The way the genuine ‘Mad Men’ invented the stewardess that is sex-kitten
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Its 6th period throwing down Sunday, April 7th, AMC’s Mad guys has occasionally portrayed the glamour and excitement of airline travel plus the seemingly crazy and carefree everyday lives led by that era’s female flight attendants. But, in accordance with a fresh book in regards to the reputation for flight stewardesses, it had been men – and some ladies – at Mad Men-like marketing agencies that created the image regarding the sexy stewardess when you look at the place that is first.
In ” The Jet Sex – Airlines Stewardesses additionally the generating of an American Icon,” journalist and historian Victoria Vantoch writes that into the mid-1960s, agencies wanting to “sex up” the stuffy standing of very very early air companies started by changing advertisements portraying feminine trip attendants as helpful, girl across the street kinds with pictures of “beguiling brand brand brand new stewardesses” guaranteeing coffee, tea and more.
Baskas: Before marketing agencies got involved in the flight industry, just how had been stewardesses promoted and portrayed?
Vantoch: within the 1940s and 1950s, the stewardess had been popularly thought being a paragon of virginity, domesticity and wholesomeness. Air companies cultivated the flight stewardess image very carefully. She had been the consummate homemaker: a professional at pampering males, serving casserole and seeking pretty.
Baskas: just exactly exactly How did the ‘in-flight’ image of stewardesses when you look at the 1950s compare with their actual life experiences?