"Show Her It's a Man's World": Advertising the Power Dynamics in Marriage
The image above includes two ads side by side, a project curated by artist and photographer Eli Rezkallah as part of a photo series called “In a Parallel Universe.” The ad to the left features a man lying in bed, his arms propped up, hands behind his head in a relaxed manner. Several white pillows prop him up, and white sheets cover his legs. He wears a white button-up shirt and a colorful tie, looking contently off into the distance. Below him, a woman, presumably his wife, kneels beside his bed, wearing a pink bathrobe. She looks up at him and is depicted in the process of placing a tray before him, featuring plates of food, a teapot, and a cup. Black text in the upper left corner of the image reads, “show her it’s a man’s world” and the bottom of the image displays a larger drawing of a tie and the words “Van Heusen” and “man’s world.” The second ad, on the right, exhibits a woman lying in a white-sheeted bed and propped up by many pillows. Like the man in the other ad, she sits with her hands behind her head boldly but looks down at the other figure in the photo condescending. Also like the man in the other ad, she wears a white button-up and a colorful tie. Kneeling beside her bed, instead of a woman, is a man in a pink bathrobe, placing a tray with a collection of a silver teapot and cups before her. He has a cautious expression on his face, eyes trained on the woman. Mirroring the ad to the left, the photo also includes text (“show him it’s a woman’s world,” “Van Heusen,” “woman’s world”) and a larger photo of the tie the woman is wearing.
In her work “Autonomy and Authority in Marriage,” Marianne Weber writes about the roles men and women face under the patriarchal structure built into the institution of marriage. She argues that under marriage, women essentially become the property of men, bowing to an agreement between partners that men possess strength and traditional authority, granting them superiority over women that thus commands their obedience. She explains that this notion derives heavily from Christianity and its patriarchal implications for broader society. Under the agreement of marriage, women are subordinates socially and economically to men, and men become the masters of both their wives and the general contract of marriage, essentially holding power over their relationship and the woman. Despite all this, a proper marriage between a man and woman, Marianne Weber suggests, is based on a spiritual connection and fulfillment, with neither partner using the other for their own means, instead allowing both partners to develop autonomy.
The two ads above demonstrate two opposite applications of Marrianne Weber’s ideas on marriage. The ad to the left serves as an example of the marriage that she describes in “Autonomy and Authority in Marriage.” The man’s relaxed manner and position of power, being situated physically above the woman, indicates the authority that he holds over her. This authority is coupled with the woman’s subordination, demonstrated through her physical kneeling to her husband. This act places her below him in the frame of the image and holds particular implications for religion and worship. She, kneeling before him, seems to worship him, indicative of the power relations between the two. Even more so, she presents him with a tray of food and beverages, doing him a service. This action is embedded with connotations of women’s gender roles as housewives and obedient servants under their husbands, and this idea is highlighted even more when the text in the image is considered. The claim that the man should “show her it’s a man’s world” not only directly references the patriarchy, but also asserts that wives should complete tasks and act as housewives for their husbands simply because their husbands are men. Just as Marianne Weber argues, men hold authority over women in marriage, simply because of traditional authority–because they are men–and because of the contractual agreement of subordination under marriage. Here, the woman is performing her duty as a wife, pleasing and serving her husband per his natural authority as a man, the prime example of unfulfilling marriage within a patriarchal society.
The ad on the right, however, acts as a remix of that on the left. By reversing the genders of both figures in the scene, the photograph situates the woman in a position of natural power and the man in a contractual position of subordination. While indicative of the absurd and constructed nature of gender roles under marriage, this even, however, is not Marianne Weber’s ideal marriage. Still, unnatural power persists per the situation of the figures in the frame, and a spiritual connection ceases to exist between the two. By showing “him it’s a woman’s world,” the woman in the photograph has simply replaced the man’s prior position, holding a status of traditional authority while oppressing the man per his status as a man. In the end, both ads demonstrate the power that heterosexual marriage grants to only one party, meant to be an oppressive and regulatory institution. It should not be the tie that a partner wears that gives them power over their partner and the world; rather, marriage should be rooted in pleasure and spiritual connection according to Marianne Weber.
Ro, Crystal. 2018. “An Artist Reversed The Gender Roles In Sexist Vintage Ads To Point Out How Absurd They Really Are.” Buzzfeed, January 17. Retrieved April 18, 2024 (https://www.buzzfeed.com/crystalro/this-artist-re-created-sexist-vintage-ads-with-the-roles).
Weber, Marianne and Craig R. Bermingham. 2003. “Authority and Autonomy in Marriage.” Sociological Theory 21(2):85-102.
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