It's easy to forget just how far women have come in the last 50 years when we still have so far to go. But indeed we are in a much better place than we were. Take a look at this compilation of ads for coffee from the 50's and 60's:
It's funny and offensive. It's so offensive that it's funny.
I laughed out loud when I first watched this. It seems more like a caricature than a realistic representation of the life of a housewife.The sad looks on the women's faces when their husbands tell them how bad their coffee is are pathetic. The condescending tones of the men make my hand itch to slap them. Was life really like this for some women? Did they really spend their days worrying over trivial little things like coffee just to make their husbands happy?
To me this notion is ridiculous. I've grown up in an age where sexism is condemned. Bigotry is not tolerated. Chauvinistic behavior is no longer passively accepted. I've grown up with the idea that I am to be treated as an equal. I sometimes take for granted the fact that it has not always been so. That these ads would even make it to air is seems ridiculous now. That's what makes them funny. But then I think about the ads on television today and I realize they aren't much better. (take note that this is from someone who has never taken a gender studies course in her life)
Sexism isn't disappearing anytime soon. Women still fight a daily battle to be treated with respect. But at least it's better than it was; a fact illustrated here by these absurd commercials.
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