Mona Lisa Smile and Advertisements

This past weekend, I saw Mona Lisa Smile which was a wonderful movie about a Feminist art history professor at Wellesley in 1953-54. She deals with the school’s and her student’s traditional, conservative views on women, marriage, birth control, affairs, etc. The movie was great and I highly recommend it.

One scene in particular was my favorite: pay close attention from 4:10 to 9:30. As a Communication – Media Studies major, I have an interest in advertising. In the movie, the art history professor, Katherine Watson (played by Julia Roberts) addresses advertisements as art. A student objects and she ignores, stating that years from now, people will see those ads representing the “portrait” of women in that day. At the end of the movie, during the list of credits and cast, a slection of 1950s media and advertisements gives a good idea as to what that portrait of an ideal woman was; pay close attention from 2:10 to 4:50

So here we are today, over a half century later, and what do we see. Looking back in those ads of the smiling housewife – how far have we really advanced? Women are still seen in the home, cleaning/cooking, in need of beauty tools (girdles, makeup, hair products, etc.) and sexualized.

How many times do we see this with men? Fathers taking care of their children? Men making the meal for dinner? Dad’s doing the laundry? Guys in need of nail polish, makeup, etc.? Men sexualized? Sure that may be happening a bit more today but still, it is hardly a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of ads portraying women that way in the majority of today’s media.

Here is a then and now comparison of some ads from the 50s and today:

In the home:

Cleaning/Cooking:

Beauty:

Sexualized:

How far have we really progressed in the last fifty years? In another half-century, will we have progressed any more? What will they say of us, our portrait of the ideal woman in advertisements?