ABSTRACT
This essay seeks to illuminate how men figure into the practices of consumption and consumer culture during the Great Depression by examining how advertisers constructed male consumers during the period. Advertisements that target male consumers offer a window into a male-oriented consumer culture that broadens definitions of who is viewed as a consumer and allows for a more inclusive view of participation in the culture of consumption. It was quite common for men in the 1930s to shave and advertisers cultivated a specific set of anxieties to persuade men to shave more frequently. Toward that end, advertisers tied visual representations of the businessman to specific definitions of race, class, and gender performance as linked to consumption in the 1930s and foregrounded images of the businessman in advertising during the Great Depression as a way to capitalize on national anxieties linked to joblessness. 2 Through an examination of the construction of the businessman as a model male consumer in shaving ads, this essay looks at advertisers’ definitions of masculinity, gender norms, the shifting shape of the American Dream, and the development of a widely used advertising trope that was adopted as a recognizable image extending beyond the Great Depression.
