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sapphistvampyr:

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inspector-constable:

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American advertisement for ketchup with the phrase "you mean a woman can open it?"ALT
American advertisement for shoes with a woman lying down above the phrase "keep her where she belongs".ALT
American advertisement for cigars with a man blowing smoke at a woman with the phrase "blow in her face and she'll follow you anywhere".ALT
Soviet propaganda poster of two women with the phrase ""Long live the equal women of the USSR!" ALT
Soviet propaganda poster of women with a rifle with the phrase "women workers take up your rifles"ALT
Soviet propaganda poster with the phrase "To education, to work, to social life. Let us expand the network of nurseries and public canteens, let us free millions of women to participate in socialist construction."ALT

Attitudes towards women in American and Soviet advertising

Go ahead and do your own research - put these Soviet ads through a translator app like I just did!

You’ll see that they aren’t advertising a product like in the English language images. They are propaganda. And the propaganda is very cool and the art slaps, as Soviet propaganda always does.

But this is not an equal comparison.

It just irritates me when leftists simplify things like this. “American capitalism sexist and bad” vs. “USSR feminist and good”. It’s not that black and white, and even if it was, this image set does not show that at all. All it shows is that Soviet art is the best.

I chose these adverts because the USSR didn’t really have product advertising in the way that the west did. If a factory had a surplus of goods they may be advertised, or there were some adverts for products such as cars to help to stop the hoarding of money (caused by over-printing of cash). As the state controlled most advertising, the line between propaganda and advertising was blurred. But we can also compare propaganda. US propaganda was usually negative, and focused on fear of the enemy or fear of reprisal. Whereas soviet advertisements were usually focused on a positive message such as looking to the future and overcoming obstacles. Again, you will always find exceptions, this is just a generalisation, and of course it varies by era.

The original intent of the post was to show the difference in attitudes towards women in both countries in the past. The USSR, for all of its flaws, did genuinely try to improve the lives of women. I’d even argue, post 1950, that the average woman in the USSR had more freedom and opportunities than the average woman in the USA during the same period. Even now, after the fall of the USSR, there are millions of highly educated women doing jobs way beneath their skills. Street sweepers who once helped develop rockets, shop clerks who once worked with nuclear energy, hotel cleaners who once were architects. Most ex-Warsaw Pact countries have a lot more women in STEM, even now, because of the efforts of the communist governments of old.

I’ve been reading about Soviet history lately and a really interesting fact about the post ww2 Soviet Union is that they had a hugely un-proportionate ratio of men and women. In 1950 there were 60 men to 100 women, compared to USA’s ratio in 1950 98.7 to 100. Meaning that the Soviet Union really relied on women to fill the gap in the workforce which I think likely contributed to this sort of propaganda.

That definitely played a role. Rwanda also has a similar situation. After the Rwandan genocide, the country was female dominated, which led to a female dominated political system. This, of course, led to more female friendly policies.