ERVING GOFFMAN E GLI STEREOTIPI DI GENERE NELLA PUBBLICITÀ COMMERCIALE ITALIANA 1982-2017

Starting from the ideas offered by Erving Goffman, this article attempts to explain how
stereotypical representations of gender changed over time and the way in which they were used by
Italian commercial advertising. We analyzed the content of 30 advertisements in Italian magazines,
from the years 1982 to today and concluded that commercial advertising of the last 40 years in Italy
has used gender stereotypes mainly to perform its prescriptive function. It appears to provide acceptable
representations that each time aim to reassure the new behaviours of both consumers, men and
women. The attenuation of the gender display that can be observed does not correspond so much to
the end of a woman’s subordination rituals (since, indeed, the male hierarchical function seems to
be strengthened) as to the emergence of a uniformity of representations, which to a certain extent
unites men with women in impotence, both being levelled in the role of consumers.