Reflective Essay on The Impact of Gender on Behavior, Marketing and Social Environment

The topic of gender is constantly present in my everyday life. Gender has consistently influenced society, and it has had an especially strong impact on people due to the stereotypes that have been generated to correlate with the typical binary genders. While society has improved to be more inclusive when it comes to the ideas and topics of gender, I noticed that the influence of binary gender roles and stereotypes is still very prominent. When looking at how gender affects me, I noticed that the influence of binary gender roles impacts many aspects of my daily life. I found that gender strongly influences behavior, marketing, and social environment. 

Gender has a significant influence on behavior. Within society, there are many expectations and characteristics that apply to each gender to be considered more masculine or feminine. These generalizations and stereotypes lead to a guideline for how to act like a specific gender and lead to assumptions being made. Personally, actions such as adjusting my body language, avoiding feminine traits, and taking on the stereotypical responsibilities, such as manual labor or some sort of combative/competitive role, are all things that fall under the stereotypical gender norm. I also noticed that many of my preferences and opinions on activities were influenced by what I subconsciously connected to be either masculine or feminine. When looking back at how I behave, I’m surprised by how much of my behavior is influenced to conform to the base expectations for masculine groupings and how my opinions are riddled with initial assumptions. I’m also surprised that gender stereotypes have an especially prominent effect on my consideration of social etiquette. I never really noticed how I got up from my bus seat, held open doors, or crossed the street at night to conform to gender etiquette. I also didn’t notice just how much influence gender has on people and their beliefs on how to act respectfully and  “correctly.” It amazes me to find how rooted gender is to our society and how people subconsciously choose to conform to these guidelines, to the point that it is almost incorporated into everything everywhere. 

Marketing has a history of incorporating gender into products and activities. When I went out shopping, I noticed many products and clothes were divided by gender through style, color, or labeling. I also noticed a difference in pricing due to the labeling, even though the products were the same. This means that corporations use gender stereotypes to target gender-based audiences. They take advantage of the influence gender has on preferences and use it as a means of profiting. I also noticed that many of the billboards and commercial signs use masculine and feminine stereotypes to assign models with activities that influence and reinforce gender characteristics. This again shows that gender influences people's preferences and highlights how corporations take advantage of this fact. This becomes even more evident when looking at the effect gender has on the internet and personalized advertisements. More often than not, I noticed that many brands on social media and shopping websites often target people based on gender. Advertisements like game brands often appealed to male audiences using objectification and male representation through models, while clothes and fashion brands often targeted female audiences through highlighting and promising better looks. Overall, I was surprised to see how companies have used gender conforming as a marketing strategy to profit through preferences.