Academic conference draft of paper

Running head: (U) POSTWAR ADVERTISING 1
(U) Postwar Advertising in The Bellingham Herald
and the Sexuo-Economics of the American Dream
Sara Helms
1005 Talcott Street
Sedro Woolley, WA 98284
360.770.0244
Helmss@students.wwu.edu
The Cultural History of Media and Identity
Dr. Helen Morgan Parmett
Western Washington University

(U) POSTWAR ADVERTISING 2
(U) Postwar Advertising in the Bellingham Herald
and the Sexuo-Economics of the American Dream
One look through the ashen colored pages of an issue of The Bellingham Herald from
1955 can cause a fit of nostalgia. An innocent looking young boy with a crew-cut and a collared
shirt adorns the front page (Snooty Pup, 1955). The black and white photo shows the smiling boy
feeding his Lassie-esque dog from a bowl with a spoon. However, as you turn through the pages
it is the advertisements that really stand out, after all, retailers and businesses pay good money to
grab the reader’s attention, or should I say, the female reader’s attention, because women were
America’s ideal postwar consumers (Douglas, 1995). Through these advertisements women were
taught how to perform their “sexuo-economic” status (Ewen, 1976). A term originating in the
early 1900s, sexuo-economic refers to “conditions which had traditionally forced women to
exchange sexual favors for livelihood and had separated them from the productive potentiality of
industrial society” (Ewen, 1976, p. 128). In the 1950s the pages of The Bellingham Herald taught
women that marrying a man was the path to a lifetime of security and happiness.
The Bellingham Herald remains an important resource for the Whatcom community. The
Herald’s current publisher, McClatchy (2010) claimed, “The community relies upon the Herald
to reflect its values and to be vigilant on behalf of community interests. The Herald thoroughly
dominates its local Whatcom County market” (para. 6). In the fifties it was a major source for
local news, sports, weather, announcements, and classifieds. Even if residents wanted to get their
news or entertainment from television, radio or film they most likely referred to the
programming guides and listings printed within the newspaper. In 1950 Whatcom County had a
population of over 66,000 people and according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census (1952) only
1.6% of the residents were “non-white.” This gives us an idea of what kind of readership the

newspaper most likely had. I have pulled several examples from issues published in 1950 and
1955.
In this paper, I conduct a textual analysis of postwar advertisements within The
Bellingham Herald, considering how these advertisements addressed readers and worked to
constitute forms of identity that responded to shifting and changing gender norms in this era. I
will provide a brief explanation of the purpose and function of advertising, while offering a
critique of the symbolism in the six advertisements presented in this paper. Much of the past
research I draw upon provides a critical analysis of gender identity formation in the postwar era
either on a national level or with a specific focus on suburban America. I argue that while
Bellingham is and was not a suburb, as it is more than 80 miles away from either Victoria, BC or
Seattle, WA, local advertisers appropriated the suburban fantasy ideal of white, middle-class,
heterosexual, nuclear families to sell the American Dream to its public. I examine the ways in
which anxieties over gender identity were negotiated with regards to work, sex, and nationalism
in Whatcom County through representations of femininity in postwar advertising. In doing so,
this paper gives insight into the ways in which readers in a distinct locality were encouraged to
identify and adopt the emerging ideal of femininity as defined by mass consumer culture.
Gendering the American Dream & Sexualizing Success
In the years after World War II, a consumer culture and a fear of communism worked to
redefine what it meant to be American. In previous decades thriftiness was a valuable skill many
citizens had come to possess, but as the war was ending business leaders were pushing harder
than ever to produce a nation of mass-consumers (Lipsitz, 1986). Messages of consumerism
were disseminated through advertising in media such as television, radio, and magazines
(Douglas, 1995). Newspapers in particular were essential to spreading the new ideal of the

