Remixing Gender
Have students access the student chapter Gender-Remixed Ad and explain to students that this ad, which features the action movie character Robocop, was made to promote screenings of ballet and other fine arts in movie theatres.
Have them answer the analysis questions and then take them up:
- What elements of this ad are gendered? (Robocop is gendered male and the tutu is gendered female.)
- How are those elements different from gendered ads aimed at just girls or just boys? (You wouldn’t normally heavily gendered elements mixed together.)
- What messages does the ad communicate about gender? (You could read it in two different ways: that it’s okay to mix an activity that’s gendered masculine, such as action movies, with one that’s gendered feminine; or that it’s silly to do so. Since the ad is trying to get people to see ballet and other fine arts in movie theatres the first interpretation is more likely to be the one they ad’s makers intended.)