”I’M YOUR MAN”

The purpose of this study is to examine how perfume advertising portrays men and women from a gender perspective. This qualitative study uses multimodal critical discourse analysis as a method and theory to analyze how the semiotic resources interact to create meaning. Furthermore, Eriksson and Machins (2019) analysis tools are used together with Goffman’s (1979) analysis tools to include gender. More specifically, this study examines how the male and female gender roles are represented in a commercial from Dior’s campaign ”DIOR HOMME”. Furthermore, it is studied whether the
commercial maintains or opposes the gender norms that exist for men and women based on Hirdman’s gender contract.

The questions were designed to achieve the purpose of the study. Question number one asked how the male and female gender roles are represented in the commercial to see how gender roles are portrayed in the interaction between text, speech and image. The second question asked in what ways the commercial maintains or opposes the gender norms that exist for men and women to see if it corresponds to Hirdman’s (1988) theory of the gender contract based on the discourses identified.

The results from the study show that Dior’s commercial represents the female and male gender role in a stereotypical way. The results from the analysis showed that the commercial contained underlying discourses that indicate a stereotypical portrayal of the woman as subordinate and passive and the man as confident, active and powerful. The study illustrates how this portrayal of men and women contributes to maintaining the gender norms that exist according to Hirdman’s gender contract. Through the use of multimodal critical discourse analysis and other theoretical frameworks, we have been able to identify a problem that otherwise risks being overlooked.