When you hear the phrase Hush Puppies, think of basset hounds, and see these shoes, do you think “rugged, masculine, virile”? Because that’s what the copy says. In fact, this ad argues that wearing these shoes might make a women’s rights advocate call you a male chauvinist pig because they’re that masculine.
If this isn’t evidence of the fact that masculinity is socially constructed and changes over time, I don’t know what is.
Found at Vintage Ads.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 14
katiehippie — September 23, 2014
The price on those is amazing. Starting at $16.
Japaniard — September 23, 2014
I was always taught that advertising was designed to lie to you (hence why products never work as well at home as they did on the infomercial) seeing as they are a subset of propaganda. This ad appears to me to just be a picture of not rugged shoes desperately trying to convince its target consumer base that they actually are rugged.
The modern day equivalent to this ad would be those for Axe Body Spray. Anyone who has had the misfortune of being near someone as they apply that foul concoction knows how terrible it actually smells, so their advertisements are nothing but a constant bombardment of "Axe smells good" (placed in a humorous context so their videos spread virally) in the hope that this idea can be lodged in your head through sheer force of repetition regardless of the real-world facts.
There really is no better proof that Axe doesn't smell good and Hush Puppies aren't manly than the fact that these companies are spending so many millions of dollars trying to convince people otherwise. Starbucks doesn't have to advertise how good (read: sweet) their coffee tastes because the product speaks for itself. Axe and Hush Puppies can't do that, so they have to spend their money convincing you of something that is not the case.
Bill R — September 23, 2014
Yeah, I Japaniard is onto it. When I think of a "man shoe" in the 70s, names like Frye, Converse, Clark (Wallabees) et al come to mind. Guys were wearing a leather boots with jeans and a T-shirt, stuff like that.
Those silly-colored pimp shoes from Hush Puppy with a fashion shelf-life of a month or so would not have made the cut in the day for anyone going for a masculine look. They're way too fly.
And while we're at it, can we stop this exclusive reliance on sociological models from the 70s too? Social Construction theory is getting a bit long in the tooth, relies way to much on "nurture" to explain human behavior, and has morphed into a mantra for unreasonably denying the contributions of biological influences. And to what end I have no idea? All models are wrong and some are useful; this one is just played out...
Larry Charles Wilson — September 23, 2014
Japaniard and Bill R have said it all
Catherine — September 24, 2014
This is weird - when I saw the image I thought these were shoes for women! They just don't look masculine at all to me.
pduggie — September 24, 2014
"If this isn’t evidence of the fact that masculinity is socially constructed and changes over time, I don’t know what is."
And yet it cannot be changed in an instant by individuals. It has a reality and givenness to it at any moment.
amazing, divine thing, social construction.
Stephen — September 24, 2014
Though I do think the shoes look pretty cool, there isn't anything particularly masculine about them.
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Hanna — February 13, 2023
Restrained and sophisticated shoes, I like it, but I doubt that now it would be popular. Now everyone wears more comfortable and sporty shoes, like jordan 4 or crocs.