The Codes of Gender

Identity and performance in popular culture

6.5(7)20101h 13m1

Arguing that advertising not only sells things, but also ideas about the world, media scholar Sut Jhally offers a blistering analysis of commercial culture's inability to let go of reactionary gender representations. Jhally's starting point is the breakthrough work of the late sociologist Erving Goffman, whose 1959 book The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life prefigured the growing field of performance studies. Jhally applies Goffman's analysis of the body in print advertising to hundreds of print ads today, uncovering an astonishing pattern of regressive and destructive gender codes. By looking beyond advertising as a medium that simply sells products, and beyond analyses of gender that tend to focus on either biology or objectification, The Codes of Gender offers important insights into the social construction of masculinity and femininity, the relationship between gender and power, and the everyday performance of cultural norms.

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Status
Released
Budget
—
Box office
—
Language
English
  • pop culture
  • beauty
  • sociology
  • advertising
  • gender
  • gender roles
  • femininity
  • socialization
  • power relations
  • masculinity
  • hierarchy
  • western society

Top billed cast

Behind the camera

Director

Sut Jhally

Writers

Sut Jhally

Produced in

United States of America

Videos

Release dates

  • United StatesUS

    • Theatrical13 Oct 2010

Frequently asked questions

The Codes of Gender was released on 13 October 2010.

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