A heavily illustrated discussion of the ways in which men and women are portrayed in advertisements is presented. The three essays which precede the 56 pages of illustrations discuss gender expressions, characteristics of public and private pictures, and gender commercials. The author notes that advertisements do not depict how men and women actually behave; rather, they serve the social purpose of convincing us that this is how women and men are, want to be, or should be. Such an orientation accomplishes the task a society has of maintaining order. The accompanying pictures illustrate that: (1) a woman is taller than a man only when the man is her social inferior; (2) a woman's hands are seen just barely touching or caressing--never grasping or manipulating; (3) when a photograph illustrates instruction, the man is always instructing the woman; (4) when an advertisement requires someone to sit or lie on a bed, the person is almost always a woman or child; and (5) women are repeatedly shown mentally drifting from the scene while in close physical touch with a man. Also, the author makes a connection between the image of women and the behavior of children. Women are often posed acting and looking like children. Finally, the author points out that whatever a man is wearing in an advertisement, he wears seriously, whereas whatever woman is wearing appears as a costume. When we see a woman wearing formal or informal, business or sports clothes, we feel that we are watching a model play-acting. (Author/KC)