Idea of progress - ANGLAIS TLE L

Good morning/afternoon, the notion I’m going to deal with today is the idea of progress. First, I will define this notion : she basically consists in believing that the world can become better, progress implies changes or evolution of the world or even of a society. Progress shows especially changes in mentalities, this is why I wanted to talk about the evolution of woman’s place in society who is a subject still very current. We can wonder if there is a real change in woman’s places in society since a century. First of all, we will see the degrading image of women through an ad of the 20th century. Then, we will understand one of the first feminists movements with a scene from the series Mad Men. Finally, we will see that the 21st century marks a progress in the evolution of woman’s place with Emma Watson’s UN speech on gender equality.

Firstly, we understand with an ad of the sixties that women are represented likes objects, they are here to decorate and to do housework and that husbands needs to take care. The slogan says explicitly that women are made to cook because their husband, « The Chef », don’t do that. This ad represents well the constant sexist of the sixties. Moreover, it’s not the only ad who shows women like an object : almost all of the ads of this period demeans women.

Furthermore, women are not just represented as objects but they are also dependent on their husband, indeed in this ad the women is stuck to her husband, only him can help her to facilitate her housework. If we believed in this ad, the husband makes almost more that his wife in the house. Besides those ads seems to be addressed for husbands « I’m giving my wife a Kenwood Chef » : the woman does not work and therefore has no incomes, the woman is financially dependent on her husband.

Additionally, this ad suggests for the 21th century people that there is just one « model » of women : a housewife who only wants to please to her husband by making him good dishes. She looks like a basic housewife : a toque covers her hair cut squared and she has red makeup. Men who watch this ad, will recognize each other and recognize their wives which will push them to purchase.

Ads are a reflection of a society and at the sixties, women are represents like objects that only serve to make food for their husband because they are dependents on them. Despite the violent sexism of this ad, this one allow us to report that woman status has really changed since a few years. This change is principally made thank to the firsts feminists movements.

However, an extract from Mad Men, a show about America of the Sixties, make us understand that there is also a women awareness in this period. Two colleagues were lynched by men at a work meeting, they are constantly making jokes about sexual innuendos. After that, The two women have a discussion and one of them, Peggy, explain to the other, Joan, very upset by what just happened, that her outfit is the reason of this jokes.

We understand here that in this period, some women accept this kind of situation or, at least, they are used to and do with. Harassment at work was and still is very current and in the Sixties its « normal » to be mocked when you’re a woman and some of them do not even pay attention to that anymore, sexism is trivialized. But this is not the case

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