Jason S. sent in this (pretty hilarious) three-minute “ad” for Zima. While modern motherhood takes many different forms, the ad is a great illustration of one stereotype of the modern mother:
So, according to the ad, moms…
1. …are middle class. She and her husband can afford a nice, new minivan.
2. …provide their children with active social and educational lives. Since they live in the suburbs, she spends a lot of time shuttling them from place to place.
3. …are frazzled. Likely a full time wage worker and the primary care taker for the children, the condition of the inside of the minivan suggests that she does not have time to clean or organize her family’s life.
4. …feed their kids fast food (french fries) because, being overwhelmed, she doesn’t have time to feed them what she’d thinks they should eat.
5. …have husbands who still take on the masculine jobs but, being white collar workers, no longer have the skill to effectively perform them.
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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
Comments 8
Carolyn — July 17, 2009
It's subtle but - diet soda on the dashboard? Mom = diet. Atleast that's what I got from it.
Carolyn — July 17, 2009
meh that was meant to be Mom = on a diet
Leslie — July 17, 2009
Do people still drink Zima? Ugh...no thanks
Ellen — July 18, 2009
I guess I think like a man. I love my duct tape!
Heidi — July 18, 2009
Aside from the fact that it was a Cavalier and not a minivan, that's pretty much what my 25-year-old brother's car looked like. He doesn't have kids.
Leslie — July 18, 2009
I guess I am a stereotype--this was me, minus Zima. Two master's, three careers and children in three years. I was indeed perfectly capable to clean and organize, but raising children is not about neatness or control. For those years I had with my girls, I LOVED them and LAUGHED with them, and did what they needed to feel loved and safe and creative and smart and beautiful.
Simon Pascal Klein — September 23, 2009
It boggles my mind (although I full-well know the ultimate answer) that these chaps get paid to be on air.
Sarah — December 2, 2009
Okay, I actually did think the commercial was hilarious. I remember my own mom's minivan as being pretty much exactly like that, as were all the minivans of the other moms who I drove with.
I can see the sterotypes that you're talking about, but I don't necessarily feel like they're invalid - a lot of "mom cars" will end up with spilled stuff in them, for instance, and broken bits. Kids spill food and drinks and those cars get a lot of wear and tear akin to what was portrayed here. It's not necessarily *all* moms, but I feel like this is a common theme in mom-mobiles.