"Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider, Girls go to Mars to get more candy bars"

“Masculine characteristics are used to identify persons as males, while feminine ones [characteristics] are use as signifiers for femaleness. People use femininity or masculinity to claim and communicate their membership in their assigned or chosen sec or gender. Others recognize sex characteristics, which are usually largely covered by clothing in daily life” (Devor 567). Advertisement companies spend millions of dollars in order to target purchasers of products by utilizing characteristics that are known to different groups and stereotypes. Using what is known of masculine and feminine characteristics and what attracts females to males, Trojan Brand Condom Company has created an ad that clearly delineates between femininity and masculinity. Gender roles, behavior and attitudes can be utilized when creating an advertisement geared toward a specific gender group. Devor explains the contrast between femininity and masculinity throughout his piece; Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes.  Additionally, Trojan Brand Condoms advertisement combined with Devor's insight is an excellent example to use when examining gender roles, behavior and attitudes.

The ad by Trojan Brand Condoms is depicted by pigs at a bar/night club drinking alcohol and attempting to flirt with the women patrons. The slogan Trojan used was “Evolve. Be a man. Use a condom every time.” This slogan fits in perfectly with Aaron Devor’s Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes. Devor states, “A more even-handed description of social qualities subsumed by femininity and masculinity might be to label masculinity as general concerned with egoistic dominance and femininity as striving for cooperation or communion” (567). Meaning as a society people have deemed being masculine a person is both egotistical and dominant, while in order to be more feminine women are more cooperative and have more empathy. These stereotypes are depicted in the Trojan Brand Condoms ad. The Trojan Brand Condoms advertisement overall uses the masculine qualities which are stereotyped by society today to portray why the women need to by their product in order to protect themselves against the “piggish” ways of the male mind. 

             “..Following four main attitudes of masculinity. Persons who display success and high stats in their social group, who exhibit “a manly air of toughness, confidence and self-reliance” and “the aura of aggression, violence, and daring,” and who conscientiously avoid anything associated with femininity are seen as exuding masculinity” (Devor 570). These attributes previously described depict what the message of the Trojan Brand Condoms advertisement is trying to communicate. The pigs attempting to flirt with the elegantly-dressed women in a hip and modern bar/night club shows the stereotype that men are egotistical, dominant, aggressive, violent, and daring or also known as “pigs”. This stereotype is helping the Trojan Brand Condoms sell their product. In the background of this ad you see one actual man out of the pigs with a woman. As you can see from their smiles and body language the couple is having a great time together. This sends a message that women are more attracted to men that are very masculine, but are still responsible. The “body postures, speech patterns, and styles of dress which demonstrate and support the assumption of dominance and authority convey an impression of masculinity…body postures tend to appear more masculine” (Devor 571). Even though there is only one man in this picture the pigs still depict the male attitude that is scene is bars and night clubs. In the ad the pigs are leaning all over the women, drinking their alcoholic beverages, are trying to control the subject of conversation and the table, and the women at the tables are not enjoying the pigs’ attitudes and body language at all; which brings in the femininity of the ad. The evidence of the females not enjoying the pigs' attention is obvious in their facial expression and body language.

            The women in the ad are dressed to empress for a high-class bar/night club; expensive dresses, stone necklaces, and time-consuming hair styles. From this depiction of the women in the Trojan Brand Condom commercial one can see the stereotypes of women. “Feminine characteristics are thought to be intrinsic to the female facility for childbirth and breastfeeding. Hence, it is popularly believed that the social position of females is biologically mandated to be intertwined with the care of children and a “natural” dependency on men for maintenance of mother-child units. Thus the goals of femininity and, by implication, of all biological females are presumed to revolve around heterosexuality and maternity” (Devor 569). These women in the advertisement are clearly at the bar/night club to have a good time and potentially find a good match in a man. Going back to Devor’s look on femininity women are obviously are child bearers and to be a child bearer one must find a man. The basic, primal (not a typical feminine trait) need to find a male to procreate. In viewing the advertisement a person can see that the women are not pleased with the pigs in the bar/night club; glaring at the pig with disgusted looks, and their mouths open in shock of the behavior that the pigs have. These looks drive home Devor’s point, “women tend to excel over men at the ability to correctly interpret, and effectively display, nonverbal communication cues” (569).

