This Avis commercial with Gabby Reece is promoting Avis, the rental car system. The commercial starts off with her being viewed as a "professional" working woman. This shows the gender message that both men and women are capable of having professional careers. This commercial does a great job showing a woman athlete as a strong independent woman, that still looks feminine. The Avis commercial seems to go against the gender roles because Gabby Reece is seen as doing what a man would be doing. She is not participating in stereotypical women gender roles such as, being in the kitchen, or dealing with children. This commercial strictly shows her being a professional women with a career. Also, the gender relations this commercial contains is that men and women are similar in the work force. In the commercial she is dressed professionally, and drives a masculine car (Chevrolet Suburban). However, all this is contradicted at the end of the commercial. It shows Gabby arriving at the beach to teach yoga, and as she gets out she talks about how large the car is that she could change into a "tight little number"in it . This now puts the gender message back to females representing sex symbols to sell something, or to get men interested by using their sex appeal. This could send the wrong message to young girls by showing them that to be successful you have to use your sex appeal. Women can be powerful, and just as successful as men. However, in order to do so they must be attractive, and use their sex appeal. I don't think society is ever going to allow this to change.
References:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEgkgdQmug8
Gia I think this is a a great commercial to show both the refusal of gender roles but also the reinforcement of them at the same time! I like your classification of the gender roles at the end, another thing I think that reinforcement of women as sex objects is present in the fact that there aren't any men in her yoga class by the beach. When the actual reality is that more and more men today are using yoga as workouts but some may see it as not 'manly' so they don't have any men being taught anything by women. Great post!
ReplyDeleteTyler Albo