When (Overt) Sexism Sold

Published on Thursday, May 27, 2010, by James Norton / Edit Post

The tag line: "Now she can cook breakfast again."
The image: A happy housewife making bacon, eggs, and coffee on the stovetop.
The product: Mornidine, a drug that reduces morning sickness.

Intrigued? Horrified? A recent post on I Can Has Internets does a nice job of rounding up 25 of the country's most sexist vintage advertisements. Food and drink play a major role, with the general theme being, well ...

Tag line: "The [Kenwood food processor] Chef does everything but cook—that's what wives are for!"

Yeah, the vintage "humorous" celebration of the "wife as servant" motif.  As per usual, the comments provide valuable "what are real people thinking about this" insight. There are totally reasonable sentiments such as this:

"What's funny is if you pay attention this kind of stuff still exists. When you see a commercial for a product that cleans something in the house, or has to do with cooking, who do you see in that commercial. Always a female. Same goes with racial stereotypes. In my mind it seems like not a lot has changed and either we got better at disguising it, or people are just being plain ignorant."

And, of course, other sentiments entirely such as this:

"HELL YEAH PUT THEM BITCHES IN THEIR PLACE"

Sexism is dead. And oh, yeah, I almost forgot to add: "Long live sexism."

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POST A COMMENT |6 Comments

COMMENT

  • Yeah, in advertising the only time you see a man cooking is on an outdoor grill. Any indoor cooking especially baking is portrayed by women.

    Then you have the reverse in cooking shows, so many of the cooks are male. America's Test Kitchen on PBS seems to keep the stereotype alive with the men hosting the show and doing the gadget tests while the women do all the cooking.

    There used to be a...+READ

    Yeah, in advertising the only time you see a man cooking is on an outdoor grill. Any indoor cooking especially baking is portrayed by women.

    Then you have the reverse in cooking shows, so many of the cooks are male. America's Test Kitchen on PBS seems to keep the stereotype alive with the men hosting the show and doing the gadget tests while the women do all the cooking.

    There used to be a series of ads run here in Canada by the Canadian Tire stores where Bliterypoop's (and my) nightmare of "a humorless, colorless, sexless, PC puddle" was portrayed by this really obnoxious couple. It's too bad those ads aren't on YouTube because they'd made you sick.

    At the other extreme is this ad that also ran up here. Go figure, car insurance companies like single out young people, especially single males, as bad drivers, but this company decided to pick on middle aged women instead. Take a look:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNFlhfdUEuI

    they finally took this ad off the air after 2+ years, probably when they realized they just insulted their future customers....-COLLAPSE

  • I'd much rather have fresh baked biscuits than some nasty Hardee's junk which has been sitting under a heat lamp for five hours. That commercial carries a terrible message: it's uncool and emasculating to enjoy cooking for your friends—instead, go get some fast food.

  • Wow. Guys don't bake, huh? Tell that to the Ace of Cakes, the Cake Boss, the bajillion chefs on Top Chef and other various reality cook-off shows... Sigh.

  • +1 to Blithery. Here's the all time worst commercial featuring man as stupid moron buffaloed by wife and real estate agent:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubsd-tWYmZw

  • ....and how many ads do you see that make the man look like an idiot, especially if he's the father? The woman in the ad is smarter and more capable and rolls her eyes at the hapless man. It's not as common as it was a few years ago, maybe, but you see way more ads like that than with sexism against women. Men are portrayed as horny buffoons who can't manage household chores.... yet somehow its...+READ

    ....and how many ads do you see that make the man look like an idiot, especially if he's the father? The woman in the ad is smarter and more capable and rolls her eyes at the hapless man. It's not as common as it was a few years ago, maybe, but you see way more ads like that than with sexism against women. Men are portrayed as horny buffoons who can't manage household chores.... yet somehow its wrong to call those chores "woman's work"? Just like rascism is still rascism even if it's aimed at the 'oppressor', this is still sexism.

    ....and I'm female. Either we all need to let ourselves blur into a humorless, colorless, sexless, PC puddle or we need to learn to laugh at ourselves and each other... and our less-enlightened past.-COLLAPSE

  • There are some stereotypes that'll NEVER go away, including this one. anyone agree/disagree?