Depersonalizing "she" ads--"Has She Become a Fixture in Your Office?" "She Hides Anguish Behind Arrogance" "Does She Call You Morning, Noon and Night?---were the norm when doctors, copywriters and drug makers were men and charged with getting women to behave. So was pathologizing everyday conditions, a phenomenon which did not start with direct to consumer advertising.
In the 1960s and 1970s, antidepressants were suggested for telltale bitten nails and overplucked eyebrows, antipsychotics for "excessive use of the telephone" (a real ad) and Dexedrine for "housewives" who were "crushed under a load of dull, routine duties."
Then there was empty nest syndrome (called Magna cum Depression in ads) and divorce for which antidepressants were also prescribed-- and mothers who were "short tempered" with their kids who got antipsychotics.
Psychoneurotic women like "Jan" who were "unmarried with low self esteem" at age 35--"You probably see many such Jans in your practice"--were given Valium.
When women got to the arsenal waiting for menopause it was probably a relief!
Of course the Mephistophelean Marcus Welbys who treated the disease of Lack of a Husband and Kids with psychoactive drugs and the copywriters who mongered same are mostly gone today.
But today's top drugs like Seroquel, Pristiq, Lyrica and Cymbalta are still pushed for women and their notorious anxiety-that-is-really-depression, depression-that-is-really-bipolar-disorder, PMS-that-is-really-perimenopause and pain-that-is-really-fibromyaglia.
We won't even talk about what their kids really have.
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