Blog seven
Both of these advertisements represent various ways women have been, “should be�, or are presented today. In the first ad, this typical 1950/1960’s scenario, a woman is clinging to her husband while posing with a Kenwood Chef kitchen appliance. She is perfectly maintained with manicured nails, beautiful curled hair, and her makeup on. She is most likely greeting her husband after a long day’s work with his meal hot and ready. This ad most likely is targeting middle class, white, heterosexual women, perhaps “homemakers�. By saying that “the chef does everything but cook—that’s what wives are for,� points out how a machine could easily replace a wife because the only thing they are good for is domestic affairs. The second ad shows an African American woman dressed in an animal print and pinned against a wall. The fact that the woman is wearing an animal print proves that many advertisements with African American women in them are often linked to nature or animalistic qualities. The fact that African American women are often linked to animalistic behaviors is demeaning and degrading to their culture and all women in general. By being pinned down it shows the oppression that many women and people of other cultures. There are dualisms present in both of these ads; the first shows that women equal machines/domestic “goddesses� and the second ad shows that African Americans equal animals. Both are degrading to people of all genders, sexes, ages, races, etc.