Gender Representations in East Asian Television Advertisements: Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea

Gender representations in television advertisements have been a subject of academic research for many years. However, comparatively few studies have looked into television advertisements’ gender representations in societies with a Confucian legacy, particularly from a comparative perspective. This study compares the representation of men and women in 1,694 television advertisements from Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea. It uncovers stereotypical gender representations related to age, clothing/nudity, work, authority, and beauty. Overall, gender representations were highly stereotypical in all three cultures, which may be due to a shared common cultural background based on Confucianism. In terms of the degree of gender stereotyping, Hong Kong was more gender-egalitarian than Japan and South Korea; this finding is consistent with results from some international gender indices indicating that Hong Kong is more gender egalitarian than Japan and South Korea. Finally, this talk discusses the possible effects of stereotypical gender representations on audiences.

Michael Prieler is Associate Professor in the School of Media and Communication at Hallym University, South Korea. He has worked and studied in South Korea and in Japan for more than 13 years. Prior to joining Hallym University, he received his PhD from Tohoku University and was a fellow at the German Institute for Japanese Studies. His research focuses on media representations of gender, race/ethnicity, and age. He has published on those topics in a variety of international journals, and a book entitled Advertising in the Aging Society: Understanding Representations, Practitioners, and Consumers in Japan (co-authored with Florian Kohlbacher, Palgrave MacMillan, 2016).