Most of these print ads are from the age of my youth. This is the crap I grew up seeing in magazines and newspapers, and yes the concept that women were stupid, silly things incapable of doing anything other than cook, clean, and have (post-douching) sex with men was pervasive throughout society. Heaven forbid they drive a car!† Luckily, I had adults of both sexes in my youth who felt girls could grow up to do or be anything they wanted to do or be.
While the ads are really, really offensive to most people’s sensibilities today (at least I would hope so), there are a few comments about them that rankle.
These were appropriate for the era in which they were written. How does that equate to sexist, since this was the norm at that time?
So during the era of slavery, I guess it wasn’t racist to enslave people because of skin color? Really?! Just because something is the “norm” during a particular time period doesn’t excuse it. Slavery/racism was wrong then and wrong now, just as sexism was wrong then and wrong now. Ugh.
Aaaah the vintage days. I wish we were still back to these days. (For the record as well… I am a 26 y/o female. Not a male or even old enough to remember these days. But I do think they were better.)
I’m old enough to remember those days. I do not want to go back. Neither would this young thing, if she was capable of looking beyond the nostalgia of men opening doors for women and bringing them flowers. Yes, to the uneducated and those who were there to live in the middle of it, those days can seem nice, but they weren’t … not for women, anyway. Grow up, little girl.
And there was a whole argument about “women and children first” being a bad thing, and using the Titanic as an example. All I have to say about that is … today, in my jeans, t-shirt, and comfortable shoes, I am as capable of saving myself as a man of my stature and build, but put me in the clothing women wore on the Titanic, and yes, someone better be helping me into a life boat before they jump in themselves. Women were long held back by expected clothing choices, and it made it really easy to see them as being the weaker sex, when the reality was their damn clothing often made doing anything physical almost impossible, if not dangerous.††
Then I had to stop reading, because really … stupid sexist people are stupid and sexist. It’s better now than it was when I was a kid and young women. Not perfect, but better. Men and woman both have a long way to go, baby.
Footnotes- † And this concept is still with us in an all-too-strong way. Even my dear husband feels very strongly that females behind the wheels of cars are worse drivers just because they are female. Trust me, I point out his sexism every time he mentions it. Females suck no more or less at driving than men. Stupid people are stupid, regardless of gender. [↩]
- †† I can personally tell you why women in the olden days swooned so much. Wearing a historical corset for an entire day while walking around and living life, any measure of excitement or the slightest bit of physical exertion and well, I began to feel faint … because breathing is freaking HARD. So, not weaker, just being held back by clothing. I breath just fine when not wearing a metal cage around my ribs. It really wasn’t all that long ago that a woman wearing pants was seen as scandalous. I know, hard to imagine in the day and age of ubiquitous jeans wearing. [↩]