Here’s What Sexist Ads From The 60s Would Look Like If The Gender Roles Were Reversed

Wives, homemakers, mothers, obedient apron wearers and weak, subservient, ambitionless robots. We’re all familiar with these definitions as the bullshit, depressing roles that were assigned to women a long ago.

While these characterisations_seem_only to creep in and out of our consciousness every now and again these days, once upon a time back in the swinging sixties, this image of ‘a woman’s place’ was at the heart of, well, pretty much everything. And it had a resounding impact.

It’s a problem that caught the attention of photographer Eli Rezkallah, the force behind a series of images that demonstrate just how ridiculous and outlandishly derogatory these ads were. Eli created a body of work called ‘In A Parallel Universe’. It’s a series of images that mimic real ads from the ‘mad men era’, except in these updated versions the gender roles have been completely flipped.

Explaining the motivation for the project, Eli wrote in an Instagram post: ‘Last Thanksgiving, I overheard my uncles talk about how women are better off cooking, taking care of the kitchen, and fulfilling “their womanly duties”. Although I know that not all men think that way I was surprised to learn that some still do, so I went on to imagine a parallel universe, where roles are inverted and men are given a taste of their own sexist poison.’

‘“In a parallel universe” is a series of fictional images, recreated from real ads in the mad men era, that question modern day sexism: showing it through a humorous light to spark a conversation through role play - a conversation that we need to have, uncles.’

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Eli's photos are both brilliant and a distressing reminder of the rubbish that was once normal. An old ad for Chase and Sanborn showed a woman laid across a man's knees while he raises his hand as if to spank her for 'not "store-testing" for fresher coffee'. Another ad shows a woman sobbing to her husband about having ruined dinner, to which he helpfully responds 'Don't worry darling, you didn't burn the beer'.

'You mean a woman can open it?' asks a tomato ketchup ad. 'it's nice to have a girl around the house', reads another that shows the foot of a man resting upon tthe head of a woman with an animal print rug for a body'.

These ads from the 60s be laughable if it wasn't so absurd that they exist. The thing is though, the issue of gender stereotyping in advertising has been pretty persistent. It was only last year that reinforced gender roles in modern advertising was acknowledged by the Advertising Standards Authority to have 'costs for individuals, the economy and society' and subsequently banning them.

Eli's excellent photographs are a great (and timely) way to highlight the fact that while a print ad for Nylon showing a mans hand against a woman's bum (yep, this was also a real one) wouldn't wash now, there's still a lot more to be done about the representation of women because, in reality, things probably aren't as advanced as we like to assume they are.

Follow Jazmin on Instagram @JazKopotsha

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.