Kairos of "That's right boys... I'm on the pill"
The 1960’s were a time of civil unrest and revolution. This period is often studied under the context of racial equality; however, many other movements were born and furthered during this time. In particular, the presence of feminism skyrocketed during the 1960's, following the trail of an already booming racial equality movement. A key motivation of feminism is to uphold an individual's right to their own body, so when the FDA legalized birth control pills for contraceptive use in 1960, a nationwide rhetoric ensued. For the first time, women were encouraged to choose for themselves whether or not to bear children. Too long had they been relegated to subservient positions, but the husbands opinion was no longer the only opinion. This is incredibly important because having the ability to make and influence familial decisions was the first step towards abandoning the housekeeper stereotype that plagued America. As a result of this rhetoric, propaganda and advertisements such as the Yasmin poster were created to influence a maturing generation towards the widespread use of oral contraceptives, yet they often built upon or furthered the sexism that feminism was fighting.
-Race Saunders
While I think your analysis of the kairos in this ad is comprehensive, I would have appreciated more information specifically about birth control. Why and how it was discovered, the market for it, why that particular style of ad might have been particular popular in the 60s, etc. But all around a good background.
ReplyDeleteI think your analysis of kairos is fairly good, I believe more information about the ad and the pill itself would be valuable to convey the idea of how much of a game-changer this was for women in the 1960's. For instance, how widespread actually was the use of birth control pills? Was there backlash from the male population from ads like these? I think your post would benefit from additional background but it does a good job in conveying the gist of the argument.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI thought your analysis was well thought out, but I would have liked if you had elaborated on the opinions society had about contraceptives during that time period. However, I liked how you mentioned that the 1960's was a time of revolution and because of that it helped bring the movement of feminism to the surface as well. I believe that was a really important element to add when talking about kairos.
Delete~Kim Cerritos
I think your analysis was well-written however the argument would have most definitely been stronger if you included more background information about birth control, so the reader knows exactly how the contraceptive affected society. It would have also been stronger if you included how the women of the 1960s felt about birth control and their opinions on it. Other than that, your argument was strong and conveyed the analyzed kairos within the poster well.
ReplyDelete-Nidhi Kalaria
I agree with your point that birth control gives women the power to make familial decisions. For many years, the traditional American family consists of a father who bears the financial responsibilities and makes the important decisions of the household, a mother who does the housekeeping and the care-taking of the children and two children, a girl and a boy. With birth control pills, women are able to break out of the traditional value that society casts on them. Women can now make their own decisions to bear children or not, and how many. They no longer need men to make the important decisions of the household.
ReplyDelete-Ruoping li
I think this advertisement is a great example of kairos. The marketers jumped on the opportunity that presented itself and took advantage of the new idea of freedom for women. I think it's important to note that this is the only era that an advertisement with this message could have been used.
ReplyDelete-SammyTT
This kairos was very prevalent for this ad. Although the use of propaganda made the ad play more into women's rights issues it is true that when this ad was released because of its time it allowed for more selling of birth control pills. However how does the kairos play in with women's rights.
ReplyDelete-Swati Adipudi