Conflating Sex and Gender in a Huggies Nappies Ad

Tags: children/youth, gender, marketing/brands, media, sex/sexuality, gender binary, 00 to 05 mins
Year: 2010
Length: 0:29
Access: YouTube

Summary: This diaper advertisement from Australia is an excellent illustration of how sex and gender are treated as the same thing. Sociologists have long drawn attention to the difference between sex and gender, where sex refers to biological or physiological differences such as chromosomes, hormonal make-up, and sex organs (internal and external) and gender refers to characteristics that a society or culture define as masculine or feminine. In this ad, diapers targeting physiological differences are marketed with images of gender differences (and stereotypical ones at that). I find this advertisement useful for getting students to discuss gender binaries and the difference between sex and gender.

Submitted By: Michelle Sandhoff

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