Comments on: Laundry: Women Have Always Done It

By: Specialkrj

Specialkrj — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:49:00 +0000

are you fucking kidding me

By: I want (manly) candy

I want (manly) candy — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:55:28 +0000

[...] It’s not so much the blatant sexism, which is all too common–see Dockers, Dell, Clorox–but the pragmatic issues. Was there really an untapped market of men who weren’t eating [...]

By: holly

holly — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:38:36 +0000

I agree with you that depicting men doing the laundry at the beggining would be, well, a fairy tale. But one the irony here is that the exactly same ad could’ve been used to demonstrate how little things have changed regarding housework. The “one thing has not [changed]” line could easily have been followed by “housework is still maily done by women, not men”.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:38:06 +0000

The whole female servants doing laundry thing is definitely historically accurate, though, so I can’t really fault them as sexist on that one. You’re right, though, it gives a weird tinge to the whole flavor of the commercial.
I can come up with a devil’s advocate defense, though – perhaps they are trying to slip a contrast into your mind between the excessively hard work that laundry used to be and the really super easy task that it is today?

By: karinova

karinova — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:30:16 +0000

Two things:
1) I sure do wish they’d thought to have mom kickin’ it on the couch for that one moment where dad’s doing the laundry. Then again, maybe he’s a single dad.

2) Is it me or are the first two women servants? Their clothes, and the fact that there are two of them seems to imply it. Which, once I noticed it, gave the whole “your mother, your grandmother, and her mother” thing a strange flavor. From a quick google, it looks like the washer shown is from around 1908 or so. Putting the scene, as I suspected, in my great grandmothers’ time. Thing is, I’m pretty sure that… well, let’s just say: my great grandmothers would have been the servants. So… yeah.
Critical nostalgia failure.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:09:33 +0000

ROFL I didn’t even see that! Good one ;)

By: The Martian

The Martian — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:38:43 +0000

This commercial also reinforces white privilege. The commercial ends with “pure white,” reinforcing an association between “white/whiteness” and “purity.” I suggest tagging it as well under “white privilege” (or similar categories).

By: Meg

Meg — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:59:11 +0000

As someone pointed out in the Youtube comments, the terrible grammar of the voiceover script makes for a hilarious unintentional meaning. “Your mother, your grandmother, and her mother… they all did the laundry, maybe even a man or two.” You know “your momma” jokes are worn out when you hear them on laundry commercials. :3

By: L

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:32:53 +0000

This commercial is on the first disc of the second season of “Mad Men” — and you can’t skip it. GRR. Clorox has really glommed onto “Mad Men” for the whole back-to-basics/just-like-your-grandma-did-it marketing ploy. Unfortunately, they haven’t picked up on the show’s critique of the very gender norms this commercial is reinforcing.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:12:32 +0000

“…even a male or two.” O_o

It would’ve been seriously AWESOME if it had just been a man at the end doing laundry after all that talk of “your mother, and her mother…” What a great twist. Maybe it could have even been a man with his daughter, instead of the mom. OR even a man teaching his son how to do laundry.

Oh well, better luck next time.

By: edie

edie — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:32:37 +0000

…..okay I would have cracked up if it was on during Mad Men.

Otherwise, lulzy add that encourages gendered divisions of housework (or should I say lack of division) is just kind of depressing.

By: Autumn

Autumn — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:01:12 +0000

Aghfdsgjdfs

This ad drives me crazy. It even aired in between “Mad Men”.