(no subject)

[vintagelover.livejournal.com]

crossposted vintageads & orgasmoids

Original 1919 ad for Ivory Soap, showing U.S. sailors playing in the sea
#1

#2

#3

#4

1940 ad for Munsingwear underwear, showing two men in a locker room discussing "a matter of inches".
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Comments

[kocie.livejournal.com]

thanks for posting those...very cool!

I'm wondering about the word gay though....I'm 30..so i remember the word from sitcoms (maybe sindicated ones) when i was a little kid...
i always asumed it meant happy..

i wonder if the word really were a hybrid of happy and cool?

these are the thoughts that keep me up at night ;-)

[dreamlifeof.livejournal.com]

In the old meaning, I think it means a sense of lightness, levity. Gaiety even.

[kocie.livejournal.com]

it was just used soooooooo much then...in adverts and fj in such...in places where those words wouldnt fit so comfortably....except for maybe gaiety.

like, i wonder, if those ads were to be printed today...what word would they use instead?

its just sort of interesting

[dreamlifeof.livejournal.com]

It IS interesting. Because you're right - if we assume my definitions to be roughly accurate, then those aren't qualities (lightness, levity) which today have any commercial resonance at all.

I weep for the present and the future, with all its heaviness and self-harm.

[vintagelover.livejournal.com]

oh, it meant happy then
i was just making a sort of pun

[nico-blue.livejournal.com]

3 4 5 sooooo gay

[ocean-child.livejournal.com]

these are so great!! would it be fine if i printed them out and posted them in my university's queer collective office?

[vintagelover.livejournal.com]

of course, they aren't mine

[noncalorsedumor.livejournal.com]

I almost fell over from laughing when I saw "a matter of inches." HA!