Relações de gênero na publicidade: palavras e imagens constituindo identidades

Abstract

This work explores the discursive construction of gender in advertising. Our aim will be to analyze gender relations in advertisements published in magazines in order to examine feminineness in relation to masculineness. The corpus contains ten advertisements (five contain feminine representations and the other five advertisements contain masculine representations). Since printed advertising is characterized by multimodality, the analysis includes verbal and non-verbal texts. In order to analyze these texts, we propose a dialogue between two approaches: the critical discourse analysis model in three levels (social practice, discursive practice and text) according to Fairclough (2001) and the word s meaning according to Bakhtin (1979) as a specific analytical category. In order to analyze images, parameters of the grammar of visual design proposed by Kress and van Leeuwen (1996) were adopted. It was possible to confirm with this research that the meanings produced by words in the discursive practice go beyond meanings presented in dictionaries. The signs put in movement by subjects in discourse conveys ideological orientations that help to maintain or transform the actual social order. The results obtained with verbal and non-verbal texts demonstrate gender asymmetries and the occurrence of stereotypes and prejudices that still persist in our society. Based on these observations, advertising discourse helps to create and maintain not only identities, but also models of behavior that reinforce disparities.