A conceptual replication and extension of erving goffman's study of gender advertisements

The analysis of visual imagery in magazine advertising can be approached directly or indirectly insofar as gender messages are concerned. Using Goffman's theoretical underpinning, some of the more subtle clues regarding gender relations, gender stereotyping, and gender roles were explored. Over 1000 advertisements, selected from Good Housekeeping, Sports Illustrated, Time, MS, Gentlemen's Quarterly, and Rolling Stone were content analyzed using Goffman's decoding behavior methodology. The results demonstrated that the feminine touch and ritualization of subordination were fairly often discovered; licensed withdrawal occurred somewhat; and relative size, function ranking, and the family very infrequently. The findings reported were provocative and suggestions for future research are enumerated.Because of the feminists the most ordinary verbal exchange between men and women now reverberates with new meaning; the most simple gesture, familiar ritual, taken-for-granted form of address has become a source of new understanding with regard to relations between the sexes and the social forces at work behind those relations (Gornick 1976, p. vii)The authors would like to express their gratitude to Tracy Ellman for his assistance in this research project, and to Richard A. Stivers, Raymond L. Schmitt, and William L. Tolone for their theoretical and methodological contributions.