Julie C. caught this assumptive KFC ad:
As Julie says: "Because, of course, only moms cook..." Thanks Julie C!
I found this ad for an umbilical cord blood storage company in the April 2008 issue of Healthy Las Vegas.
It provides a list of all kinds of very scary-sounding diseases as reasons you should pay to store your baby's blood cord. It's another example of scaring parents into buying expensive products to protect their kids--and, obviously, if you won't spend the money to store your baby's umbilical cord blood for years, you aren't a very good parent.
I went to the company's website. Under the heading "You Only Get One Chance to Bank Cord Blood" it says:
Banking a baby’s cord blood could prove invaluable should you ever need it. You only have one chance to collect this vital fluid and minutes after your baby is born. This sample has the potential to not only help the baby in the future, but also to blood relatives such as parents and siblings. It offers a powerful medical resource in fighting devastating chronic and acute diseases. Think of it as an investment in your family's future.It costs $1,850 for the kit to collect the blood from a single birth, plus $95 a year, or $1600 for 18 years, to store it.
Below is a montage of clips from commercials for cleaning products. It does a nice job of reminding us how we are constantly bombarded with the lesson that it is women, and just women, who are responsible for cooking and cleaning. Thanks so much to the video editor, David!
This Italian ad for fabric dye draws on the idea that black men are physically and sexually superior to white men:
Whereas this follow-up ad, with a surprising twist, manages to remind us that women are always responsible for the laundry:
I found this first commercial via Elizabeth A who found it at Feministing. Nice find!
Also in women are responsible for cooking and cleaning: women love to clean, homes of the future, what's for dinner, honey?, liberation through quick meals, and my husband's an ass.
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The Home Made Simple Squad is a new ad campaign for Proctor & Gamble cleaning products. Five women make up the Squad. Here is one of them:
This is Lori. From her bio:
'I love to entertain in my home, and when people come over, I want them to walk
in and immediately feel welcome and comfortable. So I make sure my house is
always looking good and smelling fresh.' Lori, 37, prides herself on her clean
and well-organized home that’s always 'company-ready'. Lori is disciplined about
more than just caring for her home – she’s also recently lost 95 lbs, and keeps
fit with a regimen of healthy eating, power walking and yoga.
So not only is she a good housekeeper, she keeps herself fit and trim, too!
Although all of the bios mention that the women have children and are busy, not a single one mentions a husband, partner, or other adult who might have some role in keeping a house clean. Or, for that matter, making the kids clean up after themselves.
Thanks to an anonymous commenter on another post for bringing my attention to this one!
This image demonstrates the disproportionality in the marriage market across the United States. Basically, if you're a single, heterosexual woman on the west coast or a single, heterosexual man in the New York area, you're in luck!
Image borrowed from http://www.whosyourcity.com/.
These images come from the Panasonic: Ideas for Life website. This is the "home of the future." What do we learn about the home of the future?
Men work in the office:
The only other image of a man alone is in the home theater room. There are no images of a man focusing on or interacting with a child.
Women make sure the kids are ready for school:
And women teach the kids to cook:
The caption to the kitchen image says, "In the kitchen, the mother is the teacher and her children are the pupils."
Thanks, Patrick C.!
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Thomas is a female-to-male transgendered man without "bottom" surgery. He is legally a man and legally married to his wife, Nancy. He stopped taking testosterone and was artifically inseminated. He is now about six months pregnant:
I'm not sure what to make, sociologically, of the attention that Thomas' pregnancy is receiving in the mass media, but it is ripe for analysis. Below I've collected a bunch of different takes from various media outlets. I'd love to hear what ya'll think.
CNN:
Fox News:
On David Letterman:
MSNBC:
More MSNBC:
The Oprah Promo:
The Beginning of the Oprah Special:
Every time I see the cover of Parenting Magazine I'm surprised by the tagline:
"What matters to moms"
Here is the cover of the most recent issue. Where are dads? What sort of parenting do they do?
This is an ad for Allstate's retirement programs; it appeared on the back cover page of The New Yorker. What struck me is that the ad is using the fact that women leave the workforce to care for children as a tactic to scare families into buying their product:
The average woman spends 11 years out of the workforce taking care of family. Leaving her without enough retirement money to take care of herself. Those 11 years are spent doing important work, caring for children or elderly parents. But then can also hurt her ability to retire. Fact is, women are still earning less than men do, and they live longer...Women care for America. It's time we showed that America cares about their future.
