While all of these adverts definitely existed, there are a number of things that every good media student must consider. For a start, representations are a reconstruction of reality, and by Googling 'sexist 1960's adverts" and selecting a bunch of conversation starters myself, I have reconstructed reality, and am quite frankly trying to provoke a response from my intended audience (you lot). Secondly, as we have learned, audiences are not huge, stupid masses, and we have learned that many contemporary (i.e 60's) audiences would have rejected the dominant ideological message encoded in these adverts. Thirdly, while these messages were not acceptable then and are not acceptable now, there is also a strong possibility that these adverts were meant to be read polysemically, rather than at face value, perhaps as dark humor, and were almost certainly meant to be deliberately controversial, rather than just a simple demonstration of fact. Still not acceptable, but perhaps
With this in mind, take a look at this highly selective selection of sexist American print adverts from around the 1960's and comment on the following:
What stereotypes about women are encoded in these adverts?
Stuart Hall suggested that stereotypes serve many functions. What functions do stereotypes serve here?
