الفهرس 
atement of the Research ProblemOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 459 |  |  |
| | | from | 459 | | |
Abstract
Television advertisements are aired in order to gain profits through advertising revenues. Since females are the main consumers within a given household, most of these advertisements are targeted towards them. Within television advertisements, females are typically portrayed as young, attractive and slim, so as to appeal to the target audiences in order to encourage purchases of the advertised products and services. As a result, such portrayals of females within television advertisements mainly effects young females’ self-perception which in turn effects their behavior. The research paper investigated the portrayal of females’ in Egyptian television advertisements that were aired during 2018 and 2019, using content analysis on 200 Egyptian television advertisements. In addition, 500 online questionnaires were distributed to analyze how female university students perceived the portrayal of female models in these advertisements and the effect on their self-perception. A purposive sample was used for both the content analysis and the questionnaires that were distributed to female university students in two governmental universities being Ain Shams University and Cairo University and two private universities being The American University in Cairo (AUC) and The British University in Egypt (BUE), in order to discover the effects that these advertisements had on them. It was found that the way female university students perceived the portrayal of females in Egyptian television advertisements had an effect on their self-perception in terms of their self-esteem and body image which evidently would encourage them to carry out certain actions in order to improve or maintain the ideal look that is typically portrayed in these advertisements.
Keywords: Egyptian television advertisements, female portrayal, body-image, self-esteem and self-perception
Statement of the Research Problem
Television advertisements serves as a reminder for copious products and services. For decades, Egyptian television advertisements has targeted females, using attractive, slim, and younger women who were stereotyped in traditional roles such as, housewives and mothers, as well as decorative objects and real-life celebrities in order to encourage consumption. The ideal female being white, thin, beautiful and even submissive within Egyptian television advertisements is strengthened by the use of the language and body language that reinforces this ideology. Hence, such portrayal of women in television advertisements negatively effects females’ self-perception in terms of decreasing their self-esteem and creating body dissatisfaction, due to the pressures they face since women tend to compare the female models depicted during and after viewing such advertisements. This comparison has also meant that females act out certain behaviors to try to achieve social beauty standards, by dieting or even having plastic surgery to only name a few behaviors.
The Significance of the Study
The research was significant since the researcher identified if women in Egyptian television advertisements were still depicted in stereotypical portrayals during an era where women’s rights had taken on a forefront in Egyptian society. In addition, the research was important in order to, understand how ideal images of female models that were used to sell a variety of products or services influenced female university students’ self-perception and encouraged them to carry out certain behaviors after they compared themselves to media models.
The Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study was to examine the portrayal of females in Egyptian television advertisements in terms of role, character, body, appearance as well as, female subordination through body language and the language depiction of females’ in terms of body image/size, appearance and sexual connotations in Egyptian television advertisements. In addition, how female university students, perceived the portrayal of females in Egyptian television advertisements in terms of their role, character, body, and appearance and how these perceptions effected female their self-esteem and body image and what behavior they would be encouraged to carry out after watching ideal image advertisements.
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework used within this research whether the feminist theory, objectification theory, gender-schema theory and self-perception theory did not just fit well within the research, but they also supported in the development of the content analysis categories and research statements in the questionnaire.
Research Methods
Two research methods were utilized where both qualitative and quantitative research techniques were used to collect data. The two research techniques were content analysis and surveys.
Sample and Sample Size
For the content analysis the unit of analysis was Egyptian TV channels advertisements which contained at least one female character. The advertisements were aired on the most popular Egyptian free-to-air satellite television channels such as CBC, CBC Drama, DMC, DMC Drama and ON E. A non-probability purposive sample of 200 Egyptian free-to-air satellite television channels advertisements aired from January 2018 till December 2019, where duplicated advertisements were not counted (during prime-time from 8pm-11pm being the time with the highest viewership’s), and content analysis was conducted on the chosen 200 advertisements. Advertisements that were public service announcement (PSA’s), had cartoon characters or without any female characters were excluded.
The participants for the survey were female university undergraduates, attending one of four universities being the American University in Cairo (AUC), the British University in Egypt (BUE), Ain Shams University and Cairo University (two private universities and two governmental universities). The participants of the survey were selected only from female undergraduate students since university-aged females are evolving into adulthood and this age group is when most females start to explore their identity when it comes to appearance and body image.
The sample size constituted of 500 female university students across the four years since a four-year degree programme is offered at all of the four universities for all majors. Responses were collected in the form of a questionnaire from female undergraduate university students, from all majors in the four selected universities which were the AUC, the BUE, Ain Shams University and Cairo University who participated in the research. These universities were selected using a non-probability purposive sample and data was collected through an online survey conducted on Google forms. The 500 participants were divided in to 125 responses equally from each of the four mentioned university.
Most Important Content Analysis Findings:
• Approximately half of the advertisements main characters were females.
