Let’s step back in time a century (approximately) and look at the print ads of that time.
These ads portray women to be weak- and simple-minded human beings. How long did it take the world to unlearn this mindset that women were made for men to stand on and to worship men and to be reliant on men? I’m not sure how long it took because this mindset is still a very big part of the world today. Women make less money, Women are “frowned upon” in trades because they are not “strong” enough or can’t handle stressful situations. These are all opinions that society has learned from the past and women have had to work incredibly hard to be noticed and to have the respect they deserve in the modern-day workplace.
With the focus being the act of unlearning I am going to shift my look at ads that target race. Companies have always idolized white people and used Caucasian individuals for ad campaigns and when families are involved, they use the so called “perfect, white picket fence” suburban family. In Dustin Louie’s presentation on September 24th, 2021, he referred to the laundry detergent tide as being one of the big brands that did this. This is where the act of unlearning comes in. As a society, how can we collectively unlearn the ways we were exposed to growing up in order to shape a future that is inclusive? Dustin puts forth the idea of Integration and Indigenizing and how they are different from each other.  Integration means to simply include Indigenous Knowledges or practices into your organization or individual approach. Something like a land acknowledgment at the beginning of a meeting or class without consideration of colonization or the commitment made through the acknowledgment is considered integration. Indigenization means to embed Indigenous Knowledge that have an impact on the values, practices, or perspective of the organization outside of the single event. Moreover, the important decolonizing work that has happened prior to Indigenizing creates an environment where Indigenizing rather than integration is possible. This is an important distinction to make and in my opinion a distinction that should be widely shared for everyone to understand. Embedding Indigenous Knowledge is something that is being taught in teacher education programs and should be of the utmost importance especially as we look at modern day print ads and how people of different cultures are portrayed to sour the mindset of society. The ads below show exactly what Dustin referred to in his presentation, a Caucasian individual portrayed in a position of power over someone who is of a different culture. The root of today’s issues is in the years and years of public advertising and societies that are not accepting of any culture but their own. Before any progress can be made towards truth and reconciliation, we, as a society, must unlearn the ways we were raised with to make room to re learn ways to reconcile the past mistakes made.
