How many of you have ever drank Folgers coffee? Ate
Skittles? Drank Coke? Some of these most notorious food and drank brands have
not only produced food/drinks that we know and love, but also overtly sexist
commercials and/or ads. I included a commercial that Folgers released in the
1960’s. Watch it. Do you think they would still release something like that
today? Of course not! In fact, I just saw a Folgers commercial and it was
completely different from the one they released in the 1960’s. This just goes to
show how society influences corporations and how corporations influence
society. In other words, if it wasn’t socially acceptable to advertise a
product in such a way, corporations wouldn’t advertise it (or at least I like
to think they wouldn’t). With that being said, commercials like this further
reinforced traditional stereotypical social norms and prototypes that of men
and women. At the end of the day, these monopolized corporations may have just
been trying to appeal to the then dominant view of American culture, but it
still illuminates the mentality that existed in America at that point in time.
I know plenty of older women and women that are not so
old, (40’s) that explained how when they were my age all they wanted to do was
finish high school so they could get a job, a husband, and have kids. My
grandma, for instance, and my best friend’s mom and grandma held this view.
They will tell you that that’s what every girl wanted and that that’s what was
expected of them. Now, women have a lot more autonomy and freedom to decide
first, if they want to have children, and second, when they want them – without
all of the scrutiny and stigma that would have accompanied a women in the
1900’s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5-x-9LciYA
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