For those of you who aren't old enough to remember life before the feminist movement, I offer

[Skidmore]

a peek into the past. I found this website and I remember some of these ads. Some are a little before my time but others are not. Have a peek. I don't long for those good old days.

http://www.retronaut.co/2011/06/vintage-ad-sexism/

[PDJane]

1. I'm quite old enough to remember those days, thank you.

In fact, the place I grew up was a bit behind the times; I grew up in a place with party lines and outdoor toilets and one room school houses. I don't miss much of it, and I sure as hell don't miss those attitudes.

[abelenkpe]

3. I told my kids the other day that potties used to be outside

and they did not believe me at first. Now they want me to tell that story over and over and over. Thing is I'm no good at that story, but their grandpa would be.

[Skidmore]

40. Had a similar talk with my equally incredulous grandkids a few weeks ago.

I told them about outhouses, baths in a galvanized tub next to the coal burning stove in the kitchen, party line phones, milkman delivering all sorts of things to your door, washing machines that did not heat the water, hanging clothes in freezing weather, and a whole host of other things they could not imagine. For example, a world without iPods or videogames. And no TiVo or 500 stations of which most are blocked by their parents so they cannot watch. I think they still don't believe me that there were only 3 broadcast stations and 1 PBS and those were not on 24/7.

There has been so much change over the past 50 years--in technology and attitudes. I don't want to go back to the narrow minded bigotry of half a century ago. Apparently fewer of us left behind those attitudes that I thought.

[belcffub]

49. I still have one

at our country place... grandfathered in...

there's nothing like taking a seat with the door open to the woods... oh... and there's nothing like taking a seat on a 15 degree day with a cool updraft....

[Arkansas Granny]

6. It sounds like we grew up in similar places and circumstances. I don't miss the attitudes, either.

It was "common knowledge" back then that women were inferior to men physically, intellectually and emotionally.

[abelenkpe]

2. yikes! nt

[WillyT]

4. K & R !!!

[rfranklin]

5. Vaginal aroma seems to be a major concern...

Myself I would rather not smell Lysol down there.

[Arkansas Granny]

7. Many of those products were used as methods of birth control before the bc pill was available as

feminine hygiene. They had to be very careful with the language that they used since they couldn't exactly advertise that application. You had to kind of read between the lines.

[Skidmore]

8. That's true.

THE Talk I received from my mom at onset of puberty included a guarded venture into the land of feminine hygiene products and what else they were used for.

[cynatnite]

19. I never got that talk at all...

The reproductive and sexuality department were the one areas my family avoided.

[Zorra]

9. Aaaargh. Just when I'd started to chill out, you had to go and post this.

Actually, thanks, most of that stuff is frightening, and is a good reminder of how far we've come and how far we need to go.

[kickysnana]

10. Works both ways. The first time about 1970 I called 411 and a man answered, I hung up...

and then I because I knew that they were hiring because I worked there when it was proposed. The upside to that was that women could finally work in sales and not too long later be dispatchers, then technicians.

Ma Bell worked you split shifts for a least 7 years and your chance of being "management' was slim to none. Oh and the sanitary napkins had NW Bell stamped on the bottom, really.

[HiPointDem]

43. A friend of mine recently died at age 96. She worked all her life for Bell and became a manager.

[slackmaster]

11. It's amazing how far we have NOT come. Go to Google Images and search for things like...

sexy ads

Women aren't being portrayed so much as subservient, at least not explicitly, but they are being exploited just as much as ever.

[cynatnite]

17. A lot of those ads are made by women...

I do agree that in some cases women are plainly being exploited. No doubt about it. I also think that in today's world women have more control over their sexuality and use it as a way of empowerment.

We can be sexy or whatever and feel damn good about it. We don't have to feel shame or any other negative emotion for wanting to be sexy or show off our sexuality. Our sexuality is a part of who we are.

[Skidmore]

48. Feeling sexy is a very different thing that being given the message

that you need to be kept by a man or subject yourself to all sorts of humiliating treatment to keep a man or barter sexuality for material gain. These messages are coming through loud and clear in advertising and reality television now. I worry about our young women. I don't think there is anything liberating about shows such as The Bachelor/The Bachelorette or any of the others which require women to humiliate themselves in catfights and gutter behavior for the public to ogle.

[DLevine]

50. Exactly right. n/t

[loyalsister]

12. Doesn't really seem so long ago

The 80s featured many sexist commercials. Most notably bras, girdles...


