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June 13, 2012 4:26 PM   Subscribe

 
Some of the sexist ones don't look particularly vintage to me. We haven't really come very far, have we?
posted by asnider at 4:38 PM on June 13, 2012


The most horrifying one, to me, is the one telling women to douche with Lysol, which I perceive to be on a par with, say, bleach in terms of cleaning strength.
posted by fatbird at 4:40 PM on June 13, 2012 [1 favorite]


You beat me to it, fatbird. That's horrifying. Douche in itself is bad enough.. but Lysol brand douche?? Really??
posted by Malice at 4:51 PM on June 13, 2012


We haven't come very far at all - Clean and Dry Intimate Wash (links to some commentary here)
posted by vidur at 4:57 PM on June 13, 2012


more inside
posted by timsteil at 4:58 PM on June 13, 2012 [3 favorites]


Good news! You didn't burn the beer!

Bad news! It's still Schlitz!
posted by jquinby at 5:00 PM on June 13, 2012 [4 favorites]


And if you don't want a wash, there is Clean and Dry Intimate Powder and Clean and Dry Intimate Cream. Take your pick.
posted by vidur at 5:00 PM on June 13, 2012


We haven't come very far at all - Clean and Dry Intimate Wash

wat

(reads article, watches ad)

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
posted by jquinby at 5:03 PM on June 13, 2012 [2 favorites]


Good news! You didn't burn the beer!

Bad news! It's still Schlitz!


I can kind of see outside the sexism of that one, because some people are just really bad cooks. Someone should draw the same thing except swapped, then one with mm, ff, etc.
posted by Malice at 5:06 PM on June 13, 2012


"(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻"

Is there some kind of online dictionary where one can decipher this and other such symbols? It makes me feel old to not know this stuff.
posted by vidur at 5:08 PM on June 13, 2012 [2 favorites]




the one telling women to douche with Lysol
Feminine hygene song
posted by Mblue at 5:12 PM on June 13, 2012


sweet merciful..., really?!
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 5:14 PM on June 13, 2012


Bad news! It's still Schlitz!

Schlitz is better than PBR.
posted by jonmc at 5:25 PM on June 13, 2012


"Is there some kind of online dictionary where one can decipher this and other such symbols? It makes me feel old to not know this stuff."
posted by vidur

I do believe it is a man thowing a table in anger old chap.
posted by marienbad at 5:28 PM on June 13, 2012 [1 favorite]


vidur: it's Googleable. The Wikipedia list looks pretty complete, but how would I know? (I had to look it up a few weeks ago, too, but at 42 I am ancient by meme standards.)

About douching with Lysol: it was diluted substantially in water, and for another its main contents were cresols (which were used widely as surgical antiseptics), ethanol, rubbing alcohol, and benzalkonium chloride (which is the principal component of Bactine.) Harsh, yes, but not as random as it sounds.
posted by gingerest at 5:30 PM on June 13, 2012


vidur: it's Googleable. The Wikipedia list looks pretty complete, but how would I know? (I had to look it up a few weeks ago, too, but at 42 I am ancient by meme standards.)

Thanks! I did Google it (through the browser search box), but got no results. However, when searching through the Google homepage now, Google Instant completes the query with "table flip" and other useful suggestions.
posted by vidur at 5:57 PM on June 13, 2012


While it's not overtly sexist, this ad could have been designed by Don Draper if SCDP had gone after Pontiac instead of Jaguar. The chick even sorta looks like Megan.
posted by fuse theorem at 6:14 PM on June 13, 2012


Oh, I think that ad is pretty overtly sexist.
posted by KathrynT at 6:17 PM on June 13, 2012 [4 favorites]


I had no idea they were so edgy and open with M/f BDSM relationships in the '50s and '60s, some of that is pretty sexy for a mainstream ad and... waitaminnit...
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:22 PM on June 13, 2012 [2 favorites]


The other thing about the Lysol douching -- and all the rest of it -- is that the whole "feminine odor" thing was a complete smoke screen. Lysol was actually being marketed as birth control, offering to protect women against "calendar fear" and offering to remove "worries and barriers to intimacy." But at the time, it was illegal to advertise anything for any contraception purpose, so they had to come up with some other purported reason to douche with antiseptic.
posted by KathrynT at 6:22 PM on June 13, 2012 [6 favorites]


Metafilter: Lysol brand douche
posted by cmoj at 6:29 PM on June 13, 2012


Is there some kind of online dictionary where one can decipher this and other such symbols?

You can just assume it’s nothing important.
posted by bongo_x at 6:41 PM on June 13, 2012 [2 favorites]


What exactly does it mean that this woman broke 14 fingernails? That she broke all of them and then went and applied new false fingernails and broke 4 more? Or grew new ones and then months later broke more?

Also, "Women are soft and gentle, but they hit things." Out of the context of the ad, that's pretty awesome.
posted by Huck500 at 7:10 PM on June 13, 2012 [3 favorites]


Schlitz is better than PBR.

Why yes, being kicked in the balls by Wayne Rooney twice is better than being set on fire. You, sir, are correct!

I keed, I keed
posted by eriko at 7:16 PM on June 13, 2012


Oh, I think that ad is pretty overtly sexist

And creepy. It's pretty clearly fake, though -- drop shadows on a sans serif knockout font in that era just weren't done, and here's the actual ad.

Which makes it even more creepy, in some ways. Someone thought this was worth making.
posted by eriko at 7:22 PM on June 13, 2012 [6 favorites]


Wait till someone digs out American Apparel ads 100 years from now.
posted by helmutdog at 11:18 PM on June 13, 2012 [2 favorites]


If you're a fan of the Goon Show you've probably heard them refer to "Sabrina", in the same tones as Jayne (Mansfield) and Marilyn (Monroe). I'm guessing this is her.
posted by benito.strauss at 11:38 PM on June 13, 2012


That's her all right. Norma Ann Sykes, a.k.a. Sabrina, is apparently still living in Hollywood. Here is an almost obsessively detailed site about her.
posted by gingerest at 12:11 AM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]


Just to add to KathrynT's point: Lysol douches were a pretty ineffective contraceptive, but since the manufacturer wasn't explicitly advertising them as such, it wasn't their problem!

Long article on the subject from the Journal of Social History here.
posted by pharm at 1:29 AM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]


I used to find the advertisements sad and shocking for the sexism - several still are. However, I have this dark feeling now that when I read the ads, all the same worries are there, cross applied to both sexes, crammed down to younger kids, and even more exploited for commercial gain.

Take a look at the themes - Are you good enough looking? Do you smell? Can you work hard enough? Are you sexy enough?

All those themes are still present, but now because they aren't necessarily aimed at just one sex, somehow we're better off? Equal opportunity playing upon our emotions? Ick. Don't get me wrong - I'm not necessarily even blaming the advertisers - they are just picking up on themes in society. It's the societal problems the ads reflect that bother me.

So, for whatever reason, I'm actually less upset by the crazy "bad woman driver" and "you are my slave woman" type advertisements because they are so wrong and so out there we can spot them a mile away and society has somewhat identified and started to correct those perceptions. It's when I see the other ads that you could just swap some words and a male for female and have today's advertising that I get the creeps.
posted by Muddler at 6:14 AM on June 14, 2012 [1 favorite]




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