American Dream through their advertising as well as their content (Wallace, 2005). Local
businesses relied on their cities’ newspapers in order to reach the surrounding public just as
Whatcom County organizations such as the Mt. Baker Theater, Leopold Beauty Salon and
Bellingham Business College relied on The Bellingham Herald.
Not only was advertising prolific in the postwar era but it was also stylish, colorful and
sleek. Even the advertisements found in newspapers at the time were eye-catching, mini pieces
of art or “spectacles.” Advertisements fetishize or aestheticize commodities with abstract
meanings like civilization, beauty and power, while simultaneously implying that the reader will
also inherit those characteristics by consuming the product (McClintock, 1994; Vestergaard &
Schroder, 1985). The consumer is encouraged to believe that they will create envy in other
people, just as the advertisement created envy in the consumer. Armed with these abilities,
advertising agencies helped to produce a new sense of mass culture; a nation of shared values
placed on products, an expectation and acceptance of consumption, and a wave of distorted self-
perception (Ewen, 1976). In this new value system humans were constantly made to feel inferior
such that they must consume more and more goods in order to improve themselves, and in order
to perform their most important role – the loyal American.
The public was inundated with representations of the ideology (or illusion) of the model
American family – white, middle-class, nuclear, and suburban (Douglas, 1995). Advertising
offered the daydream that certain commodities or clothing would allow people to transcend class,
ethnicity, or stereotypes (Ewen & Ewen, 1992). Fashion in particular was used to demonstrate
ones’ culture or identification as an American. It is also one of the most obvious signifiers of
gender difference and, as Fields (2007) pointed out, “the formation of gender-based identities
takes place within a social order of gender-based inequalities” (p. 2). A person’s outward

appearance and manner of dressing is a system of visible social hierarchy. Fields described
fashion as a “means of social control” (p. 2). Paradoxically, capitalism effectively used mass
fashion and the fantasy of individualism that it created as proof of its superiority to communist
nations (Ewen & Ewen, 1992). Freedom to consume was posed as important to democracy
(Douglas, 1995).
Strict gender demarcation was shown to be vital for democracy as well. American women
and capitalism were constantly being compared to Russian women and communism (Douglas,
1995). Communist women were considered “mannish” because they worked outside of the
home, something American women were discouraged from as men were returning to their homes
and jobs after WWII. Children of women that worked were predicted to grow up as deviants.
Women were also assigned to keep marriages intact by keeping a spotless home, having a
pleasant appearance, being a good cook, and obeying their husbands. Ewen and Ewen (1992)
argued that the gendered presentation and performance of “suburban womanhood” strongly
resembled that of “Victorian womanhood” (p. 175). Advertising in the fifties presented a
romanticized memory of what it meant to be a woman before the war, revealing an obsession
with “domestic femininity” (Fields, 2007, p. 3). Even The Bellingham Herald pushed idealized
visions of femininity and the “housewife” persona to the core.
The pages of The Bellingham Herald in the postwar era were littered with advertisements
for local businesses, grocery stores, department stores, automobiles, household goods, and more.
Some were boxes of text, a few were real photographs, and many were drawings and sketches,
all printed in black and white. But the pages themselves were not the only thing devoid of color,
so too were all of the people in the ads, all attractive, all slender, all white. Kellner (1983)
acknowledged the fact that media not only molds our understanding of our individual worth with

a constant barrage of images and text explaining how one should look, dress, and act but also in
the representations they fail to present, like alternative expressions of gender or self-worth.
Similar to the observations made by Ewen (1976) on advertising in the 1920s, women made up a
majority of the actors in the Herald’s advertising displays, and they were almost always
presented as nonwage earners, unless they were playing the role of a servant. Their value was
placed on their appearance, which was their main attribute with which to bargain to ensure they
would have a happy husband/home/family/life. This was the American Dream, the content
nuclear family, the ideal unit of consumption.
Owning a beautiful home and building a perfect family were certainly presented as
valuable objectives for women reading The Bellingham Herald, but perhaps even more important
than that was the pressure to conform to rigid mass-standards of beauty. Vestergaard and
Schroder (1985) argued that in order for advertisements to be effective they must emanate the
values of their intended audience. They stated:
…because adverts are under this obligation to reflect the attitudes, hopes and dreams of
their readers as closely as possible, we can gain an insight into the readers’
consciousness, their ways of thinking, their ideology, by analyzing the structures of
meaning found in advertisements…. Therefore, the most coherent, accessible version of
the popular ideological universe can be found in the textual messages which people
consume regularly, because they find pleasure in them. (p. 121-122)
Using this reasoning it is safe to say that society has maintained a strong fixation with physically
attractive and visibly alluring women. Even in The Bellingham Herald nothing is more eye-
catching than the form of the female figure modeling clothing, nylons, and lingerie. Throughout
the pages are images of women’s legs and nearly nude silhouettes in advertisements for nylon

