Up until the the later part of the twentieth century, it was a widely accepted belief that females were naturally dumber than males. As a result of this cultural belief, advertisements often used women's "stupidity" as a source of humor in selling their products.
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This ketchup bottle must be extremely easy to open if a woman is capable!
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A wide-eyed blonde, adorned with excessive amounts of jewelry. If she can drive the Mini Automatic, it must be simple driving!
Volvo follows the same theme, showcasing a television commercial that sells husbands a car that even their foolish wife will be able to handle!
This last advertisement is a personal favorite, because it shows how advertising influenced societal beliefs that females should concentrate on their beauty, not on their brains.
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I find it really disturbing that the same industry that puts out advertisements insulting female intelligence simultaneously attempts to justify itself by sending the idea that a woman's intelligence is worthless, anyway, so women should not even care.
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