Vintage Ads posted these three ads–one for an electric refrigerator and two for Gold Dust Cleaner–that compare the product to a Black servant.
The copy in the refrigerator ad reads: “And So Electricity Is Made The Willing Servant.” The accompanying image includes three white women looking leisurely and a Black servant.
Similarly, these two Gold Dust ads personify the product as Black twin babies. The motto is: “Let the GOLD DUST TWINS do your work.”
I think these are fascinating in that they draw our attention to whose work technology is designed to replace. Earlier on this blog we’ve talked about how ads have offered to replace women’s work with the market and with technology. In these cases, the market and technology were needed to ease women’s workload (they certainly couldn’t expect their husbands to do it). In this case, Black servants serve to take women one step further from “women’s work.” Instead of replacing women themselves, the product replace the servants who replaced women, making the comparison of the product to Black servants completely sensical at the time.
Comments 3
Of Housework And Husbands » Sociological Images — November 26, 2009
[...] of the social construction of housework: husbands “help” wives by buying machines, gadgets replace slaves, feminism by [...]
Sarah — December 7, 2009
I find this especially interesting because I'm reading it in conjunction with your article on washing machine ads claiming to be liberating for women. I had started bubbling up an argument about how having a washing machine makes it unnecessary to have a laundress as a servant - and I think this article links right in with that. Technology is replacing human labor in a way that is simultaneously good and bad for both the economy and for societal treatment of the people who traditionally perform that labor.
I love when you post these vintage ads, by the way - looking at things from a historical standpoint tends to mitigate the outrage that commenteers seem to feel about contemporary ads, and allows for a more removed intellectual and economic evaluation of the ideas behind the ads.
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