I wonder if these companies that released these ads are now thinking, "Wow, this wasn't a great move on our part." The following ads in the slideshow above were taken from the article, "The Outrageously Sexist Ads of the Mad Men Era That Companies Wish We'd Forget." I would suggest that advertisements today are just as sexist. In my previous posts, I have discussed that today's advertisements are very sexual in its content and present women as sex objects. However, the content in these ads are extremely different in that a lot of these ads are centered around women in the home.
Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique comes to mind when I see these ads. Friedan called to action the representations of women and how a women's role as a housewife was oppressive. Friedan discusses these representations of women in the media, "The perpetuation of housewifery, the growth of the feminine mystique, makes sense (and dollars) when one realizes that women are the chief customers of American business. . . . the really important role that women serve as housewives is to buy more things for the house." (Friedan, 1963: 197) Friedan furthers her argument in that businesses give into this type of marketing towards women, because women were socialized into being a housewife at a very young age and this role is viewed as feminine, "By portraying housekeeping and other "feminine duties" as the ultimate goal of the modern woman, "ads glorify her ‘role’ as an American housewife–knowing that her very lack of identity in that role will make her fall for whatever they are selling" (Friedan, 1963: 219)
Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique comes to mind when I see these ads. Friedan called to action the representations of women and how a women's role as a housewife was oppressive. Friedan discusses these representations of women in the media, "The perpetuation of housewifery, the growth of the feminine mystique, makes sense (and dollars) when one realizes that women are the chief customers of American business. . . . the really important role that women serve as housewives is to buy more things for the house." (Friedan, 1963: 197) Friedan furthers her argument in that businesses give into this type of marketing towards women, because women were socialized into being a housewife at a very young age and this role is viewed as feminine, "By portraying housekeeping and other "feminine duties" as the ultimate goal of the modern woman, "ads glorify her ‘role’ as an American housewife–knowing that her very lack of identity in that role will make her fall for whatever they are selling" (Friedan, 1963: 219)
The biggest question that comes to mind is would one consider current advertisements just as oppressive? Here are two advertisements with women as the main subject. Which one (or both) do you think is sexist?
The First Ad is from a 1960s Xerox Commercial.
The second ad is for a GoDaddy.com commercial which was aired during the 2005 Superbowl.
So what are your thoughts?
Resources: Business Insider, Betty Friedan's, The Feminine Mystique
No comments:
Post a Comment