"Sweet as you are." summary

The author begins by explaining the way advertisements have been targeting women for a very long time. She includes a few products such as makeup, mouthwash and soap. She compares a few different ads, but the central idea is that they are all beauty products with a central combined statement that they are “products that reinforce men’s roles in women’s lives.” (Page 1) Throughout the text, the idea that a man is something needed in a woman’s life. This was a very common opinion from that period of time, which is infiltrated into each of these ads. An example of this is in the Resinol soap ad. In the ad it clearly says ‘Make that dream come true.’ But what is the dream? The author does a good job at pulling out the uses of persuasion and deceiving text, and with that it is clear that the text is “equating the look of the skin with the person within.”(Page 1) As well as other “happy effects… with eventual marriage implied as the ultimate result.” (Page 1) Now, the American dream may be to be thin and beautiful. But what is all that without a man to impress or say that you come home too. Moving to the makeup ad; “the visual and verbal message is that women should strive, through steps actually numbered in the ad, to attain soft, clear skin and hence charm and hence romance.” (Page 2)

In conclusion even, one of the last statements in this analysis again says that the main idea in all of these ads is that “pleasing men is the prerequisite for happiness.” The difference between this picture in the 1920’s and 1950’s is very different than the independent image that women try to portray now.