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/01/vintage-lingerie-commercials_n_908627.html#s315148&title=Playtex_CrossYourHeart_Bra

[hifiguy]

13. Holy crap!!

That was freaky and creepy.

[MsPithy]

14. In 1978 a married woman could not have a tubal ligation,

(sterilization) without her husband signing a consent form. And, a single woman could not be sterilized at all. After all, she might change what little mind she had.

Not that long ago.

[HockeyMom]

25. In 1984 I had to sign my husband's vasectomy consent form

I guess 6 years later they thought it had to be more equal? lol

[Lugnut]

27. That's true.

I had one in 1974 and my husband had to sign a release.

[iandhr]

15. wow this is amazing in a bad way

[cynatnite]

16. Here are some real winners...

http://www.mintfactory.co.uk/blog/marketing/ads-you-will-never-see-again/

They make me cringe.

[marybourg]

18. I canceled my TV Guide subscription

in about 1965 because I was offended by their persistent vaginal deodorant ads. I felt they were out of place in a general interest, as opposed to a women's, magazine. (I stopped watching TV a few years later, when sanitary pads started appearing every evening at dinner time) I've never seen any of the ads in your post, however, and I've been literate since 1946, but looking at them now, the "put-down" ones mostly look tongue-in-cheek to me. I don't think they were meant to be taken seriously.

[jehop61]

20. Back then

I had to get my husband's permission to have a tubal ligation after my 5th pregnancy at the age of 27. He was out of the house and living with another woman at the time! Doncha just love it?

BUT, I got even, got into school, raised 5 beautiful people and became a Vice President (unlike Sarah Palin) You had to be tough back then.

[hifiguy]

21. This one really blew my mind.

[LadyHawkAZ]

22. I ran across this article years ago

has to be accessed through Wayback now because it's been deleted from the original site, but it was an awesome article.

http://web.archive.org/web/20071115000512/http://www.sheknows.com/articles/everyday-life/world/6290.htm

Imagine that for a day it's still 1970, and women have only the rights they had then. Sly and the Family Stone and Dionne Warwick are on the radio, the kitchen appliances are Harvest Gold, and the name of your Whirlpool gas stove is Mrs. America. What is it like to be female?

Babies born on this day are automatically given their father's name. If no father is listed, "illegitimate" is likely to be typed on the birth certificate. There are virtually no child-care centers, so all preschool children are in the hands of their mothers, a baby-sitter, or an expensive nursery school. In elementary school, girls can't play in Little League and almost all of the teachers are female. (The latter is still true.) In a few states, it may be against the law for a male to teach grades lower than the sixth, on the basis that it's unnatural, or that men can't be trusted with young children.

In junior high, girls probably take home ec; boys take shop or small-engine repair. Boys who want to learn how to cook or sew on a button are out of luck, as are girls who want to learn how to fix a car. Seventeen magazine doesn't run feminist-influenced current columns like "Sex + Body" and "Traumarama." Instead the magazine encourages girls not to have sex; pleasure isn't part of its vocabulary. Judy Blume's books are just beginning to be published, and Free to Be...You and Me does not exist. No one reads much about masturbation as a natural activity; nor do they learn that sex is for anything other than procreation. Girls do read mystery stories about Nancy Drew, for whom there is no sex, only her blue roadster and having "luncheon." (The real mystery is how Nancy gets along without a purse and manages to meet only white people.) Boys read about the Hardy Boys, for whom there are no girls.

In high school, the principal is a man. Girls have physical-education class and play half-court basketball, but not soccer, track, or cross country; nor do they have any varsity sports teams. The only prestigious physical activity for girls is cheerleading, or being a drum majorette. Most girls don't take calculus or physics; they plan the dances and decorate the gym. Even when girls get better grades than their male counterparts, they are half as likely to qualify for a National Merit Scholarship because many of the test questions favor boys. Standardized tests refer to males and male experiences much more than to females and their experiences. If a girl "gets herself pregnant," she loses her membership in the National Honor Society (which is still true today) and is expelled.

~more at link~

[Raine]

28. I designed a wooden mural in art/craft class in 1968 the teacher was impressed by the design

and I was to make it. The teacher wouldn't let me use the electric saw, had one of the boys in the class cut it out for me and stain it. It was done all wrong, cut and stained in a way I never intended. My mother hung it on our wall but always wondered why when anyone commented on it I said it wasn't mine. IT WASN'T MINE and I hated it. I resented that I didn't get to learn how to use the saw not to mention in the end it wasn't what I had designed. I felt no pride in the thing at all.

