Evolving Masculinity: A Telling History
February 3, 2011
by Kathryn Ciano
|The opinions expressed herein and those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.
In a Mad Men inspired move, Newsweek is running a series of ads that reflect the evolving notion of masculinity in sales:
Sure, we haven’t invented a time machine yet. But at least we have ads. As Don Draper, the macho marketing maven at the center of AMC’s Mad Men, once put it,”advertising is based on one thing—
happiness.” Ads don’t so much create desire as reflect it, showing us who we are and what we want—even when we’re not quite sure ourselves. Last year, my colleague Tony Dokoupil and I wrote a cover story for NEWSWEEK on how the definition of masculinity—at work and at home—needs to change if America wants to stay competitive in the 21st century. One of the most rewarding parts of my research was scouring the NEWSWEEK archives for signs of how American manhood had changed already. Here are 21 of the most revealing (and/or ridiculous ads) I discovered, organized chronologically from the 1950s to the 1980s.
This is no “masculinist” blog, but it’s worth noting that masculinity’s reflection in media has evolved through the times, in part to match the way feminism has evolved.
Starting with the first image, where a woman urges her husband to hide the dishtowel he’s holding:
Marketing snapshots take us through the image of men as the sole provider for their families (“with stakes THIS high..”), to a wayward-eyed female flirting with the camera behind her man’s turned back, daring him to smoke the *exciting* pipe tobacco:
What motivates men’s decisions these days, from a marketing perspective? What motivates your brand choices?
Do you feel that a portrait in feminist evolution would reflect the same varied appeals to how women operate? Or do you think that women’s concept of femininity has evolved somehow differently than men’s?
“Do you feel that a portrait in feminist evolution would reflect the same varied appeals to how women operate? Or do you think that women’s concept of femininity has evolved somehow differently than men’s?”
Well that will give me something to think about while I’m working! My gut reaction is Ads are usually trying to sell me my place in a male fantasy I can’t relate to. Also I don’t identify with the women in ads. As far as what influences my brand choices often it is whatever brand has the least offensive ads. The Dove ads come to mind. They have gone out of their way to feature real looking women prancing around in their underwear as opposed to Barbies but they just don’t seem to get that I don’t want to see ANY women in their underwear or, worse, nude selling soap by attempting to flirt with me. It is creepy and just causes me to change the channel. I rarely watch TV any more and if I do I have the clicker in my hand and I mostly only watch TIVOed shows.
The old Virgina Slims commercials come to mind…I think they went” you’ve come along way …” and used to show evolutions in womens activities etc through time
I remember the Virginia Slims commercials! They really stand out as being unusual because they implied women could develop interesting pastimes or careers. I used to read girls fashion magazines and my conservative Mother was fine with it. I am not socially conservative as my Mom was but my rule is if the girls want to read that crap they can pay for it with their own money or ride their bikes to the library reading room. The content of women’s magazines is pretty much dictated by the advertisers and their pitch seems to be you can be sexual if you buy product or you are a bundle of flaws which you can correct by buying product. I never see you can be comfortable, you can have fun, you can be athletic, you can control your finances, you can develop a rewarding career, you can be the center of a family. Also you hardly see sexy men making the pitch, they seem to go with sexualized women making a pitch to women and I am sure those are the ads they enjoy making but they come off as creepy.
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