9 Sickeningly Sexist Ads

1. Peeves
   November 23rd, 2008 at 12:38 am

   I'm female and played with Cabbage Patch Kids and Legos and cars and played sports..my parents only once tried to get me to be more girly (Barbies) but otherwise ignored those horrendous ads aimed at little girls. 20 years later the ads are just the same, little girls with kitchen sets and maid carts (maid carts!) next to ads with boys playing baseball. The ads must work though, otherwise they'd change em to fit our habits. So long as housework and childcare remains primarily female and men don't get much help from work or the govt in regards to their fatherhoods it'll stay the same..from age 2 through 102.

2. Gordon Freeman
   November 23rd, 2008 at 12:44 am

   As soon as people can look back on history and see that women have had the dominant role in society, these ads will cease to exist!

   Hooray history!

3. Ali S.
   November 23rd, 2008 at 12:44 am

   Madre de Dios! Some of these left me with my floor on the jaw wondering how they actually got approved. Some are downright weird and other just made me really really uncomfortable and embarrassed.

4. avraamov
   November 23rd, 2008 at 1:46 am

   so mid 20th century ads were sexist. some of the commentary on this guy's blog isn't much better...

5. Max Power
   November 23rd, 2008 at 1:56 am

   Uhhh everyone take cover, its an ism...

6. Saxon Matt
   November 23rd, 2008 at 2:18 am

   Let me tell you, Innocent is EXTREMELY sexy. And innocence doesn\'t have to mean you looking. It means not assuming the sensual. It means that smile that\'s real and not suggestive. It means not assuming the worst possible meaning of any given statement. It\'s a clean canvas, and no metal, even in your ears, it\'s going without make-up. And it sends shivers down my spine when I see a woman who\'s both adult and innocent. It drives me insane.

7. Sofar
   November 23rd, 2008 at 4:19 am

   I don't think that advertising has a lot to do with the toys that boys and girls play with. My sister and I didn't watch television when we were little, and still I liked to play with cars and my sister liked dolls. Now that we're grown up I like to tinker with junker Volvos and my sister likes to design dresses.

   I think sexism actually got a little worse in the fifties and sixties.

8. The Foreigner
   November 23rd, 2008 at 7:06 am

   Yeah, these were pretty funny in a shocking sort of way. Although I don't really think that the World War II ("You can't fight the Axis if you have VD" ad was particularly misogynistic.

   Remember, penicillin production really didn't start ramping up until 1944. So until that time, there was really no safe and effective treatment for STDs. Prevention, in the form of army-issued condoms and educational films and ads were all that they had.

   Interestingly enough, the (possibly over-frank) discussion of the VD problem during World War II can be contrasted with the puritanical avoidance of the issue during World War I.

   World War I broke out a decade and a half after the Victorian Era, so there were no army-issued condoms. No educational programs. But the army DID have sky-high syphilis rates.

   (Interesting trivia note: I once read that French prostitutes during World War I that had syphilis actually charged MORE for their services than the girls who were clean. Apparently, malingering soldiers sometimes intentionally contracted the disease in order to obtain a medical discharge - no pun intended.)

9. liphttam1
   November 23rd, 2008 at 7:55 am

   Sexism is Hidden everywere! On the old box of Battleship. The son and father are playing. At the same time the wife and daughter are doing dishes smiling. Thats Sexism right?

10. ted
    November 23rd, 2008 at 10:55 am

    The link was kinda lame.

    There is a difference between "misogynist" and "sexist".

    My question is Why do we still see stereotypes for both men and women in advertising? (seeing as how we're so much more "enlightened" these days)

11. dutchboy
    November 23rd, 2008 at 11:47 am

    Most women are now "forced" one way or another to work fulltime and still do the bulk of the housework-- and the past was misogynist?

12. JenDiggity
    November 23rd, 2008 at 11:49 am

    Because stereotypes are usually stereotypes for a reason. Ads are marketed to the masses, not the exceptions. Ads don't create the roles people most often take in society; they reflect them. As someone who LOVES being a traditional, old fashioned housewife I am constantly being told by society that I am somehow opressed or that I should feel guilty for living in a way that people see as outdated and my values are not as valid as more modern ones. Well, back when these ads were created the roles were reversed. Women, as a hole (not fixing that typo), have come a very, very long way.

13. Rich
    November 23rd, 2008 at 12:18 pm

    Yes, Trix were better when it was all spheres of goodness and not a bunch of weird shapes.Yeah, I went there.

14. Alex
    November 23rd, 2008 at 1:49 pm

    Ah, sickeningly sexist ads. I read that wrong

15. HollywoodBob
    November 23rd, 2008 at 2:05 pm

    You have to think about stereotypes as you would caricatures, it's exaggerations we notice most that help us recognize the character. You'll notice them used quite often in film and literature as ways to identify tertiary characters without having to give them any actual development. That's why you see them in advertising so much.

16. Sid Morrison
    November 23rd, 2008 at 2:44 pm

    Hey hey hey...
    Misogyny and sexism are NOT synonyms. Whilst this ads may be sexist by today's norms, they are not misogynistic.

17. ted
    November 23rd, 2008 at 6:09 pm

    My point exactly, Sid.

    And my question about stereotypes was more rhetorical than anything else. We will always have stereotypes, and thin supermodels, and men getting struck in the balls in movies.

18. Dandy
    November 23rd, 2008 at 6:19 pm

    It is a fact that there will always be those that abuse their position such as these ads promote, however...

    Did you know that the word 'administer' came from the word 'manage', which in turn comes from a Latin word meaning 'to run a household'? Which of course was the woman's job. Yes, WOMEN were the first managers.

    Today however, the role of the female in America has been perverted to that of 'just another person' and women are told that they are 'free' to shirk that responsibility and not do their job.

    And of course men are to be pitied because 'it is so hard to make a living today' that they can't do their job of providing for thier family.

    Those that believe that bunch of malarky are a stupid little sheep - easy pushovers for anyone trying to ruin a country.

19. earl
    November 23rd, 2008 at 7:17 pm

    Political correctness may disrupt the natural dynamics between men and women for a few years or for a couple of generations; but eventually it reverts to way things have always been.

20. DOJ
    November 23rd, 2008 at 7:48 pm

    Maybe there really are housewives, and maybe they are a market for some products.

    Several of the ads are sexist, but the one used in this post is not (in my opinion).

21. Rocky Rook
    November 25th, 2008 at 10:02 pm

    Pointless debate. There are shades of every color in the rainbow, so let's leave it at that.

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