16. Gendered Voices in Children's Television Advertising

It seems that the sexism in advertising doesn't begin at the adult level. From this article I ascertained that the techniques to focus advertising towards a specific gender also include age. As a child I never noticed the gender biased language that was more than likely extremely prevalent in my youth. However, as I continued reading I started to think about ethnicity and the lack of analysis in this area in regard to commercials. Growing up multi-ethnic, I already had an identity crisis occurring. I lived with my white mother, but looked like my Mexican father I only saw on the weekends. Like most children that come from a mixed race family, the need to identify with one parent is overwhelming. In my case, I wanted to look like my mother because that was who was most popular on television. As I mentioned in my previous post, I spent a lot of time in front of the television. Not only was I subjected to gender bias in advertising, but I was overcome with a need to be like the majority of women I saw in commercials and programming, an ethnic bias, if you will. This need to identify with the images that surrounded me was also a form of social acceptance. If I looked and acted like these women then I too would have the protective white man to defend me from the evils of the world, or at least a bald man with an earring that could make my linoleum floor sparkle.