A Reminder From Pepsi, circa 1953

Before we head into autumn and start reveling in warm foods and hot toddys, let's remember what makes life truly pleasurable, both to ourselves and others:

And this, I kid you not, was the text that accompanied:

Today’s stylists are doing wonders for the looks of modern woman. But give some credit, too, to the woman herself. For the modern figure is her own creation. Her greatest care and pride is to keep that figure young. Her taste, therefore, is for lighter foods and lighter beverages. This is the way of living that gives her the slender lines that fashion insists on, that men admire, that health authorities and insurance companies applaud . . .

I am not sure how to process this....it's wrong on so many levels that my brain hurts.

And that reminds me—I recently picked up a copy of Bust Magazine, the preferred reading of the hip, young-ish, quasi-educated alternative market. (You know it’s hip because some women in the pics don’t shave their armpits and the writers rely on flippant/crass verbiage, rather than crafting out a complete thought process.)

You would think that over 50 years later, we would have this liberation thing down. But no, Bust manages to tie everything with equality and strength right back to what to buy and how to look pretty. They had a photo spread of models dressed as key women’s rights icons, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Gloria Steinman, Kathleen Cleaver etc. and the only sidebar to this was all the places you could purchase items on the models. I mean, REALLY.