Brainstorming - Gender Representation - Study Task 3 | OUGD401

This week we began to delve deeper into our questions and consider the themes and ideas that we could explore. We created some pretty intensive mind maps jotting down all the concepts and ideas we could think of related to our subject. We then shared our ideas with other students tackling the same question.
There are many themes to consider with gender representation as it is such a huge issue. However, this makes it difficult to whittle my ideas down to what I actually want to focus on - and I am still pretty undecided. However, the mind map has allowed me to focus my ideas.
I have decided to focus mainly on the sexualisation of genders. This is an obvious topic, but its still an important issue and there are countless examples that I can use for research.
During my mind mapping I considered which product advertisements represented gender in a specific way. From this, I began to consider children's toy adverts and how an early idea of sexualisation is given in a very subtle way - such as the figure and clothing of barbie dolls. I do need to be cautious of going off the advertising topic however, I would like to consider how the messages of sexualisation change dependant on the age of the target market.  I am also particularly interested in the sexualisation in the lynx adverts as this is a prime modern example of this topic.
I would then like to explore the fact that many people try and stand up against the false messages given in advertising. Despite fighting against these, people still fall victim to their tricks. I feel it is appropriate to explore various campaigns and whether these have had an affect and furthermore whether the creator of the campaign is being hypocritical! I would like to conclude with questioning whether there will be a day when the ideas portrayed in advertising will ever be correct or right.
Although this is only early days I plan to form my essay in this potential structure:

Introduction
Exploration of male portrayal with a focus on sexualisation
Exploration of female portrayal with a focus on sexualisation
Case studies (including advertising considering age of target market and adverts such as lynx)
Questioning campaigns and their affects
Conclusion and answer of initial question

Hypothesis-

Gender roles are regularly subject to separation and this is often the case with regards to the advertisement industry. Today the emphasis on sexualisation is greater than ever and impressed upon individuals at a young age. This is having a negative affect on every man and woman- even those who try to ignore its power. Today many campaigns attempt to fight the incorrect ideas portrayed by the media but the success of these is questionable. Perhaps the issues of gender representation in advertising will never be resolved .


My mind maps-