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Introduction
This project is an exploration of the evolution of gender in ads over time. It seeks to show how gender roles have been protrayed in ads over time, most specifically in the female gender. The timeline spans from thr 1890's to modern day. Ads are works of art that seek to grab the viewers attention by relating to the viewers needs and causing them to want the porduct. In this sence these ads are a good marker of the people they seek to sell towards. -
Introduction Quote
"Advertisements are a particularly good channel
for studying values because advertisers often position
the product in relation to cultural symbols and values. (63)" Rohlinger, D. A. (2002, February). Eroticizing men: Cultural influences on advertising and male objectification. Sex Roles, 46(3/4), 61-74. -
Gold Dust Cleaning ad
A woman pictured scrubbing the floor; this is the earliest ad I could find and it is ironic that it is a picture of one of the oldest gender role stereotypes. -
1900 Soap racism and sexism
Both racism and sexism are shown in this soap ad from the 1900's that pictures a little white girl and a black baby. This plays to genders in the fact that the little girl is doing the cleaning, the rasicm is apparent. -
Circle for you're husband ad
This ad from the 1900's pictures wives as having to beg thier husbands for items. This plays to Berger's quote that "a man's presence is dependent on upon the promise that of power which he embodies(45)". A man worth his salt would get all of this for his woman and all these items are for cleaning and cooking which was the gender role of the time for women. Berger, J. (1977). Ways of seeing. New York: Penguin. pp. 45-64. -
Proposal 1900's
This ad shows the role of a man yielding himself to a women in order to ask her to marry him and this is something that has rarely changed in the last 110 years. Why? -
Kitchen Bouquet
Typical picture of a women in a kitchen. In 'I'm Not a Feminist....But' by S Douglas the point that even in 1992 which became known as the Year of the Women when five seats in the senate were women most the food and cleaning ads target women and this all stems back to ads like these -
1910's Make up ad
Pictured a women using lipstick in almost demonic scene with the satyrs and flames. This piece is as much art as ad to me. As Horowitz said art by any defintion "must originate in the mind (6)". I would tend to think this shows the evils of makeup, women doing so much in order to gain a male in hopes of preforming a carnal sin. Horowitz, F. (1992). Making connections with art. What is art, and where does it fit in? In More than you see: A guide to art (2nd ed). NY: Harcourt
Brace Jav -
1910's laundry ad
Pictured 2 women doing laundry with no man around. Again playing to the stereotype -
Corset ad
A product made just for women to make them seem skinner at great discomfort to themselves in itself is kind of sexiest This corset ad date's back to 1910 and is a great example of the things women subject themselves to in order to look better for men. We learned about these sort of things in Christian Louboutin wiki page, he was the man who brought back high heels that led to feet issue. These corsets cause pain and health problems in the hopes of attracting a male by faking something for a man. -
WW1 ad
Pictured a women in a navy costume which breaks gender roles but she still "wish"es she was a man. She is the fore-runner for Rosie the Riveter. -
1900's laundry ad
Once again a women pictured doing the laundry -
Handicapped?
In this ad the female gender is shown as a handicap to success. This is one of the early ads that wouldn't be allowed today, being a women is not a handicap to success. In the early 1900's women were oppressed by males and this is one way to reflect on how wrong we were and how we can change for the future. -
1920's beauty
Once again the face of beauty is a skinny blonde girl. This is a beauty as imposed by the male gaze -
1920's Wedding gaze
In this ad a women is pressured to keep a look that is very hard to keep by buying this product. This is one more thing that a male gaze has caused women to try and get something they can't. -
1920's Smart Women
In this ad breaks a norm for the time saying that a woman is smarter than a million man. This ad is one of the few that break the modle i think i would find. This should reinforce that women are often oppressed. This is kinda a joke toward the woman it is referring towards and is kind of insulting. -
1920's Male Gaze
This defines what a woman can be in soceity by a male gaze. This is something that still occurs today, women are suppose to act by rules imposed by men. Women are thought to be trashy if they get a tattoo or another none traditional body modification they are called trashy but if a man does it, it is considered tough. -
1920's Beauty
Once again defining beauty by a skinny made up woman. This is yet another case of male gaze defining what women should be. -
1920's Wife must make good teea
In this ad the man is going to divorce his wife because she couldn't make tea, making the females nothing more than their tea -
1920's Mommy
women pictured as the child raisers -
Vacuum for Christmas
This ad shows a woman getting a vacuum for chrismas which establishes a gender role that women want vacuums because they only do house work. -
Women's skin
In this ad a women is defined by her skin something that would never be said of a man. This furthers the role that women are the vein gender and must upkeep their skin in our to be accepted by society. This another example of a male driven ideal. -
Women csan't carry themselves
In this ad a man is carring a women making her seem helpless -
1930's Frigidityis a Women's Fault!
