A misandrist ad for Virginia Slims cigarettes. Thoughts?

Threwaway42 · 2020-07-09T15:58:39+00:00

I would probably care if it were an ad for something that doesn't give you cancer. In that context I find it kind of funny/ironic

Strikester101 · 2020-07-09T15:50:51+00:00

I mean, it's advertising. One car company tried to sell their product by showing that you cannot kill yourself with exhaust fumes easily. That being said, the fact it was made during 1960s is baffling.

I want to point out, what experts said that the Y chromosome is the "inferior" chromosome? Like people describe it as female empowerment, but this ad is ableist AF.

I'm also sure women are more susceptible to autoimmune diseases and diseases and conditions like osteoperosis, breast cancer, blindness, dementia, e.t.c.

Sonic-Oj · 2020-07-09T17:37:27+00:00

Just gender essentialist bullshit. Nothing more, nothing less.

peanutbutterjams · 2020-07-09T20:01:27+00:00

I don't think this is misandrist so much as it's exploiting feminist sentiment of the time.

After all, they're called Viriginia Slim because cigarettes suppress your appetite. They're leaning on the incredible pressure that women felt/feel to be skinny in order to sell them cancer sticks.

It's not an accident that the first thing they mention is resistance to starvation. It's not an accident that the last thing they mention is the fat, stubby cigarettes that men use.

As male advocates, we need to apply a better standard of media criticism than feminism has done in the past. We need to consider capitalist exploitation. We need to consider if we're acting in bad faith to bolster our own position (a HUGE problem in feminist critique).

I'm not criticizing OP for bringing this up for discussion, just advocating for a gendered perspective that's progressive rather than simply reflective.

mhandanna · 2020-07-09T16:53:47+00:00

Basically women didn't smoke. Men thought how do we get women to smoke? They used feminism to sucker women into smoking.

This shows something interesting about men and explains why alpha men are so succesful. Men as a class dont care about other men. Men care about a hell of a lot of things, themselves, company, family, politics, religion, any cause or movement e.g. men who created free speech, democracy, internet, social media, environment change etc, almost all big things in society are done by men... however they dont care about men for the sake of being men (they care about other humans, or chairty etc but not men for being men).... contrast that to women as a class who have a huge in group bias an favour women for being women..... now men, due to lack of in group bias are happy to self depreciate or step on other men, so become hyper succesful..... take Obama for example, he very clverly for his own agenda in drone strikes classed only women and girls as civillians, so as to artifically lower civillian deaths..... here men are putting men down and oushing for female supremacy to sell women stuff

Oh and tobacco industry are truly utterly scum... they have no morals... they are trying like crazy to get kids to smoke in developing world, fighting health restrictions, pumping out fake science, used all sorts of crazy psychlogical marketting past 100 years until they were banned... some of the most iconic adverts are cigarette ones... its crazy who powerful these people are at shaping society

Alataire · 2020-07-09T20:41:03+00:00

I'd say this is an example that companies might put all sorts of social justice, feminism or other slogans on their posters, but in the end the only thing they care about is pushing a product. In this case one that quite literally can kill you.

It's something to remember when companies give (empty) promises on gender or racial equality.

jugashvili_cunctator · 2020-07-09T22:04:22+00:00

I'm guessing this is a little tongue in cheek. It says of the Y chromosome that "some experts consider [it] the inferior chromosome?" Lol. I'm totally ok with this type of humor, I just think it should be reciprocal. Also, it should be placed in context. Looks like it comes from the '60s, maybe the '70s? At the time the idea that women were just generally better than men especially in moral matters didn't have nearly as much social power as it does today. Men reading this would not have been passed over in the workplace or the university in favor of women. It could be read as more playful and unserious. And men could rib women back without severe social consequences if the banter felt a little too mean-spirited.

Very interesting as an early example of a company getting in relatively early on a social movement. Tobacco companies were definitely ahead of the curve when it came to advertising and social psychology.

teaandtalk · 2020-07-10T02:00:48+00:00

Why do you care? It's from a long time ago. What would you think if a feminist was posting about an ad from the time that was being misogynist (and there are loads of them, don't worry)? It seems like a waste of time and energy to complain about sexism from fifty years ago.

dtyler86 · 2020-07-09T18:21:36+00:00

Lmao: you’re superior (so breathe this death chemical and level out your genetic longevity with men).

Jokes on the fools that fell for this campaign

Masher_Upper · 2020-07-10T01:16:51+00:00

Fun fact back in the day cigarette companies wanted to market to women so they latched onto the early feminist movement and branded cigarettes "torches of liberty".

OkLetterhead9 · 2020-07-09T19:30:02+00:00

Why all your posts are about female supremacy ? are pro female supremacy feminist ?

2020-07-09T18:34:10+00:00

There is no gender gap on the probability of getting diseases due to smoking lol

LOCKJAWVENOM · 2020-07-09T19:45:14+00:00

Too about the greater vulnerability to rape, tho. But I guess you can't have it all, am I right?

Title	A misandrist ad for Virginia Slims cigarettes. Thoughts?
Author	Strikester101
Upvotes	81
Comments	21
Date	July 9, 2020 3:44 PM UTC (6 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/comments/ho5cuw/a_misandrist_ad_for_virginia_slims_cigarettes/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/a-misandrist-ad-for-virginia-slims-cigarettes.1063159 https://theredarchive.com/post/1063159

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