Everywoman, a newspaper published bimonthly in Los Angeles from May 1970 to April 1972, republished advertisements from other publications in order to expose expectations of patriarchal society. On the second page of the fourth issue of Everywoman, a Valium advertisement with the text “35, single and psychoneurotic” appears.
An advertisement for Valium titled, “35, Single and Psychoneurotic” by Claudia Morrow, published in the June 1970 issue of Everywoman. Reprinted from another publication and overlaid with an editorial note, the ad is portrayed as misogynistic and the drug as dangerous.
The ad includes six snapshots of a woman on vacation, accompanied by a story about an “unmarried with low self-esteem” woman named Jan who is in a “losing pattern” and is afraid she will never get married (“35, Single” 2). This ad is ridiculously misogynistic, as it is centered on the notion that women embody such a strong and innate desire to be married to a man that they enter depressive states as a result, which suggests that women are codependent to the point of needing treatment. Of course, the solution to a “neurotic sense of failure, guilt, [and] loss” is Valium, which is portrayed as a cure-all for all “psychoneurotic” states (2). Originally appearing in other publications, the ad tempts women into treating their troubles with a strong, highly addictive tranquilizer guaranteed to render them docile and complaisant. Reprinted in Everywoman alongside an editorial note that sarcastically reads “Valium does it again!,” however, subverts the original message of the advertisement, revealing that women should be wary of pharmaceutical solutions like Valium and similar drugs that claim to free women from woes that patriarchal society first creates and then dictates that they endure (2).
Work Cited:
“35, Single and Psychoneurotic.” Everywoman, vol. 1, no. 4, 10 July 1970, p. 2. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/community.28036099. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.