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Gender-Swapped Versions Of Sexist Ads From The ’60s Will Give You The Creeps

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Sexism is deeply ingrained in American culture, and it doesn’t take much digging to verify its presence in popular media, entertainment, and, perhaps the most pervasive, its presence in advertising. A few casual viewings of Mad Men episodes is enough to clue you in on the extremely gendered world behind some of the most popular ad campaigns in history.

It’s nice to think that we’ve evolved since the days when women could hope for little more than a career as a teacher or secretary. But, have we really left behind our conditioned responses to historical gender roles?

Photographer Eli Rezkallah thinks the answer is less progressive than some might think. Rezhallah’s series “In A Parallel Universe,” explores what it would look like if you were to take classic (and sexist) ads from the ’60s and swap the genders of the characters. The series is described as “fictional images, recreated from real ads in the mad men era, that question modern day sexism: showing it through a humorous light to spark a conversation through role play.”

Twitter is fascinated by the results, which serve as an uncomfortable reminder of just how insulting these retro ads really were.

You can take a closer look at the contrasts between the images and notice that, while humorous, the male-centric ads feel much more absurdist, thanks to the culture in which we’ve been conditioned: