FOA reflection

My FOA was about gender stereotyping in the media. I was able to address the different forms of communication in the media. I also showed how the media uses language and images to inform, persuade, or entertain.  According to my performance, I definitely  could've performed better in terms of delivering the information more relaxed and more independantly.  In terms of the criteria, C and D ( organization and language) are my weak points as I felt that I would often lose trail of the script and spend too much time to find the words, which was frustrating as my practice had proceeded much better, so conclusively my language has to be improved for audience purposes. I chose the text on the advertisements as I felt that they most strongly supported my argument of stereotypes within both genders.  I have learned that my presentation didn’t focus on language sufficiently , however it did recognize some relevant aspects. I require more practice in front of an audience to become at ease , as im trying to persuade my audience of my content and need to act accordingly. For future oral assesments  (FOAs, IOCs) I will alter the way I construct my presentation by improving the desired contents quality, becoming confident with my script and more organized with the content.
transcript: 

Part 1) The focus of this presentation will be on how men and womens roles are being stereotyped through sexist ads in the media. The main question here is, what does advertising reveal to us about society ; which will be elaborated on throughout this presentation. one sexist ad as well as comparing two, of different genders will be analyzed. 

Part 2) Gender stereotypes are over-generalizations about the characteristics of an entire group based on gender.They can have a great impact on the youth of society, compressing them into narrowed down ranges of possibilities to express themselves. This includes clothing, language, general behaviour and jobs / hobbies. The media uses advertising as an effective form of communication to mold society at their liking ; convincing the target audience to purchase the products for their well being, while keeping their own profit in the equation. Also sexism will be explored, how its behavior, conditions, or attitudes foster stereotypes of social roles based on gender.

Part 3) the first ad here does not contain any language apart from the brand, however it clearly conveys the message of male domination. The point of this ad is to get the viewers attention with half dressed and attractive men and a woman. The amount of men outnumber the woman that is lying on the floor being pressed down by a mans arms; a state of physical oppression.  Her facial expression appears to be devoted and completely at ease and her body is leaning upwards , towards the oppressor, which portrays an urge to signify her sexual attraction. The mens gazes are all longing and focused on her ; faces blank. Their bodies are slicked up with oil to accentuate their athletic physiques , which reflect on their physical dominance over the woman, whose body is built petite with soft curves, enforcing wrong body images for women. This sort of advertising emanates the wrong idea of how men and women are supposed to view each other, as well as claiming that their clothes lead to those situations. Men here are being stereotyped into emotionless perverse beings with no class apart from their expensive clothes and the woman is being stereotyped as the weakling that enjoys being degraded and mentally as well as physically underestimated. This gives off  the message that men arent capable of controlling themselves and women arent allowed to defend themselves. 

4) the following pictures are two ads with opposite genders being displayed. 

This advertisement depicts the image of an adventurous and dangerous scene, with a strongly built man hanging off the edge of a mountain, his hand being the only support. Normally such a situation is considered risky and unrational, however the milk that hes drinking seems to turn it into a glorious and manly moment. "milk for real men" is the eye catching title of this ad. It immediately throws out a standard to live up to for men, considering the mans perfect build and appearance, so in conclusion , any man that doesnt identify with the advertised figure, is not worthy of a real man. The product also promises "to build lean muscles with high protein and zero fat" . According to the ad, real men only care about gaining muscle and drinking things that make them stronger and "more of a man" . The ad is technified with the over exposure of obvious facts and effectiveness of the product. The man seems to be located somewhere in the wildness, devoid of any responsibilities. The choice of location , with the lack of clothing as well as the facial hair and tanned skin portrays him as a primitive reckless being, whose aim solely focuses on getting stronger. Additionally the ads location signifies freedom and domination for the male species, putting them on a high pedestrial. At the bottom left of the picture a description of the effectiveness is printed, claiming how "wether youre halfway through a workout or climbing a mountain, "maxi milk" will give you that extra push you need to rebuild those muscles and prevent you from getting fat." Again the benefits of the product are mentioned , as well as the name "maxi milk" whose meaning appears to derive from "maximum" hinting that the milk works to its full potential. Now, in contrast for the second ad, the first difference noticable is the location chosen. The kitchen. It is the most widely known place for a woman to be, no matter if she has a family or just a male companion, according to the media, the kitchen is the womans most favourite and suitable place to be. In this ad, a washing up liquid is being advertised to be eco friendly and totally effective in all aspects.The choices of color are mostly soft and light, with some feminine tones in there as well as trying to make the kitchen look homely. Similar to the males ad, the womans entire body is shown, which distracts the viewer of the purpose of the ad and turns down the estimation of intelligence and value of the person. The ad promises to make you feel good, knowing that the product youre using contributes to the environment as well as your families and homes health, and still does a perfect cleaning job. Chosing a woman for this ad symbolizes their obsession with perfecting everything in their reach, and thats just what the ad promised. Eventhough one can easily survive with a regular washing up liquid, throwing in vague weasel word promises of keeping the family and environment healthy, has the desired effect on the buyers that are anxious about their surroundings well being. Consequently the product will not change anything as dramatically as it promised. Also women are made to look like small insignificant things could turn their life around completely, which in turn makes their life seem meaningless and monotone, their roles already given out as cleaners and fussers, forever stuck at home . women are being presented as dominated fragile beings with low levels of intelligence and fairly high levels of naivety. Also the last part of the text adds some humour, suggesting the dishwashing to get you "rocking with the cleaning", clearly trying to appeal to women by making this chore appear pleasant.

In conclusion, what those typical advertisements reveal to us about society is that, men and women dont have equal roles and rights. Their range of possibilities is narrowed down by what seems more logical, dating back to the middle ages where mens physical dominance and rights of education were sufficient to be passed onto generations, drilling into our minds that the way we are being portrayed as both genders is acceptable. Now the media holds the upperhand, in terms of molding and shaping our society as they have a strong influence on their audience, thus holding great power of the future of our society. The way women are being stereotyped as insignificant eyecandy that has no real purpose apart from being mens muse and cleaners at home, and the way men are being told that they have to be financially as well as physically successful in order to get a reputation, women and great cars as well as being the ones that are entitled to exploring and making great impacts on our earth is exaclty what our society is based on. We've been trained to think this way, and are being restricted to think "out of the box" , creating new rules and understandings of how much power both genders actually have. Stereotyping ourselves is a pattern that is easy to comprehend, possible to remember and very clear in its messages, therefore we automatically chose stereotyping over openmindedness.