User blog comment:WhitePinoy/Misandry?/@comment-3242362-20120710013533/@comment-3242362-20120710185631

Well, you feel what you feel, and what you feel is oft illogical.

On the subject of not knowing this, you didn't know it because it's not an issue. Casual sexism in the form of advertisement is well ingrained into our culture–not only that, but there are female stereotypes. Females in ads for beer are regularly scantily clad, and there is quite often an undertone of "buy the car, get the girl" in car ads featuring women that targeted at men. The ads the guy mentioned, which are targeted at women, are obviously going to try and make the customer feel good, and if they're targeted at, say, gender (as in that shoe ad), they are going to run with that. If it's targeted to nationality, well, how many Chevy ads have you seen with a subtext of "buy American, and you're a patriot. If not, you're a disloyal !$#@er!"?

Also, gender roles are to some extent designed by society (although the worldwide history of men being dominant and women subservient in cultures does show there probably is a genetic basis for said gender roles). These ads just appeal to various roles. For example, where a man is stupid comparative to the woman? That references the fact that women regularly do better than men on educational tests. (This, however, is probably not genetic–girls in public school perform better than boys, but in private schools there is no gap. There is also no gap between homeschooled boys and homeschooled girls, which suggests the problem lies with public schools, not with men being dumber than women.)

In short, advertising is going to be targeted at a specific audience. The audience they hope to reach are those who would buy the product; the prejudices in the ad's design are there to try and push those who are wavering (maybe I should buy this; then again, maybe I won't) into making a decision, specifically to buy it. (You ever see one of those advertisements for cleaning products? The person cleaning is almost always a woman. That's the gender role of housewife. There, a "women are superior" would most likely work, because women are more likely to purchase such things. This isn't a stab at them–it's just they quite often care more about messes than men.)

Sorry if this is a little long, it's just what I ended up writing. I didn't expect it to be this long.