始流 First Drops : 流行廣告與性別定型 Popular Advertisements and Gender Stereotypes (by Vanessa Lo)

編按：始流 First Drops 欄目專供同學們發表意見，書寫其對社會的觀察、探索人文藝術與人權議題之間的連結。本文作者（雙語版本）Vanessa Lo為香港聖羅撒書院中四學生。

Editor’s Notes: 始流 First Drops is a column for students to share their social observations, and to explore the link between arts and human rights issues. The author of this article (both English & Chinese versions), Vanessa Lo, is a Form 4 student from St. Rose of Lima’s College in Hong Kong.

係現今社會，好多售賣減肥產品嘅公司都會有唔同嘅推銷手法，例如海報同廣告。好似上次嘅工作坊當中，我哋討論咗一個廣告，係關於可以減肥嘅綠茶。要產品受歡迎，甚至熱賣，做唔同嘅宣傳亦都無可厚非。只不過，當中推銷嘅主角大多數都以女性為主，例如我哋討論嘅綠茶廣告。

其實大家有冇深入咁諗過當中嘅問題?係普遍人嘅心目中，女性要有纖瘦嘅要先為止靚，女性肥就等於唔靚。好多廣告商亦都會刻意醜化肥嘅人，再突顯瘦嘅人係好靚，大家對呢啲宣傳手法都已經習以為常，但係點解大家會有呢啲概念?到底點解大多數嘅推銷主角要係女性而唔係男性?點解女性一定要瘦先定義為靚?又點解大多數嘅人都覺得苗條嘅女性係可以着得比較暴露，而較肥嘅就需要着得比較遮遮掩掩？每當提到減肥產品，大家聯想到嘅會係女性朋友；提到靚嘅定義，大家會諗到「瘦」，「苗條」等等嘅字眼，究竟點解大家會有呢啲好似固定左嘅概念?雖然每個人嘅諗法都唔同，亦都冇所謂嘅啱同錯，但係呢條問題確實值得我哋去反思。由古至今，一直存在好多唔同關於性別刻板印象嘅問題，究竟點解會咁？女性嘅形象又係咪永遠都係要瘦同有苗條嘅腰先為之靚？到底大家嘅諗法又會唔會可以有朝一日改變成為男女平等嘅諗法？

In today’s society, a lot of companies that are selling slimming and weight loss products will use different marketing methods, such as posters and advertisements. During the last workshop, we discussed a green tea advertisement on weight loss. It is shown that people can lose their weight after they drink the green tea. It is understandable that they want their products to be popular or even hot, so they will adopt different marketing methods. However, most of the protagonists in the promotion are women, as in the green tea advertisement. Did you ever think deeply about the problems behind? In the mind of the general public, women’s waists need to be slender in order to be beautiful. If women are fat, then people will say that they are not beautiful. A lot of advertisers will also deliberately shame fat people in order to highlight that the people who are slim are beautiful. This makes a huge contrast and everyone has become accustomed to the propaganda techniques, but the point is that why everyone will have this concept? Why most of the protagonists in the promotion of slimming products are women, but not men? Why women will be defined as beautiful only if they are thin? Also, why people will think that the women who are slim can wear in a more exposed way, while the women who are fat need to wear in a more concealed way? Whenever a weight loss or slimming product is mentioned, everyone will associate it with women; when the definition of “beautiful” is mentioned, everyone will think of the words “skinny”, “slim” and so on. Why everyone will have these kinds of “fixed” concepts? Although everyone have different thinking, and there is no wrong answer or right answer, this question is really worthy for us to reflect about. From the past until now, there have been a lot of different problems about gender stereotype, actually what are the reasons that lead to this problem? Does a woman’s image need to be forever the same that they need to be skinny so as to be defined as beautiful? Is it possible that one day people’s thinking will change that they will have the idea of gender equality?

聽埋Vanessa關於潤物工作坊的分享呀 : )
Learn more from Vanessa about MoTH’s workshops!

潤物嘅工作坊確實令我對好多社會嘅議題有更全面嘅睇法，令我諗得更深入。同時，我又可以反省返自己係日常生活中對唔同事情嘅態度。除此之外，透過潤物嘅工作坊，我確實學到好多平時書本學唔到嘅知識，亦都啟發咗我要更加關注社會唔同嘅問題，對唔同人同事都要有同理心。

最後，我相信如果每個人都有同理心，呢個世界會變得更美好。我深信如果所有人都可以參加呢個工作坊，呢個工作坊能夠改變好多人嘅諗法。佢哋做緊嘅，未必可以改變到呢個世界好多，但佢哋確實改變咗我哋嘅思想，令我哋成為一個更好嘅人。好多野佢哋所做嘅一切，我真係好慶幸可以參加潤物嘅工作坊，我亦都好享受每一次同佢地一齊嘅時間!

MoTH workshops really allowed me to have a more comprehensive approach to a lot of social issues and made me to think deeply. At the same time, I can reflect on my own attitude towards different things in my daily life. In addition, through MoTH workshops, I did learn a lot of knowledge that I can’t learn from the books that normally I read. It also inspired me to pay more attention to different social issues and always have empathy. Finally, I believe that the world will become better if everyone can have empathy. I’m sure that this workshop can change lots of people if they can attend it. What MoTH is doing may not change the world a lot, but at least MoTH changed our minds. Massive thanks to MoTH and I really enjoy the time spent with MoTH!

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