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The representation of parenthood in processed milk advertisements

In 1980s, following the urbanization and industrialization, the rate of dual-earner and nuclear family increased in Taiwan. The changing family form also influenced the time-distribution between parents in housework and child-caring. Men started to participate in these kinds of work. The image of ¡§New father¡¨ or ¡§New mother¡¨ also appeared in mass media. However, the images of parenthood provided by advertisements are not neutral and value-free. Thus, the aims of this study are to discover the power relationship and sex ideology through using semiotics to analyze the parenthood¡¦s images on advertisements in Taiwan. 15 processed milk advertisements are chosen as the samples for this study.
The major findings revealed that the images of parenthood in processed milk advertisements are full of patriarchy ideology. Although there are some new parent¡¦s images appeared in the advertisements, the images of parenthood are in some measure full of patriarchy ideology. Mother is still children¡¦s major caretaker in the advertisements. The distribution of child care is different. Mother has to do repetitive, scheduled and important housework like preparing lunch. In comparison, father only has to do easy caring work like playing with children. Because of the different work distribution, mother is imprisoned in the private sphere.
In addition, mother is idealized and marginalized in the advertisements. Mother can be good mother easily with the help of processed milk. However, the product, processed milk, is more important than mother in the advertising. Mother can only be completed with the help of processed milk. Mother is simplified as buyer and user of the product.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0208110-144435
Date08 February 2010
CreatorsSu, Chun-hao
ContributorsChih-Hsien Chen, Ping Shaw, Li-Ling Tsai, Hsing-Chen Yang
PublisherNSYSU
Source SetsNSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive
LanguageCholon
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0208110-144435
Rightsoff_campus_withheld, Copyright information available at source archive

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