Um die Geschlechter werben (advertising for/courting to the sexes)
Advertising for the sexes. Web-based interactive exhibition on sexism in public advertising
The project was conceived as part of a cooperation between the Chair of Micro-Sociology at TU Dresden, the Chair of Human-Computer Interaction at TU Dresden and the Office of the Equal Opportunities Commissioner of the City of Dresden. It combines the efforts of the Equal Opportunities Officer to highlight and eliminate sexist, misogynistic advertising in the Dresden public sphere with the scientific project of members of the Technical University to work out gender dichotomies and hierarchies in media discourses and images. The collection and analysis of material as well as the preparation of the first version of the short reports took place between January and October 2021 under the scientific direction of Dr. Anne-Laure Garcia. It took place as part of the research seminar "Um die Geschlechter werben" (Advertising for gender/courting to gender) for master's students in sociology at TU Dresden.
The result is an interactive, web-based exhibition for which over 80 advertising posters from Dresden's urban space were documented and evaluated, insofar as they contribute to a staging of a gender arrangement, (re)produce a hierarchization of gender categories and/or sexualize the bodies depicted. The results of the individual evaluations in the form of image and discourse analyses were summarized in a comprehensible way for non-specialists and subsequently made available on the website www.geschlechterwerbung.de. This website also contains further interesting information on the topics of gender and advertising. Two short lectures, a quiz, educational materials and reading tips invite you to reflect on your own ways of thinking and acting and to take a critical look at media gender staging.
The project and its results were presented as part of the events for the International Day against Violence against Women on 25.11.2021. In order to illustrate the symbolic violence based on media images, selected examples of the advertising posters examined were also exhibited in this context. The exhibition results can be viewed here in pdf format.
