Whenever we talk about the evolving role of women over time, especially during the last decades, it comes to mind the extensive and characteristic advertising series on the 50s, sordid, directs and imperatives, that left no doubt which was the role of women at that time – from that decade’s pin-up girls to the classic ad of the abnegated and solicit housewife resolving her life and marriage through a blender, we can see an endless number of pictures, ads, that had no intention on hiding which aspirations and occupations a woman could have.
The generation of women at that time started to speak louder, and with that voice a wide number of women’s liberation movements arise, as we all know, and thus an alleged change in commercial content and messages that were released through magazines, T.V and radio spots.
For a while now, as expected in an age where politically correct becomes popular and accepted without questioning its veracity, several studies have been done with the purpose of showing that turn on the expectations and reflection on social development of women’s life, but it is not quite necessary to be an expert in semiotics to notice there is still a long way to go.
If we observe closely at advertisement images and messages, without any analytical effort, we can see a wide number of elements that are still standing, sometimes subtly, sometimes in a more cynical way directly evoking that / woman of the 50s. Plainly comparing is much more evident; at the bottom of the discourse, the perpetuation of feminine image has remain, perhaps has changed the waywomen are talk to, but basically the message remains the same.
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| It is well known Axe's campaing about manly scent power on women, but that idea is not an innovation at all. |
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| Objectification and stereotype of women has give a tour much more direct. Mainly over physical attributes. |
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| A suffering housewife, at first example, cause she ruinned dinner in the 50s. Another woman in a dark enviroment, resembling a bit that decade, announcing cleaning products as a solution to her torment. |
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| Keeping weight at time she does housework is not the same as being 'skin good enough to eat' but the message has not change - skinny is better. |
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| Women in housework again; a "Wifesaver" cuisine with it's happy owner on one hand and a locked girl performing her job at laundry on the other. |
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| First image is pretty obvious, second one, sponsored by a car dealership, speaks about used cars in reference as the number of men existing on a woman's past. |
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| Allutson to beauty over intelligence or any other quality a woman could have is common: Most men ask 'is she pretty?' not 'is she clever' is complemented by the idea that there are certain types of women in whom the appeal is greater after drinking a beer. |
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| Animalize a woman, without space and freedom, is not a forgotten matter. |
