Selling Domesticity: A Socio-Cognitive Critical Discourse Analysis of Patriarchal Ideology in Mid-Twentieth-Century Advertising

Abstract

This study examines the discursive construction and normalisation of patriarchal ideology in mid-twentieth-century advertising through a socio-cognitive critical discourse analysis. This study analyses a representative 1950s domestic appliance advertisement through Teun van Dijk’s socio-cognitive framework of Critical Discourse Analysis, investigating the interaction between linguistic choices, visual components, and the social cognition that shapes discourse and society. The analysis demonstrates that textual strategies such as polarisation, presupposition, and evaluative language, in conjunction with visual elements like gendered positioning and symbolic domestic imagery, functioned to normalise the confinement of women to domestic labour while legitimising male authority as a benevolent provision. These discursive patterns establish collective cognitive frameworks that portray domesticity as an inherently feminine duty and consumerism as the appropriate solution for inequitable domestic labour. This study asserts that the advertisement, contextualised within its historical and ideological framework, served not merely as a promotional artefact but also as a powerful instrument for perpetuating and disseminating patriarchal gender norms across generations. The results underscore the enduring relevance of socio-cognitive Critical Discourse Analysis in elucidating how quotidian media discourse sustains gender inequality and highlight the imperative of critical media literacy in challenging entrenched ideological paradigms in contemporary contexts.