The Ringleaders of Sexism
Advertisements that involve sexism are really
intriguing to me because they are developed to draw in consumers; furthermore,
they relate to the average American. The
average consumer has to be able to share the direction of the product in order
to generate a purchase.
A male authority runs many large corporations.
This news wasn’t surprising to me when I saw this old Kenwood mixer ad, which
is run by male advertisers. This picture is insinuating that all men go to
work, hints the business suit, and all the wives stay at home to cook. “In our
society, women are socialized to care for men” (Kirk & Okazawa-Rey 4) and
are portrayed as delicate and submissive. In class we talked about how society
expects the women to do the cooking and cleaning and the men to be the “bread
winners”. What if the husband was a stay at home dad? Would a man that liked to
cook be less masculine than a man that didn’t? If a woman couldn’t cook would
she be a bad wife and mother? All these questions arise to the notion this
advertisement brings forth. Men and women need to be viewed in a more equal
light at home and in the business world.
These advertisements are really interesting because they subtly target so many people. Society is so used to the gender roles created for men and women that they do not even notice it in advertisements like this. In this specific one you cant help but notice how happy the husband and wife look playing their roles. As if the picture used in the advertisement was not enough they had to throw in the phrase "The chef does everything but cook-thats what wives are for" to solidify their message.
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