In an era when Halloween has become rather pornified, I was intrigued by this vintage ad which, while certainly encouraging women to play to the male gaze, suggested bewitching men instead of exposing as much flesh as possible:
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 10
Anonymous — October 30, 2010
I don't see how this is any better at all, really. It's still about playing to the male gaze, just without "those damn sluts!!1!" And the man is portrayed as predatory, too.
Kat — October 30, 2010
good comment about the predatory male role.
nomadologist — October 30, 2010
The woman on the left is dressed up as a sexy curtain, the one on the right a sexy flamingo. ;)
Syd — October 30, 2010
They're definitely still supposed to imply (imply? I mean overtly scream!) sexy. But at first glance, this appears to be an ad from probably the 1960s or early 1970s, which simply had different standards of 'sexy.'
Casey — October 30, 2010
Pornified? Do you never go outside or something? Is your entire perception of reality limited to advertising?
Ronald McDonald — October 31, 2010
As someone whose entire perception of reality IS advertising, I'm offended by your remarks. I don't even want to finish my Happy Meal, and sad clowns make not the children laugh and buy hamburgers.
Also, in case you didn't know there are entire sub-genres of porn dedicated to being outside (err, so I heard), so there's really no correlation between location status and pornification.
Oh, and Jared... Are you the Jared from Subway? We marketing icons gotta stick together so I got yer back with this anti-advertising troll, bro!
mercurianferret — November 1, 2010
Well, there is also the choice of dressing up the males in predatory costumes (a mummy and a werewolf; both portrayed as hunting people in the movies and stories). If they were dressed in other costumes, such as a knight and a doctor, then such wording would carry a MUCH different inherent message.