In this ad it is implicated that women are the fault of frigity, not their men, putting more blame on women. Another example of a male driven society pushing blame on the female gender -
1930's Obese Prejudice
This is another ad telling women to lose weight as if that is there measure. As B.C. Bresman wrote " Obese women in America are targets of one of the last remaining 'accetable' prejudices (174)". I think this shows how long this prejudice reaches and something that we must grow out of. Breseman, B.C., Lennon, S. J., & Schultz, T. L. (1999). In K.K.P. Johnson & S. J. Lennon (Eds), Appearance and
power: Dress, body, culture (pp. 173-197). Oxford, England: Berg. -
1940's Because men never cook and Women never work
In this ad the woman's place is in the kitchen, which is something that has changed with more women than men earning college educations but this shows how far we've come -
1940 Women have the power
This is one of the ads that show that women's gender role changed durning WWII to a more powerful position but that was again destoried durning the 50's -
Rosie!
Possibly the most famous ad ever Rosie the Riveter break gender roles and set the way for women to work to support the war effort. This image is ideal of this class is every way. This ad said women are all things man can be. As discussed in McClouds comic Wonder Woman make her appearence durning WWII due to female writers and dissappeared when the male writers returned after WWII, Rosie was famous on the home front and once the war ended she faded back like Wonder Woman -
Server
in this ad a women is serving a man beer at the farm. The ad pictures a older husband and wife and the wife is serving the husband. -
Men in the kitchen!
This ad breaks gender roles by placing men into a role that society would put women into. This ad is slightly sexiest towards men because they looked confused but it also shows that men do a job that men can't. S. Dougals talks about how hard it is to be a women in today's society and this shows an early version of this and ad industry using this well. Douglas, S. (1994). I'm not a feminist, but... In Where the girls are: Growing up female with the mass media. New York: Times Books. -
That time of the month
in this ad it's a women's fault she has a period and men can't forgive it. To think men couldn't/shouldn't understand the female physiology of that time of the month is wrong on some many levels. -
Wife V. Paper
in this ad the woman has to compete with the morning paper for her man's attention. This is once again a male dominated ad that the man is the center of the home and the wife has to revolve around him. -
1940's Laudry ad
in this ad its a women's job to do the laundry. Just showing the trend that laundry should be done by a woman for a man, something that is a double standard. -
Man's world
This ad pictures a lion is equal at the table to the men and woman is seated to side not having a seat at the table, assumly to geat anything they would need durning the game. This ad shows the marginalization of the female gender after WWII -
Legality of Killing a Woman
This ad ask the question of killing a women and whether it should be illegal. The murder of anyone is wrong but to catagorize a sex as being okay to kill is not okay and makes me wonder who created this ad? -
Warpath
in this ad the mom is crazed and on the warpath which makes her crazy, you'd never see a man in this place -
Women Only Really Want Appliances
in this ad the woman is hugging the man to get a fridge for "her" kitchen. This ad pictures a women having to convince her man of buying the only thing she wants things for the kitchen and laundry room. This ad reenforces gender roles again -
Harder working=cuter
To think that a women is cuter because she is working harder is a progressive idea in the scenes that it is apllyingthe male ideal for presence to women, "a man's presence is dependent on upon the promise that of power which he embodies(45)". However in this context it is saying that it should be at home int he kitchen which once again is gender role that is not fair and hurts our society. -
Burning the beer
in this ad the woman's job is to cook and that's it. This ad has a man in working clothes making his wife feel better about making a mess of dinner. This shows the two great stereotype of society women homemaker and man that provides. This ad is a great example of the sexism of the 1950's -
Serving you're man
In this ad the women is litterally on her knees serving her man, this is another ad that makes me believe that the 1950's we the golden age of sexism -
Stand Above or Falling Short
In this ad the woman is climing to get to where the men are and seemingly failing. This ad is a mockery of what women have, will and can achieve to pigeon hole them as not as good as men is ignorant. To say one sex is better than the other is even worse. Is one of the ad that has made me think that the 1950's we the golden age of sexism -
1950's To dumb to open a bottle?
In this ad the woman is so ditzy she doesn't know she can open it. This type of advertising insults a gender's intelligence and would have been out rightly shuned if it had been a man -
Man is the boss
In this ad the woman is at least in the work place but she is being dicatated over by her male boss -
She's got a gun
This ad breaks gender roles by placing a women with a gun hunting. This ad is good in the since that it shows that women aren't just clothes and dish washer -
Manliness
the classic male figure the marlboro man -
Hearts=washing machine
Women back in the laundry room playing into the stereotype again -
1960's Spousal abuse is funny?