• The majority of the supporting characters were a mixed crowd.
• The majority of television advertisements had no gender dominance, however, when there was dominance it was mainly from females.
• The traditional roles of females were very evident where females were portrayed as a mothers and housewives.
• The minority of the females portrayed were working/career positions and decision makers.
• The majority of the television advertisements portrayed females as a decorative object.
• Many advertisements showed females as physically leaning their bodies or heads, or even bending their knees which are acts of ritualization of subordination which showed submissive acts.
• The majority of advertisements females were between the ages of 20 and 35, who were a young age group.
• Most of the advertisements were for food & non-alcoholic beverages followed by advertising for female beauty products.
• Many of the advertisements had multiple location settings.
• When the kitchen was the main location setting, all of the television advertisement had either the female or female crowd as the main character(s).
• In most of the advertisements, females wore Western but non-exposing clothes.
• In most of the advertisements, females were either thin or underweight.
• In most of the advertisements, females wore a lot of makeup and were attractive.
• In all 200 advertisements females portrayed had light skin, whoever, the main character was in the television advertisements.
• In most of the advertisements, females had light brown hair.
• Most of the advertisements had either positive or negative comments (language) on appearance, beauty or attractiveness.
• The majority of the advertisements had no form of language either making females feel inferior to males or language with sexual connotations. Some advertisements had language with sexual connotations.
The results of the hypothesis found that there was a significant correlation between the main characters in the advertisements and: the females’ ritualization of subordination of the bending of the knees; females’ standing behind the man as well as, the language using sexual connotations where the man was the main character with all mentioned correlations.
The results of the hypothesis found that there was a significant correlation was found between the main characters and the females: wearing uniform (majority of main characters were male); exceptionally attractive (majority of main characters were male); blonde-haired, brown-haired and black-haired; positive or negative comments (language) on appearance, beauty or attractiveness (majority of main characters were a female crowd and female as a main character).
Most Important Survey Findings:
• The majority of female university students (respondents) perceived that females are stereotyped in Egyptian television advertisement, mostly as housewives, mothers as well as, shallow and real-life celebrities.
• Most respondents answered neutral when asked if females’ bodies and appearance in Egyptian TV advertisements were portrayed in a realistic way. Whereas many respondents also perceived that the advertisements did not portray a realistic body and appearance of Egyptian women.
• The majority of respondents felt that females that appeared in Egyptian television advertisements were attractive and had a normal/average body type.
• Most respondents agreed that television advertisements should use more realistic looking females.
• The majority of respondents had a negative perspective about the portrayal of females in television advertisements.
• The majority of respondents agreed that television advertisements are an important source of information about fashion and “being attractive.”
• Many respondents did not feel pressure from television advertisements to look pretty whereas many of them felt pressure from television advertisements to lose weight.
• Most respondents had high body appreciation where they mostly respected their body and felt that their body had at least some good qualities.
• Most respondents had moderate body-esteem.
• The majority of respondents had neutral self-esteem showing average self-esteem.
• The respondents perceived that heavier figures represented the average Egyptian female that should be portrayed in Egyptian television advertisements.
• The respondents perceived slim figures represented their ideal body size which represented the majority of females portrayed in Egyptian television advertisements.
• After viewing ideal images of females in Egyptian television advertisements, respondents perceived the models to be physically attractive, ideal and they can relate to the models’ body and style even though many respondents disagreed that the models’ body/appearance were realistic to real life Egyptian standards of beauty. The respondents also perceived that continuous exposure to such ideal images could lower their self-esteem which would simultaneously create body image dissatisfaction.
• The majority of respondents would be encouraged to carry out some actions after viewing ideal images from Egyptian television advertisements.
• Ain Shams female university students had the highest self-esteem and body appreciation, whereas, BUE female university students had the lowest body appreciation, body-esteem and self-esteem. AUC female university students had the highest body-esteem.
• The results of the hypothesis found that there was a negative correlation between:
Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance and body appreciation, self-esteem and body-esteem.
The way female university students perceived females’ image (in terms of their beauty, youth, body, idealism and objectification) presented in Egyptian television advertisements and the actions they would be encouraged to carry out after viewing ideal image television advertisements.
• The results of the hypothesis found that there was a positive correlation between:
The Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance and actions that respondents would be encouraged to carry out after viewing ideal images from Egyptian television advertisements.
The way female university students perceived females’ image (in terms of their beauty, youth, body, idealism and objectification) presented in Egyptian television advertisements and their body appreciation, self-esteem and body-esteem.
The way female university students perceived the attractiveness of females in Egyptian television advertisements and their body-esteem.
The way female university students perceived the realistic portrayal of the body/appearance of Egyptian women in Egyptian television advertisements and the actions they would be encouraged to carry out after viewing ideal image television advertisements.