This commercial (found at multicultclassics) makes fun of large women, small men, and couples that defy "proper" pairing:
From a recent article on men's increasing comfort with wives who make more than them:
The cartoon summarizes the article nicely - it's fine for women to make more as long as it doesn't cause them to slack off in other domains and expect men to pitch in on "domestic responsibilities."
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I guess this is what sexism used to look like (before it looked like this and this and this and this and this):
This Folgers commercial is a doozy:
Thanks David P. for sending us both the ad, found here, and the commercial!
* I stole the title of this post from HeatherShow.
This is a doll Mattel put out as part of the Barbie line a few years ago. Her name is Midge. Apparently she is Barbie's long-time friend. If you notice, Midge is pregnant. Her belly opened up and there was a baby inside. The line Midge is part of is called Happy Family.
This is Alan, Midge's husband, and Ryan, their son. Midge and Alan were married in 1991, according to Mattel.
This is the whole Happy Family line--Alan and Ryan, Midge and baby, and grandparents.
The pregnant Midge doll was quickly pulled from the market because of protests that Midge might be interpreted as a single mother. Mattel argued that Midge and Alan had been married for years, but conservative groups argued that since she was sold separately, girls could get the wrong message and think she wasn't married.This ad "liberates" women from the kitchen through technology and capitalism... but not, alas, through true partnerships with men. Women should spend less time cooking, but it's still HER job.
Oh, also, the reason women haven't achieved greatness in the United States is because she's too busy to be bothered. It has absolutely nothing to do with sexism and institutional constraints.
Thanks to Julie C!
This is an ad I found in The New Yorker for Patek Philippe watches. The text in the lower-left corner says "You never actually own a Patrick Philippe. You merely take care of it for the next generation." So by buying an expensive, new watch, you're creating a "tradition." I'm going to use this in the future when I talk about inventing traditions.
Because when you're doing household labor, it is of the utmost importance that you are hot, in high heels, and headless.
(I especially like the one where she is trapped between the washer and dryer. What? Also, if I were her, I'd be trying to desperately and quietly cry for help, too. Get is? S.O.S.)
This post goes nicely with this recent one. And those little tow-headed children remind me of these.
From Marie Claire March 2005.
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My friend Jason is giving a talk on the constitutional limits of video surveillance (thank goodness someone is) at the 2008 California Police Chiefs Association Conference. In case you're still trying to convince your students that jobs are gendered, that there is an imperative to marry, that heteronormativity is in place, and that women are expected to conform to emphasized femininity... check this out:
The conference website has a page for "Spouse Events". The spouse is implicitly a woman, and a rather girly one at that. The "gift set" (for which they "spare no expense") is from "...Victoria’s Secret... [and includes an] engraved picture frame, lipstick case, spirits and sweets all in a tote." A tote! Spouses also get "special outings," "hospitality," and a "whirlwind of memories." She gets to choose from number of feminine pasttimes, including the spa, shopping, antiquing, and dance, or she can get a taste of what the big boys do (for "action adventure types" only).
This post is dedicated to my pregnant friends. You should buy this t-shirt.
In class this week my students and I are talking about the triple threat of production, consumption, and reproduction that characterizes modern capitalism. I use the cultural imperative that women have and raise babies (reproduction) and be beautiful and sexy while doing it (consumption), all of which is paid for by someone who is busy earning money at a job (production). Below are some of the images I use.
Be beautiful while pregnant (images from A Pea in the Pod and covergirls Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera):
Running in high heels while in the third trimester? Why, of course!
Get your body back as soon as possible (as demonstrated by Gwen Stefani and Tori Spelling):
If you're not sure how, buy some books (all the better)!
Resort to suspicious drugs if you need to:
Or get a Mommy Makeover. Extensive cosmetic surgery, that is:
Recommended by Parenting Magazine!
There is a poster out there somewhere that illustrates the reproduction of the worker in an capitalist industrial society. I think it is based directly on Marx. It shows all the unpaid work that women do behind the scenes that allows a man to invest his days in paid work. She feeds him, helps him relax, cleans his clothes, makes sure he can sleep comfortably and stuff, and then pushes him out the front door the next morning well-rested, in clean clothes, and with a bag lunch. If anyone can find this poster, I'd be so excited!
(Wisconsin Soc people... This poster was in the radical posters room on the 7th floor of the Sewell building at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Do you remember it?)
