of findings that were gathered by way of analysing actual food
advertisements. This source is relevant to my paper because it shows that there is a very high
level of “male preference” in ads directed to children despite the fact that food is gender
neutral (Childs & Maher, 2003, p. 417). As Childs and Maher (2003) posit, this implies that
children are regularly exposed (and susceptible) to gender-selective “role model
presentations” (p. 418). These points support my paper by illustrating the pervasive nature of
gender stereotypes in advertising and telling readers what this implies for society.
Hyde, J.S. (2005). The Gender Similarities Hypothesis. American Psychologist, 60(6), 581592.
In this source Hyde (2005) attempts to undermine the notion that males and females
are “vastly different psychologically”; a view that is said to dominate popular media (p. 581).
Hyde’s argument is that males and females, including boys and girls as well as adults “are
similar on most, but not all psychological variables” (p. 581). Completed in 2005, this article
is fairly recent and therefore reflective of patterns in the media today. The reliability of this
source is displayed by Hyde’s use of meta-analysis to assess psychological gender
differences. Hyde also uses multiple categories to break down evidence. This source is
relevant to my study because it supports my contention that advertising continues to present
strong stereotypes partly because many consumers, for a wide variety of reasons, have proven
to be quite receptive of gender stereotypes, as illustrated by continued sales. The idea that the
audience influence the content of ads will also complement other research articles used for
the paper which focus on how ads influence the audience. This supports my view that ads
both reinforce and shape gender attitudes.
Proposal and Annotated Bibliography 6
Johnson, F., & Young, K. (2002). Gendered Voices in Children’s Television Advertising.
Critical Studies in Media Communication, 19(4), 461-480.
Johnson and Young (2002) investigate televising ads for toys in order to determine of
advertisers script language differently for males and females. They also ask; “How is gender
used as a discourse code to link products to gender roles?” (Johnson & Young, 2002, p. 461).
This source is recent enough to provide key points that relate directly to today’s media
environment, including the point that children making up an increasingly important market
sector. The reliability of this source is indicated by its focus on two research questions, its
outline of the literature done on this topic so far, and its use of content and discourse analysis.
This source is relevant to my project because it describes the pervasiveness of advertising in
the lives of both adult and youth consumers. Also contained in this source is a highly relevant
analysis of actual advertising content. This will complement other studies (mentioned in this
proposal) that attempt to discover the impacts of such content.
McQuillan, H., & O’Neill, B. (2009). Gender Differences in Children’s Internet Use. Journal
of Children and Media, 3(4), 366-378.
McQuillan and O’Neill (2009) analyse gender differences in children’s Internet use
across Europe. This analysis is conducted by using feminist theory on gender and technology
and theories on youth gender “identity construction” (p. 366). Completed in 2009, this study
is fairly recent and applicable to today’s media environment which increasingly involves the
internet in advertising. The reliability of this source is indicated by its use of official
statistics, in-depth look at a variety of academic theories, and a meta-analysis of national
reports from 21 different European countries. This source is relevant to my paper because it
ensures that the project will include internet advertising rather than just television advertising.
While the two are quite similar in content and format, the internet introduces new
implications for gender perceptions because, as McQuillan and O’Neill (2009) point out,
Proposal and Annotated Bibliography 7
internet usage continues in increase rapidly, partly because computers are becoming cheaper
and children’s computer literacy is equal to or greater than that of their parents.
Miller, C.F., Lurye, L.E., Zosuls, K.M., & Ruble, D.N. (2009). Accessibility of Gender
Stereotyping Domains: Developmental and Gender Differences in Children. Sex
Roles, 60, 870-881.
Miller et al. (2009) examine differences in gender perceptions between boys and girls.
These researchers argue that “appearance stereotypes were particularly prevalent in
descriptions of girls and activity/trait stereotypes were more prevalent in descriptions of
boys” (p. 870). Published within the last four years, the recency of this article allows the
authors to focus on relatively new concepts related to gender stereotyping, such as the
different ways that boys and girls perceive messages about gender and what they focus on
when looking at ads. The reliability of this source is indicated by its use of an analytical tool
referred to as the “Sex Stereotype Measure” which assess children’s knowledge of trait
gender stereotypes, a detailed series of methods, and key findings that support three
arguments. This source is relevant to my project because it contributes a new perspective to
the debate; one that suggests that boys and girls interpret ads in different ways.
Nelson, M.R., & Vilela, A.M. (2012). Is the Selectivity Hypothesis Still Relevant? A Review
of Gendered Persuasion and Processing of Advertising Messages. In C.C. Otnes &
L.T. Zayer (Eds.), Gender, Culture, and Consumer Behavior (pp. 111-133). New
York, NY: Routledge.
Nelson and Vilela (2012) discuss whether the Selectivity Hypothesis is still
appropriate for scholars considering the fact that this theory relies heavily on supposed
differences between males and females. The central principle behind this hypothesis is that
advertisers have to market to men and women in different ways. The recency of this article
allows the authors to look back upon older theories and scholarly assumptions and to put
Proposal and Annotated Bibliography 8
these into today’s context. This source is a reliable in the sense that it discusses previous
scientific research, defines a wide variety of academic concepts, and critiques an established
model for media studies. This source is relevant to my project because it treats gender as “an
ideology that originates from social, historical, and cultural constructs of ideas and beliefs”
(Nelson & Vilela, 2012). This is important because my project rests on this argument and
what it tells us about the influence of gender expectations when children see advertisements.