Climbing the Ladder or Chasing a Dream? Men’s Responses to Idealized Portrayals of Masculinity in Advertising

Past gender research with regard to advertising has progressed through two main stages (Stern, 1999). The first wave highlighted the pervasiveness of gender stereotypes and sexist portrayals of females in advertising (Courtney & Whipple, 1983). Stern (1999) posits this wave largely did not account for the complexities that exist within people of the same sex, but instead focused on biological dichotomization. She further argues that representations in advertising convey norms and cultural expectations. Thus, men and women may take away different meanings from texts, not necessarily because of their biological maleness or femaleness, but rather in large part because of cultural conditioning. In this vein, second wave scholars sought to understand differences.