Representation Alanysis

 

Representation has become a very important topic over the past few years, especially how it is portrayed in the media. A majority of the media today underrepresents or misrepresents different types of groups, such as people of different genders, races, sexual orientations, social classes, ages, etc. 

Examples of this can be seen in commercials and ads seen on TV, such as the Tide ad, where there is a little girl, who can be considered a "tomboy," dressed in a camo hoodie and cargo pants, and is playing with blocks. Her mother, who is wearing white and pink and is very neat and feminine, is explaining how Tide gets out messy stains that the daughter gets on her clothes, and she adds that "its kinda too bad" that Tide got out the stains, since if it did not, the clothes would be ruined, and the daughter would have to get rid of the boy-like clothes. The mother says very uncomfortably that they tried to have the daughter wear pink and more girly clothes, but the girl only wanted to wear boy-like clothes.

This commercial can be seen as a feminine mother wishing that her daughter would follow gender norms instead of dressing like a boy her age would, and playing with blocks as the preferred dolls or Barbies. Audiences that watch this ad could see this as a way of saying that mothers and parents of children that do not follow gender norms can become disappointed in them and are uncomfortable with it. 

there are ads that stereotype and misrepresent different types of people, there are also some ads that do a very good job with representation, such as the H&M commercial. This commercial includes shots of different types people such as different genders, sexualities, races, religions, ages, body types, in many different types of clothing and style with no stereotyping them at all. At the end of the commercial, the narrator states that "there are no rules in fashion," meaning that anyone can wear anything that they want, and that it is ok to dress in clothes that some would consider to not be a "gender norm." 

Audiences that watch this commercial can be inspired to wear clothes that they never considered wearing before because they thought that it was not right, but after seeing different types of people and people that may look like them wear the clothes they want to, they realize that it is ok to dress how they want.