Gendered Spaces vs. Genders in Spaces
The idea of advertising is to cater to the populations that inhibit certain areas. A billboard in the rural country will cater to the demographic of farmers and needs they might encounter to run successful businesses. Billboards in a major city will cater to the materialistic consumer identities people in those cities hold. Certain spaces have been gendered by the types of advertising are portrayed. When catering to men in a specific area, that space becomes gendered and excludes women from being considered equal amongst men or inclined to be active members in this space (Rosewarne 17). Areas become gendered even when a majority of billboards have women on them. Women have been the object of gaze for men for decades. Especially in public spaces where everyone can view the object of a male’s gaze, women are represented in ways that only can be seen to appease masculine wants and tendencies. In the image below, the women are there to serve the men and satisfy any fantasies they have even when just going to get a beer.
The women’s revealing clothing and posture suggest that they are the objects of a man’s desire. This billboard will draw men in expecting this kind of appearance and attentiveness from the women working at this establishment. These types of billboards will make their way into spaces that cater towards men which can be identified as planning decisions. If a majority of men seem to occupy a space, women will most likely be used as decoration in that public space for advertising towards men (Rosewarne 18). This type of advertising catering to one specific audience creates gendered spaces in public spaces where both genders can view them.
Los Angeles is home to hundreds of billboards of all different messages and spaces. In an area that houses all different races, cultures, social classes, and sexual orientation, there is no room for gendered spaces. In terms of the urban planning and city beautification efforts, women began the removal of advertising from billboards to focus on the aesthetics and social issues that these spaces held (Gudis 170). In 2016, Mayor Garcetti started new planning for the urban areas such as Koreatown to incorporate more artwork into the public space. These efforts help combat any form of gendered advertising in these spaces inhabited by all and prevent commercialism from taking over the identity of the local communities.
Artwork can be gendered but with the Beautify Earth campaign they are focusing on the immediate impact of art that can be made on the streets. Similar to the efforts made to protect the scenic Redwood Highway from commercialism (Gudis 179) , the scenic beauty is preserved and not distracted from, instead illuminated with the art of local artists. It is a common risk that man face that if they get involved with cuty beautification they will be looked at as feminized (Gudis 175). This notion that beautifying a city can only be a woman’s job has become antiquated with efforts from our male mayor and community members. Gendered billboards and spaces that create the male gender as superior still exist, but artwork that focuses on overarching issues in our community take precedence. These efforts eliminate any efforts to create billboards that cater to men or use women as the object of the male gaze. In states like Hawaii where commercial advertising of billboards is prohibited, street beautification like the Beautify Earth campaign could be an approach to appealing to community interests and spreading art, love, and color.
