From the time of their births, people are immediately put into a category by society: boy or girl. Since this beginning, people are raised to learn society’s norms of what femininity and masculinity “truly are”. Society teaches these views on masculinity and femininity through a variety of ways but a very common way is through advertisements. These advertisements are presented to people every day through magazines, billboards, and the internet. The poses in these advertisements represent different ideas about how society views the two genders. In The Codes of Gender Dr. Sut Jhally explains these different ideas and society’s views. Gender is the “cultural definitions given to the physical differences” between a man and a woman. Gender is in fact different from the word sex, though many have…show more content… Sex is the “different biological characteristics given at birth”. This means that a person is either biologically male or female. Gender is societies and cultural expectations put on the sexes. The genders are portrayed differently in advertisements through different poses. Women are often seen posing barely holding or cradling items. Jhally claims that these poses represent delicacy, being weak, and often being controlled by the environment. Women also often pose by self-touching, appearing breathless, and laying down. Self-touching represents women’s view that their bodies are delicate and need nurturing. Appearing breathless, according to Jhally, represents the idea that the world is too much to handle. Another common pose for women is laying down. Jhally claims that this pose “communicates submission, powerlessness, and dependence”. Men, on the other hand, pose completely different. Just the pose of a male hand may represent control, assertiveness,