Introduction

I predict that there was a lot of sexism in advertisements in the 1950s.

In the process of my English language investigation I will be looking into sexism in advertisements in the 1950s. I have created a hypothesis through theory which I have decided to test. It is a theory by feminist Pamela Morris - "Advertisements guide thinking, action and behaviour as people come to accept mainstream ideas through visuals. The most crucial of these is what it means to be a man or a woman. Ideas about how to feel, dress, look and behave, and how to interact with other men and women is the bedrock of the culture in which we live".

I will test this hypothesis by collecting advertisements rom the 1950s. I may also have to compare a few of the advertisements, but I will need to make this fair by only comparing them to modern day equivalents.

Media Text Activities

Choose an aspect of theory in your chosen area and write a paragraph or two about it in three different versions for the following APFs:

1. A men's or women's magazine e.g. Elle
2. A scientific magazine for well-educated non-English-specialists over 20 e.g. New Scientist
3. Another format of your choice

Another format of your choice - Newspaper Article

"Advertisements guide thinking, action and behaviour as people come to accept mainstream ideas through visuals. The most crucial of these is what it means to be a man or a woman. ideas about how to feel, dress, look and behave, and how to interact with other men and women is the bedrock of the culture in which we live" - Pamela Morris
Sound far-fetched or over-reaching? Think again. For many years now, advertising has been used to portray women and men as objects in order to attract buyers to products, but when do these innocent portrayls become sexist and degrading? And what is worse where women are concerned, the stay-at-home cooking/cleaning housewives they were portrayed to be in the 1950's, or the sex objects they are portrayed as nowadays?