Femininity is a product of society’s constructs that entails a set of behaviors, roles, and attributes that are related to girls and women alike. Culture and the society at large play a significant role in constructing what is perceived as femininity. Hence, there is variation to what is perceived as feminine from one culture to another as part of gender identity, which is commonly associated with characteristics such as sensitivity, empathy, nurturing, and emotional openness.

Femininity in Advertisements

Photo Source: Jessica Gomez

Advertisements are gradually becoming popular avenues for representing femininity. Many ads targeting females are now crafted in a way that captures their attention through portraying the normative femininity, which over time provides models of behavior to be emulated. The advertisement’s appeals are potent in sending messages of what an ideal woman should be, which is beautiful and feminine. It’s unfortunate that most ads not only influence their viewers and readers into buying their products, but also sell ideologies of femininity based on what is perceived to be the “perfect” woman. Most ads that deal with body image tend to portray femininity in the light of a flawless woman that is obsessed with her looks. Over time, this may influence girls and women to be obsessed with certain body types considered ideal and feminine. For example, the Victoria’s Secret advertisements, as well as many other female-targeted sexualizing ads, mostly depict women as sexual objects, which represent

femininity in the sense that females should be submissive and good-looking. These ads promote the stereotypes that depict women as beings who are inferior to men.

Femininity in Video Games

There are varied ways through which video games represents femininity by portraying a certain appeal about girls and women. In most video games, the female players are underrepresented and hyper-sexualized, with a majority of video games stereotyping women as being inferior to men. Hence, many game themes objectify women and promote sexual harassment, which in turn potentially shape the beliefs of the video games players in regard to femininity. For example, Grand Theft Auto Liberty City is a popular video game that represents femininity. The video game is dominated with male characters that represent the masculinity space with few females treated as sex objects by their male counterparts. In most video games’ only about 15% of characters are females, of which tend to be portrayed to be inferior to men