Advertising in the 30's to 50's era the portrayal of women.?

Question

do you think advertising in the 30's to 50's era enforced roles onto women ?

we all know the adverts, women cleaning kitchens for their husbands coming in from work, always delighted to serve their husband an mind the children..like this ad ;

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/141/330794970_b06916f3e4.jpg?v=0

do you think women felt like this is the role they should play ?

that their role is almost a secondary s*x?

just curious.. :)

Answer 1

I don't think adverts enforced roles.  The purpose of adverts is to sell products, not enforce roles.  Advertisements are designed with the intention of selling their products, and if showing women in certain roles is likely to make the products shift, that is how they will be shown.

For instance, in the thirties, an ad for laundry bleack showed a pair of elegant hands in a washing tub with the caption "Doing it yourself these days?" This was not intended to enforce a role, but to reflect the reality that far fewer middle-class housewives could afford domestic help.

Adverts aren't there to enforce roles, they're there to sell things.

Answer 2

Advertising during the Depression Era?  Who had money? Ditto for the WWII era: there were far more important things on people's minds than coffee-makers.  There wasn't even any d**n COFFEE.  Look up the term erzatz coffee - it was made mostly of chicory.  That's what was on the breakfast menu.  Rationed bread with HEAVILY rationed sugar, margarine and erzatz coffee.  And when you ran out of coupons that was it.  The end.  What advertising are you talking about, where?  On the TV that hadn't been invented yet?  Everything was rationed during the war, right down to nylon stockings (nylon was used in the manufacture of parachutes).  

"Officials didn't want people to destroy possessions that were still being used for their original purposes, but they made comparisons nonetheless: "How the beauty parlor goes to war;  The iron that used to go into a single hair dryer is enough for six hand grenades."  Even dresses were less extravagant and hemlines shorter to save on material.  Many women started wearing pants.  "Femininity" was put on the back burner, there was too much serious stuff going on.   You think while the men were landing on Omaha Beach the women of Omaha Nebraska were having their nails done?

Uh, noooo...

People salvaged absolutely everything:  

http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/exhibits/w...

And before the war, during the Depression,  people didn't have 2 nickels to rub together.

Mass consumerism was a product of the post-WWII era.  

Read a book; you'll find its all there, just waiting for you to absorb.

Answer 3

In a lot of these ads, the women seemed really beautiful and interesting but yes, I think they were portrayed as homemakers (mothers) or s*x kittens (burlesque, pinups). EIther way these were major messages about what women could provide or do for men rather than the other way around. And they always looked really happy to be in these roles. The exception that I can think of is Rosie the Riveter and We Can DO It!

Answer 4

Those women portrayed in the ads were almost always young, attractive, and beautifully made up. It certainly wasn't the reality for many women in real life. Many of them never even saw the ads because they didn't have access to magazines or TVs.

Answer 5

You mean like women going to work in factories and basically running the country during WW2?  Sure.

EDIT- Thesis huh?  Sounds like you missed a LOT of class.

Answer 6

No. more feminist claptrap

Answer 7

i think many women still follow that role. its their nature

Answer 8

It was advertised like that because that was life in that time period. No one saw it as sexist or role enforcing at that time.

Times have changed and so has the people so of course we are going to know it was sexist.

Most people see tights as a fashion crime but go back a few hundred years ago and you would see it everywhere you go.

Times change people change.

I'm sure the women of that time didnt see it as anything more than advertising products and didnt focus on the people themselves.

Answer 9

No, they re enforced the values of the time.