stockings, petticoats, slips, and even the “Merry Widow” – the fashionable corset of the fifties
(Fields, 2007).
In these advertisements women were relentlessly shown and told how to behave and look
in order to gain acceptance and self-worth. Berger (1973) suggested women are constantly seeing
themselves through the eyes of others:
She has to survey everything she is and everything she does because how she appears to
others, and ultimately how she appears to men, is of crucial importance for what is
normally thought of as the success of her life. Her own sense of being in herself is
supplanted by a sense of being appreciated as herself by another. (p. 46)
This argument seems to be supported with the multitude of lingerie and clothing advertisements
published in The Bellingham Herald in the fifties, in which women pose passively, submissively,
and sensually in nearly every instance. By its nature, intimate apparel in particular has
connotations of sexuality and can be a “powerfully erotic fetish” (Fields, 2007, p. 3). One ad
(Figure 1) for the department store Victor’s from the May 1st, 1955 issue seems to demonstrate
this well. It features a woman from her waist up wearing nothing but a bra. This woman, like so
many others pictured in the newspaper, has her head tilted downwards, displaying signs of
submissiveness (Goffman, 1979). The model is looking directly into the eyes of the reader,
creating a mirror effect (Vestergarrd & Schroder, 1985); any woman looking at this image could
imagine she was looking into a mirror, envisioning how she may transform by using the
advertised product. The woman in the ad has one arm behind her head, apparently to demonstrate
that the bra is stretchable, and is caressing her bosom with her fingertips. Goffman (1979)
suggested that a model gently touching her own body gives the viewer a sense that the woman
portrayed is a “delicate and precious thing” (p. 31). The commodity sold in this advertisement

serves no true human material needs, such as food and shelter; it is presented as a means to social
gratification, as Vestergaard and Schroder (1985) explained, “In this way objects that we use and
consume cease to be mere objects of use; they become carriers of information about what kind of
Figure 1 An ad for the department store Victor’s from the May 1st, 1955
Bellingham Herald.

people we are, or would like to be” (p. 5). The advertisement sells the belief that embodying
delicate sensuousness is attainable through the purchase of a product, which will lead to a
woman’s ultimate success at the time, attracting and satisfying a man.
An ad (Figure 2) for Lanolin Plus lipstick (1955) supports the sentiment that a woman’s
most important job was to catch the attention of a man. The advertisement claims, “When it
comes to setting traps…This new lipstick with living color is wonderful bait” (p. 2), meaning by
wearing this lipstick women can trick men into falling for them, as women were thought to be in
constant competition for male affection. The lipstick promises a “new kind of
hypnotism….Color keyed with a new kind of cunning – to do bewitching never-before things
with your skin and eyes, too” (p. 2). Advertisements such as these gave inanimate objects the
illusion of containing magical powers (McClintock, 2005), as if “living” the Dream was as
simple as consuming the right product.
An advertisement (Figure 3) for the department store Golden Rule from the May 6th,
1955 issue is suggestive that perhaps not all women fantasized about being tied down as a wife
and mother at home. The ad features a close-up of a woman’s legs from the hips down, her skirt
flown up nearly to her crotch, wearing thigh high Munsingwear nylons and black high heels. The
woman in the ad appears to be a jet setter as she is carrying luggage and walking away from the
airplane she must have recently disembarked. McClintock (2005) explained that advertisers place
the inanimate objects they are selling within sensational contexts making the public, in a frenzy
of spectacle, want it, desire it, and buy it. Again, the nylons do not satisfy any material needs, but
they are described as “Glamorous,” and seem to imply that by wearing them women can enjoy

Figure 1 An ad for Lanolin Plus lipstick from the May 6th,
1955 Bellingham Herald

Figure 3 An advertisement for the department store Golden Rule from the May 6th,
1955 Bellingham Herald

an exciting, glamorous lifestyle. This is an existence probably out of reach for most women in
Whatcom County at the time. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census (1952), the median
household income for residents in the county in 1950 was $2,434 compared to $3,216 nationwide
(Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006), yet the advertisement gives the feeling that adventure is
within reach. The nylons can be worn, “dark seam out for dress-up – right side out for business”
(p.2), with a woman’s many different “costumes” (p. 2) giving the impression that women can
adopt various personas depending on the situation. “Costume” is a word used to describe
women’s clothing often in this era, reinforcing the idea that femininity was an act women were
expected to perform.
The Climax of Consumption
Bridal advertisements, so prominent in the pages of The Bellingham Herald in the
postwar era, presented marrying a man as a woman’s main objective. In an issue from June 4th,
1950 is an advertisement (Figure 4) from a department store named Victor’s. The blushing
bride’s torso in this image is turned away from us, however she is looking back, over her
shoulder, her head tilted downward. Goffman (1979) suggested the “head cant” was symbolic of
specific characteristics: “The level of the head is lowered relative to that of others, including,
indirectly, the viewer of the picture. The resulting configurations can be read as an acceptance of
subordination, an expression of ingratiation, submissiveness, and appeasement” (p. 46). In other
words, this bride-to-be is compliant with her womanly duties.
Adjacent to this advertisement are two others which are notable. One (Figure 5) is for Jan
and Fran’s (1950), another merchant specializing in bridal wear, and they proclaim, “Brides are
the most important people we know” (p. 20) implying that if you are not a bride you are not as
important. The model shown is again slightly bent, portraying submissiveness. However, the

