Shifting Gender Roles and Cultural Confusion

"Lady in the House"-The New Yorker, March 17th 1965, pp. 58

"You Know Her"-The New Yorker, April 7th 1975, pp. 7

These two images are both advertisements for women’s clothing, and though their format is similar, the message they send about the kind of attention women should seek, and how they might go about seeking it are starkly contrasted. The first image, from the March 17^th 1965 issue of The New Yorker is of a woman in a conservative but feminine dress being ogled by six men. The caption reads “There’s a Lady in the house” and then goes on to describe how “she’s the first lady to turn up fresh and sweet in springtime colors.” This woman’s femininity is enhanced by her dress and her attitude toward her clothing, and the binary gender relationship inherent in the advertisement is obvious.

The second image is from the April 7^th 1975 issue of the New Yorker, and depicts a woman in a conservative spring dress, leaning on a golf club and holding a golf ball. She stares out from the page unsmiling, head slightly cocked, in a challenging yet sexy posture. The caption reads “You know her…the one wearing the Leon Levin.” The phrasing of the caption implies that this woman is being talked about rather than to. Her dress is straight, her chest is flat, and she is playing a sport. She is more angular and chiseled than the woman in the first advertisement. Despite this “masculine” imagery, she maintains a femininely gloved hand and a “come hither” gaze. The mixture of masculine and feminine imagery in this advertisement highlights the cultural discussion and confusion surrounding gender roles and femininity which were rekindled by Betty Freidan’s “The Feminine Mystique” and other writings of second-wave feminism.

Other advertisements and cartoons from the New Yorker confirm the conclusion that gender role questioning and confusion were coming into public consciousness in the 70’s. While there were no depictions of women playing sports in the issue from 1965, there were several in the 1975 issue. One editorial cartoon was of a cocktail party, and a man was introducing two women, one of whom was dressed in a business pants suit. The caption reads “Ms. Watts, meet Msr. Caldwell.” The term “Msr” is intentionally non-gendered, like the modern term “ze.” Unlike our contemporary challenge to the gender binary which supports non-gendered or ambiguously gendered people (at least in liberal environments like Wesleyan) this cartoon is not meant as a critique of hetero-normativity, but is rather a comment on the de-feminization of women. By including this cartoon in the issue, The New Yorker is articulating a consciousness and confusion about gender roles which pervaded the period.