Pictured a woman spanking a women like a child. This lowers a women to being a child and that its okay to punisher her by hitting her. Physical violence is hardly okay and when applied to women is never okay. This ad actually sickened me. -
Where she belongs
the ad says it all.... -
The beginning of objectification
In these ads women are objectified and shown as caring for their man -
Santa brought a Vacuum
In this ad a woman infatuated with her new vacuum. This ad once again reenforences the women at home doing all the house work. -
Blow it on her face
A sexual reference in an ad. This not only shows the man having the object of desire he is rubbing it in the face of the women that she doesn't have it -
1970's Gay cologne
I think this ad shows that gay and lesbian people gained more acceptance in the 1970's but have yet to gain total acceptance. This is about the same time Harvey Milk was elected in San Fransico which makes me think this is a good marker for progress -
1970's Trophy wife?
in this ad women are trophies. -
1970's Laundry
Once again the women only gets love because she is doing laundry -
1970's Logger's are mannly
Showing: For men, the notion of masculinity, the cultural definition of manhood, serves as the primary building
block of sexuality. It is through our understanding
of masculinity that we construct a sexuality, and it is
through our sexualities that we confirm the successful
construction of our gender identity. Gender informs
sexuality; sexuality confirms gender. (p. 367) Rohlinger, D. A. (2002, February). Eroticizing men: Cultural influences on advertising and male objectification. Sex Roles -
1980's Bud
In this ad women are objectified just for looks. This is the first ad that I found that appealed to the male gaze of women looks and the body. Objectification can be defined as "involves the act of disregarding the personal and intellectual abilities and capabilities of a female; and reducing a woman's worth or role in society to that of an instrument for the sexual pleasure that she can produce in the mind of another,"
http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/ -
Men at work
This ad implies that men working is more important, men working denotes that something important is happening in this case they tie that to this drink. This is a cultural tie that shows a bias that still is around today -
House work=in shape
This ad implies that women should cleaen and keep their weight down -
Steak and Beer
This ad plays to male stereotypes. This ad plays to the stereotype that all men love steak and beer, which is not true. -
Women are for cooking
In this ad women are just cooks -
1980's 5
This ad implies that women don't buy things themselves -
Weak
this ad makes it look like woman are so weak that they are brought to their knees by a scent -
Cutting Fruit
In this ad she in underware and using a knife and brings aspects of bothes sexes into play -
1990's tanning?
This ad objectifies women again. All this ad is look at this woman's body oh and our name is on her abs. These ads also make unrealistic goals for our countries young women. -
1990's
This ad objectifies and defines women's looks for beauty. This is an image of the male gaze as applied to women. -
2000 Snow and Bikinis?
Pictured are women as sexual objects -
2000's Dad and baby
In this ad a man is helping with a babe, showing a changing gender role. I was raised by a work at home dad and this was once rare but is becoming more common and i think this ad touches on it nicely -
2000's really?
objectifies women as sex objects. These ads show women as nothing more than sex toys, this is a male gaze that impresses that women are only for sex. -
2000's Porn?
these ads make women sex objects, these ads look like porn. Once again inprinting that women are for sex and doesn't show them as intelligence or hard working -
Brook Brother Ad
I think this ad reflects well, both the women and the man are in business style clothing and pictured as equals -
Girlfriends>Workouts
This ad was pulled shortly after posted but it shows that the male gender still can dominate ads even modern culture. -
2000's sexual ads
These ads make women a object of sexual satifaction and hardly even shows them as people. -
Reflection Part A.
I thought that as i made this i would slowly see a growth away from gender roles. I found that this was hardly the case, i found that in times of war gender roles were marginalized and afterwards they were reestablished. The one things i found was that sexuality became more open in ads. I think the gender roles and gazes that ads and society have been inprinting us need to be more feminine and less masculine dominated -
Reflection Part C
I believe that the ad market would do well to return to the a gender role free and less sexual ad space. This would leave more clean ads and not imprint cultural pressures on people and let them live their life free from social judgement -
Reflection Part B.
In summation the evolution of genders in ad have gone through a number of changes. One the gender roles still exist but are not as polar as they once were, women are no longer just in the bedroom and kitchen but in the workplace and eye candy. Women are now objectified in ads like never before and this happen way more often than man. This leads to the next point, sexuality has exploded in modern ad women more often than not are pictured naked or near naked and this is true of men as well. -
Work Cited for ads
Link to google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vSyYzed4cPRRrxAPghTbDZz2TSun19ZqqX2rkRNrblc/edit Quotes are cited in the capition they are used -
Written Collector's Statement