[hifiguy]

30. The only thing better about those days

was the music. I did have male teachers in both 5th and 6th grade, though.

And just how does a girl "get herself pregnant?" Parthinogenesis??

[lolly]

31. Well, Nancy Drew was pretty sexless

But I would suggest that she was a good role model. The lack of boys/men in her plots could definitely be seen as a good thing.

She and George(ina) and Bess solved those mysteries and took on the bad guys themselves. Ned Nickerson usually showed up at the end for a chaste hug and kiss, but the gals were doing all the heavy lifting.

[Mc Mike]

45. Lisa S. reviews "The Clue in the Clock":

Last edited Sat May 26, 2012, 05:58 AM - Edit history (1)

"...controversial...so many swears."

[malthaussen]

34. That's wrong about the Hardy Boys...

I still have many HB books from that era (well, mostly from 5-6 years earlier). The ad copy on the back is priceless -- one line is that "they think girls are all right... in their place!" (emphasis in original)

-- Mal

[progressoid]

23. I love Retronaut

Not always in a good way. I like some of the weird inventions, but the ads are often just plain old scary.

On the up-side, in many ways, we have made progress.

[RebelOne]

24. Oh, I so do remember those ads.

I think they are what turned me into a feminist.

[CTyankee]

26. I just hope to be able to educate my 3 granddaughters.

They are pretty independent,but they don't know the history of feminism. I hope to help them learn it!

[jillan]

29. Wonderful thread - thanks Skidmore for posting it. I'm at that age where

I came into my own while women were still fighting for their rights, alto we "came a long way baby" -(70s)

and here we are, having to fight once again. Unbelievable.

[awoke_in_2003]

32. K&R for those not old enough...

to remember. I remember a lot of them.

[RainDog]

33. k&r n/t

[Beartracks]

35. Wow, I like the "anti-suffrage" ad...

... published by the Progress Publishing Company!!

[jaysunb]

36. Damn it ! Skidmore, because of your post

I just lost track of time and spent 3 hours laughing and smiling down memory lane.

Thanks.

[Skidmore]

41. That is a great site. I spent a fair amount of time

on it yesterday too. Have it bookmarked now.

[EFerrari]

37. I used to commute by train into San Francisco

and was fair game for hassling-->groping to the nice suited gentlemen going home at that time. The only thing that worked to be left alone was to be reading the last prominent feminist tract of the day. Maybe they knew I was very willing to start reading it out loud to them personally or to them with it. lol

[PDJane]

38. I found out early that men crowding me was going to be overlooked..........

Until I started doing things like shoving my umbrella into their instep or asking them loudly if they wanted to exchange places. I got nasty early.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

39. Lots of stuff at www.mum.org

http://www.mum.org/kotskate.htm

[mfcorey1]

42. This is why we will not go BACK, but we will move FORWARD! nt

[Skidmore]

44. We will only if we educate the young women of the nation

to not buy into the marketing strategies of the corporations which now are strongly encouraging them to willingly opt for the role of kept woman and plaything. Educate them about where this could all slide back to if no one is willing to pick up the torch and carry it forward. I swear that humans are incapable of retaining lessons learned from the past.

[Mc Mike]

46. Looks like the Romney 'Social Policy of the '50s' that Axelrod referenced.

# 17 Explains Speaker Boehner's negotiating strategies.

[Skidmore]

47. I'd love to see an organized "We Won't Go Back" campaign on the part of women and minorities to

bolster the "Forward" campaign of the President. We can't afford to risk going back.

[Mc Mike]

53. You're 100% right, S.

Your campaign phrasing really is stronger sounding, which is interesting because it is negating a negative thing. I got some 'Enough is Enough' stickers from the Dems, for '06 I think, and it struck me as the understatement of the decade, turned campaign slogan.

Please include labor on the list of strong Dem constituencies that WON'T Go Back. We've got an axe to grind with the repugs too.

[DLevine]

51. K&R. I remember those days quite well, unfortunately. n/t

[Odin2005]

52. Those make me cringe, and I'm a guy.

The "mom is on the war path" reminds be of how common sexist crap about "hysterical women" still is, though now it's called PMS.

And women with legit gripes are still regularly dismissed and told that the problem is all in their heads.