The Codes of Gender

How it feels

This documentary examines how advertising sells not just products but also ideas about gender. It connects these ideas to the work of a sociologist named Erving Goffman and shows how femininity and masculinity are put on display.

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What happens

The Codes of Gender is a 2010 documentary written and directed by Sut Jhally, a professor of communications at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The film investigates how advertising goes beyond the selling of product, but also the selling of social ideas; particularly through gender representations. Jhally connects these ideas to the work of symbolic interactionism established by the late Erving Goffman, a Canadian-born sociologist. The film visually demonstrates the ways in which gender is performed, the social construction of femininity and masculinity and how gender can intersect with power. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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