Gender stereotypes can be conveyed in ways that go beyond visual and linguistic expressions, new research has shown. It seems that sound and music play a role too, as the music and soundscapes used in toy commercials can influence how children perceive masculinity and femininity.
The advertising industry is extremely powerful when it comes to influencing the shape of new and established ideas, especially those associated with gender. There are multiple reasons for this: gender is easily identifiable, accessible, measurable – and, most importantly, profitable.
In order to define a brand’s “gender”, an advertiser can draw on a range of factors that include the product’s color, shape, texture, packaging, graphics, name, and so on. This type of thinking is particularly obvious in the toy industry, where gender stereotypes are used to make products more appealing to certain groups of children – an approach that has fallen under increased criticism in recent years.
But while much academic research and public scrutiny has focused on the visual factors and language used to shape these stereotypes, less work has explored the role that music plays.
“The role of music in gender representation has been largely ignored, but our findings show that soundtracks are instrumental in shaping gender perceptions from an early age,” the study’s lead author Luca Marinelli, Queen Mary University of London explained in a statement.
Marinelli and colleagues analyzed a large sample of toy commercials that played in the UK and identified clear distinctions between the music styles used for products aimed at boys and girls. For instance, commercials aimed at boys often used louder, more abrasive, and distorted music that reinforced ideas about masculinity through harsher soundscapes. For girls, in contrast, advertisers used softer, more harmonious music that reinforced gentler, traditional ideas associated with femininity.
These synergies are not incidental or a mistake; they deliberately align with established gender norms.
“Gendered music in advertising doesn’t just influence how toys are marketed—it shapes the affective experience of the commercial itself,” senior author of the study Dr Charalampos Saitis, Lecturer in Digital Music Processing at Queen Mary, added.
“Children are receiving these messages on multiple levels, and the emotional impact of the music reinforces the gender binary in subtle but powerful ways.”
For some time, the UK public has been expressing increased dissatisfaction with advertisers using hackneyed stereotypes for their products. This resistance to gendered advertising has been building to the point where it is forcing the UK’s advertising regulations to evolve to address it.
As such, the findings of this new study conform with the results of the 2019 report from the Fawcett Society that linked the exposure to gender stereotypes (what they refer to as “pink for girls, blue for boys” advertising) with various issues. The issues included body image concerns, limited career aspirations, and a higher male suicide rate.
“The consequences of these early messages are far-reaching,” Marinelli added. “Music in toy commercials is just one piece of the puzzle, but it’s a powerful one.”
Marinelli and the team viewed the influence of music through their “music-primed gender schemas”, a new psychological framework they introduced that sees music as evoking gendered meanings and expectations. Essentially, these schemas merge aesthetic and gendered meanings that prime listeners to regard certain sounds as more masculine or feminine. In advertising, these schemas can reinforce narrow gender stereotypes which then shape children’s perception of what is “right” for boys and girls.
Adverts, therefore, become “semiotic bombs”, packed with various layers of meaning that blast children with specific messages with sounds, images, and language.
These findings make sense from a historical perspective. Since the 18th century, the harp has often been seen as more closely associated with women than men due to its place in French salons, while drums are stereotypically connected to masculinity due to their role in warfare.
“These associations have become so ingrained in our collective consciousness that we rarely stop to question them,” Marinelli notes. “But they profoundly influence the way we interpret gender roles, even in something as seemingly innocuous as a toy commercial.”
“Our findings reinforce the need for more comprehensive regulation,” Marinelli argues. “It’s not just about visual and verbal content—regulators must also consider the auditory dimension and how music perpetuates limiting stereotypes.”
The paper is published in the journal PLOS ONE.
