90 SARASOTA SCENE | MARCH 2018
on the town
“The Men Cheered”
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you see
this piece?
The men cheered
This image from World War II is interesting because it shows
that women have joined the workforce and are actually
joining the military effort and war effort. And they are valued
for what they can contribute as people beyond the fact that
they are women.
She’s somewhat of a drag
As we move into the next decade in the exhibit, we see this
resurgence in misogyny. The way women are marketed and
presented from World War II to where they are empowered
and able to contribute to the War effort. The 1950s come and
they are treated as immature and dependent and they are
forced out of the work place. We can say that this ad would
never fly today, but as we look at some of the newer ads, they
are just as shocking.
House rules!
It’s impossible to look at this image and not think of the
#MeToo Movement and women standing up to sexual
harassment in the workplace and our society in general. We
see this kind of rape culture in this piece rather nonchalantly
and as a joke. Part of the impact of looking at these images is
finding out about their sources too, and we see that this was
actually an ad for men’s pants. What does what’s going on
here (a number of men aggressively surrounding a woman)
have to do with selling pants? Hank points out that it’s not
about the product. What’s neat about this exhibit is that Hank
“House Rules!”
/www.theplayers.org