Background: As part of the nature/culture division (Ortner 1974), we see numerous representations of stupid women in popular culture. The division of the world into the male symbolic realm of culture and the female domestic realm leaves women as intellectually inferior. In popular advertising this trope is expressed in visual senses—as women’s faces are composed in such a way as to suggest stupidity—as well as linguistic senses—women are seen saying stupid things or being portrayed as unable to think for themselves without assistance of a man.
Focus on the Ads: The following ads represent a number of contexts in which the intelligence of women is devalued in advertising.
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Image 5
Image 6
Image 7
Image 8
Image 9
Image 10
Image 11
Image 12
Image 13
Image 14
Image 15
Image 16
Image 17
Image 18
Image 19
Image 20
Image 21
Image 22
Image 23
Image 24
Image 25
Image 26
Image 27
Image 28
Image 29
Image 30
Image 31
Image 32
Image 33
Image 34
Image 35
Image 36
Image 37
Image 38
Image 39
Image 40
Image 41
Image 42
Image 43
Image 44
Image 45
Image 46
Image 47
Image 48
Home
