Advertising and interpellation
Being a young mother in Saudi Arabia is a completely different experience from being one in Canada. Although more and more women are becoming educated and bringing money into the household, Saudi Arabia still perpetuates the stereotype that women are to stay at home, take care of the household, and raise the children. Studying in Canada has exposed me to other roles women may have, but what still remains the same is that women stay at home with the children and perform household duties. Regardless of culture, this identity is a constant. We are exposed daily to TV ads or commercials, and over time, we internalize these images and the behaviour becomes normalized. O’Shaughnessy and Stadler (2012) state that once we’ve internalized these texts and discourses, “we carry these ideologies as part of who we are” (p. 184). Studying in university while my two young children are being taken care of by someone else now makes me feel guilty, even though I know I am creating a better future for us. Society says I should be at home and allow my husband to take care of us. In Saudi Arabia, the lines between the roles of male and female are much more rigid. Although I have freedoms and love my culture, I am treated as a person who needs to be taken care of and choices to be made for me. Without the exposure to other ideals of what women can also be, I could easily have internalized this specific role, as many Saudi women do. Men tend to interpolate women as softer, more feminine creatures that need to be protected and should stay at home, and women begin to fulfill that role. As this behaviour tends to begin right at birth, “gender socialisation is one of the earliest processes of interpellation” (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, 2012, p. 185).
It was considering the role of women in Canada and Saudi Arabia that made me stumble upon the following ad to find a shocking discovery that such a rigid gender role is still pervasive in Canadian culture. This ad, featuring a full course meal including dessert from Kentucky Fried Chicken (popular in Saudi Arabia) assumes the woman does the majority of the cooking. “Mom’s Night Off” is their message, with the man swooping into the rescue to bring home the meat as a special gift for mom. It interpellates men as the ones who work outside the home and have no part in “feminine” roles such as cooking. In addition, interpellates women as being the automatic, default cook. With enough advertisement and normalization, people will internalize these roles and begin to fulfill them. In this way, “the media work as a hailing, interpellating system” (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, 2012, p. 186). This advertisement does not work on me, and in today’s Canadian society, women are being interpellated as bread winners as well as house workers, so the ad is likely to stimulate anger rather than the need to go get some KFC. Gender roles change over time, and society displays the current theme. Hopefully this is one gender role that does not make a comeback.
O’Shaughnessy, M. & Stadler, J. (2012). Media and society. Australia: Oxford University Press.
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