COP 3 Essay: Working Essay Plan

To what extent do gender roles and characteristics in todays society influence product branding and packaging, in relation to skincare/personal care 

Structure 

Intro - 500 

• gender roles and characteristic today
• masculinity and femininity 
• gender as a social construct 
• outline who I’ve looked at what they discusses 
• is gender necessary in branding/link to branding , 

Gender: 2000

Establish clear definition of gender and sex and the difference

• ‘the term ‘sex’ to refer to an individual’s biological sex, whether one is male or female’ Palan (2001)
• ‘gender, on the other hand, ‘refers to the psychological traits of masculinity and femininity that exists to varying degrees across individuals’  (Fugate & Phillips, 2010)
• ‘the traditional assumption has been that just as individuals are biologically either male or female, psychologically they are either masculine or feminine’ Freimuth 
• ‘sex refers to biological factors such as genes, hormones and anatomical/reproductive structures’ Freimuth
• ‘gender is used to refer to psychological characteristics which are socially constructed as ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ Freimuth
• ‘having socially constructed the categories male and female, we implicitly deny that such categories are constructed and take them to be givens in the ‘natural world’ Freimuth
• ‘Traditionally, gender has been conceptualised at the psychological level in terms of two dichotomous categories (masculine/feminine). This conceptualisation derives from two assumptions: (a) There are clear differences between males and females on the biological level, and (b} these differences are paralleled by similar differences on the psychological level. Thus, the traditional assumption has been that just as individuals are biologically either male or female, psychologically, they are either masculine or feminine.’  Marilyn J. Freimuth

Sex and Gender - Judith Butler

• ‘Sex is understood to be the invariant, anatomically distinct, and factic aspects of the female body, whereas gender is the cultural meaning and form that that body acquires, the variable modes of that body's acculturation. 
• With the distinction intact, it is no longer possible to attribute the values or social functions of women to biological necessity, and neither can we refer meaningfully to natural or unnatural gendered behaviour’

Introduce gender as social construct 

Introduce social constructivism of gender 

• Social selves 
• Throughout this subsection Burkitt discusses gender and performance in relation to Butler, in which he discusses the idea that gender is a social construct established through performance. He discusses how a persons performance/actions determine their gender rather than a persons actions being pre-determined by gender. 
• Judith Lorber 
• Lorber also discusses the idea that no matter what women and men do they will be perceived as masculine or feminine even if they perform the same task. This is interesting when looked at in comparison to Bulters’ idea that gender is created through performance, therefor how we act defines our gender based on societies perception of our actions. 

• ‘gender is not a trait that is given at birth; it is attained through situated symbolic social interaction’ (West & Zimmerman, 1987)
• ‘gender roles consist of culturall derived actions and behaviours related to masculinity and femininity that one chooses to adopt’ Frieden (2013)
• ‘gender role attitudes refer to one’s belief about the responsibilities, roles and rights of men and women’ Frieden (2013)
• ‘social statuses are carefully constructed through prescribes processes of teaching, learning, emulation and enforcement’
• ‘Everyday gendered interactions build gender into the family, the work process, and other organisations and institutions, which in turn reinforce gender expectations for individuals’
• ‘In the social construction of gender, it does not matter what mens and women actually do; it doesn't not even matter if they do the exact same thing. The social institution of gender insists only that what they do is perceived as different’  - lorber 
• C - men and women could act the same way however due to stenotypes and bias’s created by society they will be perceived as different, when a women is confident/takes charge she’s seen as bossy when a man has confidence or takes charge he’s seen as powerful .

Gender roles and characteristic:

• how ideas of masculinity where established 
• Cohen (2001) ‘gender display is ‘the variety of ways in which we reveal, through out verbal and nonverbal demeanour, that we fit in with masculine and feminine ideas’.
• Stylish Hard Bodies: Branded Masculinity in Men's Health - Alexander (2003)
• four themes of masculinity according to Brannon (1976) with Kimmel (2001) to show how ideas of masculinity have changed over time - idea that masculinity and femininity are not fixed and respond to social and cultural changes.  
• four themes, marketplace manhood 
• ‘masculinity is generally perceived as unemotional, dominating and workplace oriented,while femininity is generally perceived as nutting, compliant and empathetic’ (Fugate & Phillips 2010)
• touch on hegemonic masculinity?
• How ideas of femininity - feminism - john storey  
• ‘Sullerot (1992) noted that women have taken over some of the characteristics and attributes that where traditionally associated with masculinity including work, knowledge, money, voting and the control of procreation and birth control’ 
• ‘masculinity and femininity are configurations of meaning and not practice, but it is only by identifying how putting these ideals into practice results in unequal power relations and distribution of resources that we can truly know if they constitute hegemonic femininity and hegemonic masculinity’ - Recovering the feminine other: 
• gender and power R.W.Connell 

Branding: 600-800?

• how gender influences branding 
• Stylish Hard Bodies: Branded Masculinity in Men's Health
• Beyond Pink it or shrink it 
• ‘how consumers perceive themselves and their brands under various usage conditions may have substantial influence on their brand attitudes and behaviour’ (Fischer & Arnold, 1990)
• ‘brand personality is defined formally here as the set of human characteristics associated with a brand’ (Aaker 1997)
• ‘product-related attributes, which tend to serve a utilitarian function for consumers, brand personality tends to serve a symbolic or self-expressive function (Kelly 1993)’
• ‘greater the congruity between the human characteristics that consistently and distinctively describe an individual’s actual or ideal self and those that describe a brand, the greater the preference for the brand’
• ‘the marketing literature suggests that the need to express masculinity and femininity through brand choices is based on the notion that gender is part of consumers’ self-concept (Freimuth and Hornstein 1982)’
• ‘gender dimensions of personality appear to be especially relevant to brands that have symbolic value for consumers attempting to reinforce their own masculinity and femininity’ - Grohmann
• ‘consumers use products as a way to define themselves to others and purchase brands with a particular personality to express their self-concept’ emotional brand personality notes
• ‘brand personality can be instrumental in helping consumers express their self-concept and provide a sense of comfort to consumers who have found a brand that ‘fits’ their self-concept’ 
• STYLISH HARD BODIES: BRANDED MASCULINITY IN MENS HEALTH MAGAZINE Susan M. Alexander 
• ‘Branded masculinity is rooted in consumer capitalism wherein profit can be produced by generating insecurity about one’s body and one’s consumer choices and then providing consumers with the correct answer or product in articles and advertisements’ 
• ‘masculinity is no longer defined by what a man produces, as in Kimmel’s discussion of Marketplace Manhood, but instead by what a man consumes’ 
•  Brannon’s ‘real men’ must today demonstrate their manliness through consumption of the right products’
• ‘In postmodern capitalist economy, both femininity and masculinity are shaped by the images incorporated in popular culture’ 
• ‘In a society based on consumer capitalism, women and men increasingly share the belief that constructing one’s gender indignity is merely a matter of purchasing acceptable brand-name products’
• ‘higher levels of product gender resulted in stronger purchasing intent; however by positively influencing affective attitude, aesthetic value, and functionality, these three variables completely mediated this effect’ - Beyond ‘pink it and shrink it’ 

Image Analysis: 1200-1500

how gender is portrayed in media 

Goffman - ‘Understood gender display not as biologically predetermined but as a performance of gender ideal that one can more or less adhere to’

Storey, Mulvey 

gendered packaging in skincare

how those targeting gender neutral market work 

Conclusion: 500

group discussion together 

what have found 

is gendered packaging necessary