Sexist Advertising for the 21st Century

Sexist advertising is not just a relic of the 1950s. The Atlantic notes that today’s advertisements present two speeds of sexism: “Winking Sexism”—wherein the implied sexism is “okay” because the advertisers are aware of it—and “Boomerang Sexism,” which encourages men to defend their manhood and take a stand against the feminine influence over their lives. Though it’s clear that advertising won’t shed its sexism anytime soon, we’ve come a long way from the image of “women as second-class citizens, failures, or helpless victims of male superiority. Having lost the argument that women are incompetent, American advertising has had to settle on the argument that women are attractive.”