In lieu of commentary, I am just going to transcribe the text of this ad, sent in by The Sexual Buzz:
Question: Why won’t your wife let you buy this wagon?
“It looks like a bus.”
“I wouldn’t be caught dead in it.”
Do these sound familiar? Your wife is not alone. It is hard to convince some women what sense the VW Station Wagon makes.
It’s chunky shape, for instance, allows it to hold more than the biggest conventional wagon. (Yet it is a good four feet shorter, and a lot less exasperating to park.)
She might like the easy way it loads. The side doors give her almost 16 sq. ft. for big supermarket bags, a baby carriage, etc.
The Volkswagen Station Wagon does not have to take anything lying down. She can cart home an antique chest, standing up. Or delicate trees from the nursery. (Wide things, too. It will hold an open playpen.)
She can comfortably pack in eight or more Scouts, with all their cook-out gear.
She can give the family some extra sun on the way to the beach. (Why no other station wagon has a sun-roof is a mystery.)
Even if the traffic is bumper to bumper on hot days, she will not have to worry about the radiator boiling over. There is no radiator, no water. (The Volkswagen engine is air cooled.)
She may get a kick out of beeping to the other women who drive VW Station Wagons. (They have a kind of private club.)
Or maybe she likes to see where she is going. (The VW wagon has incredible visibility on hills and curves.)
If these facts don’t convince her, tell her it’s only $2655 and you aren’t made of money.
UPDATE! Commenter jfruh had a nice observation:
Interesting in that vans (and the VW Bus pretty much was the first van) are now fully feminized in the US, associated with “soccer moms.” I’m guessing a gendered van ad today would involve a wife extolling just these sorts of practical features to convince her husband to buy a “wimpy” van instead of the sports car that he wants.
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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
Comments 13
jfruh — July 23, 2009
Interesting in that vans (and the VW Bus pretty much was the first van) are now fully feminized in the US, associated with "soccer moms." I'm guessing a gendered van ad today would involve a wife extolling just these sorts of practical features to convince her husband to buy a "wimpy" van instead of the sports car that he wants.
Reanimated Horse — July 23, 2009
I wonder what's the most ridiculous thing ever sold to men using these arguments.
Men, why wouldn't your wife want you to own a Barbie Dream House? Because it's for kids? Tell her she doesn't know shit about kids. Because it's a useless expense? Well how about all those "groceries" she supposedly wants to spend the money on instead? Why are you even having this conversation with her? She has the mental skills of a monkey and clearly needs to be put in her place. Your first move should be to buy the damn Dream House. That will show her.
Duran — July 23, 2009
This simply reflects cultural norms of the time.
Men were the primary (often, only) wage earners.
Anu — July 23, 2009
@Duran
Well, duh. That's what makes it interesting.
Angela — July 23, 2009
Duran, thats the point of a sociology blog.
Emmanuel — July 23, 2009
I love the "soccer mums" concept in USA, base-ball and basket-ball country... Very funny. I've many things to learn here about sociology of America.
Why won't she let us buy a wagon ?
Well, today, I could just confirm that SHE wanted me to buy that sort of 2007's vw wagon named a touran...
But I love it...
Brenna — July 23, 2009
Man, I would kill for a VW Bus. I don't think it would take much to convince my mom to get one.
Inky — July 23, 2009
Obviously, the wives of the 1960s wouldn't let their husbands buy the VW buses because they could forsee the future and knew intuitively that the wagon was a death trap.
A lovely death trap, yes, but a death trap none the less.
Penny — July 23, 2009
Yeah, I remember the CarTalk guys referring to the VW Bus as a vehicle where "your knees are the first line of defense in a head-on collision." No thanks, and I DO drive a minivan (full of carseats and Starbucks cups and beach towels and everything, to complete the soccer-mom cliche).
Titanis walleri — July 23, 2009
It *does* look like a bus...
Nataly — July 24, 2009
Emmanuel, soccer is actually a huge sport for middle class kids, at least in my area, despite it's utter lack of popularity as a professional sport. An interesting irony.
Emmanuel — July 24, 2009
@Nataly, thanks, I understand. For many european peoples I guess, as for me, soccer in the USA is mainly played by kids with hispanical roots, which seems so to be false.
My Black Brick » Archives » Vintage VW for the Hausfrau — July 26, 2009
[...] Images unearths an old VW ad that features the 1950s manufactured conflict between man and wife over what car to buy with the [...]