Morris Oxford

Throughout the 1960s, Men and Women were expected to follow certain Gender Roles, and these Gender Roles were present in cars. A Car Company from the 1960s, known as Morris Oxford, for example, depicting men as caring more about the performance aspects of the car, such as its fuel economy, acceleration and breaking safety. They were depicted as having all their attention on the engine of the car rather than the aesthetics of it. They also depicted women as being solely interested in the sensual and child-related aspects of the car, such as its appearance, comfort and the child-safety of the doors, while not being able to understand how an engine works.

Some may argue that the gender stereotypes regarding cars have some truth to it as men were expected to drive in the 1960s, and thus would usually drive to conform to their gender roles. For example, two-thirds of license holders were men in the 1960s. This would naturally make them focus more on the performance aspect of the car, but women would not usually drive, which would make them focus more on other aspects of the car, such as its comfort. They may also argue that since men and women are biologically different, they are wired to prefer different things in a car.

However, some would argue that the depiction of men being drawn to a car's performance and women being drawn to a car's looks and comfort is a sexist and oversimplified picture of what men and women desire. They argue that expecting men to focus on a car's performance and not its sensual aspects promotes Toxic Masculinity and forces men to conform to specific gender roles. In addition, the idea of women not focusing on the engine, may promote the stereotype that they are not smart enough to understand how an engine works.

This page will analyse how Morris Oxford adverts, in the form of posters and videos, depict masculinity and femininity and evaluate how relevant they are in the present day.

Overall, these adverts suggest that men tend to focus on the performance related aspects of a car, such as its acceleration, fuel economy and breaking of the car, whereas women focus more on the sensual aspects of the car, such as its colours, roominess and feel of the car as well as it's child-safety. These stereotypes are then used to market the car to both men and women, as the ads then show how the car's features appeal to both men and women who conform to these sterotypes.

The posters generally show a list of features in the car that are supposed to appeal to women, and then shows a list of features that are supposed to appeal to men. This is used by the ad to show that its car appeals to all audiences. This is particularly effective in getting a family to buy the car, as why would a married man, whose wife, which all of the car's child safety and sensual features, agrees to buying the car, and he, with all of the car's performance-related features of the car, likes it as well?

These stereotypes are particularly shown in the third poster above, that says "While his thoughts are on the bonnet, she has her feet on the ground". This suggests that