Vintage Sexism: “How a warm room and B.O. cost her another admirer.”

Over at Jezebel, Andrew Heisel rounds up some of the best of the worst advertising geared toward women in movie magazines from the 1920s through 50s.

This was in the days before advertisers (some of them, at least) learned to subtly make us feel insecure to hawk their products — back then, the subtext was simply stated. And sexist ad execs, while focusing on women since they were usually their families’ primary shoppers, considered them to be “vats of frothy pink irrationality” with a “natural inferiority complex.”

The result was laughably insulting ads whose consistent message — whether they’re selling soap or Lysol or Ovaltine — was: “Either a woman will never find [a husband], or she’s always one mistake away from losing one.”

Heisel notes:

Everything could lose a man: shiny nose, not white enough whites, gray hair, chapped hands, perspiration stains, corns, slow-drying ink, dull blonde hair, nerves, not taking a laxative, giving the kids the wrong laxative, PMS, a poorly powdered face, dandruff, parched lipstick, low red-blood cell count, iron deficiency, not playing piano, not drinking Ovaltine, dry hair, oily hair, sloppily-pinned hair, a red nose from a cold, buying the wrong cigarette brand, stocking runs, constipation, itchiness, bloodshot eyes, sleeping with make-up on, not wearing talcum powder, not chewing gum, not serving canned spaghetti, and, during World War II, not buying war bonds, so now your sweetheart’s dead.

Stressful times.