Genre and gender at work: the antithesis of man from pictorial analysis in Portuguese advertisements

Abstract

Abstract This study presents a pictorial analysis of Portuguese advertisements from a visual semiotic perspective, particularly the symbolic attributive and suggestive processes. Aiming to elucidate the relationship between genre and gender, the study explored advertising genre, masculinity in advertisements, and the antithesis of man as primary theoretical concerns. The data consisted of five pictures from Portuguese advertisements. The analysis suggests that advertisements are a textual arena where not only genre but also gender is constructed and modified in collaboration. The image of the antithesis of man coexisting with the one of normative masculinity in the five Portuguese advertisements indicates that genre and gender are mutually and simultaneously fluid, with their boundary often blurred. That advertisements are often prone to changes in their function to attract customers implies new and evolving presentation forms of genre and gender. The combination of new and conventional images of masculinity, as shown in the analysis, impacts social and linguistic practices, particularly the fact that traditional norms of defining genre and gender, despite their resemblant quality, might be occasionally challenged or reconstructed in late-modern culture.