It is clear that men and women view behavior differently and behave according to the stereotypes—feminine and masculine behavior. Females will react differently to the ad than males, which illustrates how the ad is geared toward males. The Trojan Brand Condom commercial illustrates how a “civilized” man (the only true human male in the ad) and the animals—hence the pigs behave and how the females behave toward them according to their masculine behavior. Stereotypes have been utilized when developing the ad to quickly and clearly illustrate how males and females behave. The ad is clearly a masculine ad, targeting males which brings power to the males in the ad as well as those viewing the ad. “It seems most likely that gender roles are the result of systematic power imbalances based on gender discrimination” (Devor 572).  

Lopez's Of Cholos and Surfers

“The most important thing I learned was that I could do just about anything I wished, within reason. I could be a surfer, if I chose and even cholos would respect my decision” (Lopez 688). As I read just a few pages of the memoir Of Cholos and Surfers by Jack Lopez one could see how the stereotypes of the early sixties shaped Lopez’s identity living in East Los Angeles and his racial identity of a Mexican American.

            As a youth, Jack Lopez desired to be a surfer. The image of a surfer was one that the twelve-year-old Jack Lopez craved to emulate.  He created an image of a surfer by wearing baggy shorts, over sized t-shirts—specifically Penny’s Towncraft T-shirts, wearing long hair that he would have to “crank” his head in order to get his hair out of his face, and going barefoot wherever he went. He frequented the local grocery store, Food Giant; to buy the magazine the Surfer Quarterly and what he considered the first step in becoming what he most desired—a surfer. Next would be to actually acquire a surfboard.

            Growing up one of Lopez’s neighbors, Lenny Muelich, owned a surfboard, specifically a “Velzy-Jacobs, ten feet six inches long, twenty-four inches wide, [with] the coolest red oval decal” (Lopez 684). Lopez was able to buy the surfboard from his neighbor for forty-five dollars. As Lopez states in Of Cholos and Surfers, Lenny grew up to become a typical Mexican gangster of the times. The image of the Mexican gangster or a cholo was “a hood, wearing huge Sir Guy wool shirt, baggy khaki pants with the cuffs rolled, and French-toed black shoes” (Lopez 684). With the “cholo” image you were respected and feared by all.

            In Lopez’s neighborhood the image of the cholo was accepted more than his desired goal to become a surfer. Lopez had gone with his father to the store to buy the next addition of Surfer Quarterly, this issue focused on the Banzi Pipeline. Engulfed in this issue Lopez was not focused on his surroundings. A cholo was walking toward him wearing “ a wool cap pulled down onto his eyebrows, a long Sir Guy wool shirt with the top button buttoned and al the rest unbuttoned, khaki pants so long they were frayed at the bottoms and so baggy [he] couldn’t see his shoes” (Lopez 687). The Mexican American wanted to fight Lopez because the image Lopez projected, one of a surfer, was not like his. Lopez states the question, “How could someone be Mexican and dress like a surfer?” The image of a cholo having a rattail comb, a knife, or even a rifle was more accepted than that of a surfer to the Mexican-American society at the time. 

            Through Lopez’s childhood he played at Will Rogers Park (city championships), went to Henry Clay Junior High, and was even approached by teachers and the principal to skip a grade. As previous described being Mexican American does not portray the image of a child being so intelligent and dedicated to his or hers work that they are able to skip a grade and excel in sports. This is the point that Jack Lopez drives home no matter what stereotypes are brought upon a person, they can over come that and succeed. Just like he did coming from the “melting pot of Los Angeles… [And] the post-World War II American dream of assimilation” (Lopez 688) that his parents and so many others believed and tried to abide by.  Lopez took this stereotype/way of life and threw it out the window to become a professor of English at California State University, Northridge, and publishing his memoir Cholos & Surfers.