Still Clinging to the 1950s

                                                                                                                                            Alex Schlegel

Politics of Popular Culture

Blog 2

August 1, 2014

Still Clinging to the 1950s

The 1950s was a grand era that offered immense change in America, even though patriarchal families were still at large. It seemed that each member of the family had one specific or pretty much in today sense a stereotypical role, such as woman/wife cooks and cleans, man/husband is the bread winner and the kids basically pick up on these cues, which eventually leads them replicate 1950s patriarchy. A big advancement during this era was the idea of consumerism and advertisements. Soon ads became prevalent in movies, television, magazines, billboards, etc., and many people during this time never thought to consider if these advertisements were stereotyping, racist, sexist, or even ethical. Now, fast-forward sixty years to present day. “Men and women today lead highly complex lives with multiple societal roles. Men and women are parents, businesspeople, corporate board members, friends, siblings, volunteers, and more” (Sheehan 91). From what Sheehan mentions is that everyone is equal meaning they can do or be whomever they want and no baggage attached. You can be a single mother with three kids or conform to a typical family where you have a husband/wife and two children. No matter what you do it does not matter. In today’s age you can just be, and that is okay, or is it? When it comes to advertisement it seems to be playing a different tune. It seems that there is still a hierarchy or patriarchy throughout most advertisements in terms of male and female advertising. It feels like we have come so far just to take a step back, which blurs the idea of equality in today’s society. In this blog post I will analyze modern day advertisements vs. ads from the 1950s and from this I hope you will have a better understanding of what really is going on with advertisements and how the idea of post-sexisms is not all that it is chalked up to be.

            As I mentioned earlier patriarchy use to be a standard model for families especially during the 50s and 60s, however todays model for families deals more with partnership and equality. So why are advertisements still condoning gender stereotypes? “Commercials are the vast source of gender stereotyping, because they are adapted to the specific, either male or female target, and are “the reflection of the recipient” (Wolska). 

That is they are targeted towards either a male or female audience, which ultimately brings back patriarchal ideology. For instance, take the advertisement above. This ad was displayed during 1958 and obviously represents the man or man’s hand as a dominant figure that has total control over anything and everything, in this case a female’s butt. From this you notice that the only thing shown is the women’s butt and legs, which are suppose to represent sex appeal, thus provide context that women are just man’s object of gaze. They only serve the purpose to please man physically, which stereotypes patriarchy during this era. Now lets take a look at a modern day advertisement that in theory should have no connotation towards sexism, after all we are suppose to be living in a nation of post-sexism and post-racism, sadly this is not the case.

 

As you can see in the magazine ad once again the man or his foot is shown as a patriarchal force that has total control over everything or in this sense the woman who is knelling down. It is no surprise that the woman is seen as an object of gaze. Something to “please” men, someone who is controlled. I don’t know about you but advertisements like these completely tear down the whole idea of equality and post-sexism.

            Now that we have hit on female advertisements I would like to discuss what the male ads entail both from the 1950s and now. A majority of the time men are perceived as muscluar or have great looks and tend to show dominance in the situation, if paired with a female, espically as a couple.

 

This ad was for Van Heusen ties and as you can blatantly tell it shows the man being dominate and the woman is seen as servant, someone who waits hand and foot. For the time this makes perfect sense because the typical household model is partriarchal. “If men and women appear in the commercials together, they are mainly presented as a couple or marriage. A sexual subtext is also often used in this case, even if the advertised product has nothing in common with the erotic sphere. In the situation of competition, women appear to be weaker than men” (Wolska). This ideology should have only been represented during the 50s and 60s but instead it has merged itself with modern advertisements. Once again we are stuck in a world were representations of patriarchy are still portrayed. Take for instance this Dockers magazine ad.

As you probably have already noticed these two people are a couple and what do you know the man is represented as pulling or guiding the woman, thus hinting towards patriarchy or male dominance and it’s no accident either. At first glance men probably never think twice about the position of the couple but it almost subconsciously inflates the male ego showing that he is the leader of the pack, the one that is in control. Would it be so wrong to portray this couple having the woman leading the man? I tend to think not but since we live in an age where we are constantly bombarded by ads, like these, I believe it turns the clock backwards and represents what advertisements use to be. Maybe things will change but it is too hard to say because of the constant struggle.

            Comparing two completely different eras seems like there would be huge contrasts but instead it seems there are more similarities. Advertisements from the 1950s to now have not changed immensely but instead have stayed, for the most part, constant. Women are still perceived as secondary, they clean, they cook, and they are objects of male gaze. Men on the other hand are still perceived as the financial leader or head of the household, someone who has total control over everything. If we look at lifestyles today ideologies have hugely changed. Both men and women are more independent than they ever have been but if we still are being fed sexist and gender based advertisements then how are we ever able to grow?

Works Cited

 Krytyka. Krytyka, Sept. 2011. Web. 26 July 2014. <http://krytyka.org/gender-stereotypes-in-mass-media-case-study-analysis-of-the-gender-stereotyping-phenomenon-in-tv-commercials/>.

Sheehan, Kim Bartel. Controversies in Contemporary Advertising. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc, 2014. Print.

 Writing Commons. Writing Commons, 3 Mar. 20010. Web. 1 Aug. 2014. <http://writingcommons.org/open-text/information-literacy/visual-literacy/ad-analysis/436-analyzing-ads-gender>.