Figure 2 An advertisement from the department store Victor’s from the
June 4th, 1950 Bellingham Herald.

woman in this ad is smiling, looking toward the heavens, inhaling the scent of a single rose.
Drawing from Goffman (1979) again, her facial expression gives the impression of being
“transported by happiness” (p. 68), as if she has found “final satisfaction” (p. 68) in realizing her
goal to be a wife, after all, husbands were the providers and women’s access to the American
Dream.
Figure 3 An ad for Jan and Fran’s from the June 4th, 1950 Bellingham
Herald.

Women in Whatcom County were not expected to work outside of the home. Of the
female population in 1950 only 24.1% were reported as part of the labor force compared with
33.9% nationwide (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006; U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1952). Getting
married, however, was displayed as a very profitable endeavor for women. Directly below the
Jan and Fran’s advertisement we are reminded of why tying the knot was so desirable for a
woman in the fifties. An ad (Figure 6) for Luke & Crews, Inc. (1950) declares, “A Beautiful
Home For a Beautiful Bride” (p. 20) and features a photograph of a woman, supposedly a bride,
sitting leisurely in her fully furnished living room. “Happy is the bride when she crosses the
threshold of her new home….We invite you, the new bride, to consult with us on color schemes
for each room in your home” (p. 20). Although this is clearly targeted toward a heterosexual
audience, there is no mention of the new groom’s role in decorating and furnishing the new
home. The man is simply the means to an end. Marrying a man is presented as a clear path to the
American woman’s “natural” desire and duty of consumption.
By examining the content surrounding these bridal advertisements it is clear The
Bellingham Herald was an important resource for teaching the people of Whatcom County how
to perform their new duties as consumers in the postwar era. Lipsitz (1986) explained that
following the depression of the thirties and rationing programs of the Second World War,
Americans had to learn their expected roles in an increasingly capitalist society. For example, in
the same June 4th, 1950 issue there are articles describing how to furnish and decorate new
homes and how to choose an appropriate wedding ring. There are stories describing the practice
of gift giving for bridal showers, weddings, and anniversaries. The groom is nearly nonexistent

Figure 4 An ad for Luke & Crews, Inc. from the June 4th, 1950
Bellingham Herald.

in any of these pages, in the advertisements or accompanying stories, once again reinforcing the
notion that buying and receiving gifts is naturally a woman’s responsibility in white, middle-
class America.
Conclusion
Gender portrayal in advertising during the postwar era was highly hypocritical. Even
while the media continued to portray women as wage-less housewives, women were working
more in 1955 than at any previous time and they were returning to school with hopes of more
rewarding futures (Douglas, 1995). This fact is reflected five years later in the pages of the June
5th, 1960 Bellingham Herald. Although there are many advertisements for clothing and other
accessories in which the women are highly sexualized and all appear to be posing for their
audience in their various costumes, there are a number of advertisements encouraging women to
enroll in continuing education. There are ads for Western Washington University, Shaw
Secretarial School, Bellingham Success Business College, and one that challenges women to
“Develop your power of self-expression by training in Public Speaking [and] Leadership” (p.
13). Directly below this is a promotion for a KVOS program proclaiming “It’s a Woman’s
World!” (p. 13) featuring Elaine Horn. There is even a short story about Catherine May, the first
female Congressperson from Washington State, announcing her run for reelection (History, Art
& Archives, n.d.). On a national level, the youth of the 1960s started to rebel against the
claustrophobic conformity pushed by previous generations (Ewen and Ewen, 1992), adding fuel
to the civil rights movements. It is satisfying to know that women were not a completely passive
audience, buying into the myth that their sole purpose in life was to aspire to be the next June
Cleaver, as that is not a desirable lifestyle for everyone.

Today the women of Whatcom County experience advertising much more frequently
than they did in the years following World War II. Local and national advertising is arguably a
part of every form of media they use, be it a newspaper, television, film or social media. Women
continue to be the target of conflicting messages which attempt to influence their values, self-
worth and consumer habits. Advertisers still use tactics similar to those in postwar America, such
as over-sexualized models and contexts and promises of social gratification by using a particular
commodity. By critically examining the images, texts, and frameworks of advertising as
produced within a historical context we can gain insight into the anxieties women have struggled
with over time, helping them to come to terms with contradictions they are faced with in modern
media every day.

References
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