Ponds
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The freedom of the outdoors is something that many peoplemen and women alikeenjoy every year. In its 1925 advertisement, Pond's Extract Co. plays on this feeling of freedom in addition to using the male gaze. In this paper I will explore the ways in which the advertisement uses stereotypes of the time, how it appeals to women, and how it employs the male gaze.
In 1925 women had certain roles in life. There were expectations that they rose to meet and ideals that they strove to uphold. Unlike the prostitutes that Mark A. Swiencicki's mentions in his article, "Consuming Brotherhood: Men's Culture, Style and Recreation as Consumer Culture, 1880-1930," upstanding women of the day needed to always be concerned with the image they portrayed. The clubs that young, single men had created for socialization and recreation were growing. Swiencicki writes, "in the 1920s the New York area had about 500 such clubs" (224)...