I was at the Pittsburgh airport last week and I saw this concourse map and I thought to myself, “Wow, they used pink and they’re not trying to signify WOMAN! That’s something else!”
Then I looked closer and noticed that this concourse map was specifically for the shopping in the concourse. Notice it’s a map of the “AirMall”:
Sigh.
Rebecca H. sent us a link to the Clorox website and I thought “Holy Moly! There is actually a MAN on a cleaning product website!” (in the lower right):
Then I looked closer and realized that the man in question is a gay man famous for being on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
Sigh.
Two opportunities for suffocating stereotypes to be undermined; two opportunities lost.
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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
Comments 14
Kevin — November 13, 2009
Hahaha, "Regular Mall Prices Guaranteed!" Wtf?
JoVE — November 13, 2009
Yeah, and one day that grubby kid in sports gear is going to be a girl, too. Though I'm not holding my breath.
Eli — November 13, 2009
Rebecca H. sent us a link to the Clorox website and I thought "Holy Moly! There is actually a MAN on a cleaning product website!" ... Then I looked closer and realized that the man in question is a gay man famous for being on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
I know it's not what you meant, but this does imply that gay men aren't really men (you were excited that there was a man and then you realized that, oh wait, it's one of them). There is a man on the Clorox website. If you want to talk about the fact that there are a lot of stereotypes about the kind of man that he is, do that.
macon d — November 13, 2009
Excellent catches! Once again, proof that it pays to pay attention.
Then there's "Sky Mall" -- this post reminds me of the second image here.
bobsfrankenbeans — November 14, 2009
haha... oy. Though it does remind me of the clorox commercial about how long it's been around, following the evolution of the washing cycle from the 1900s or so, to the present... and the line 'even a man or two...' in the middle or generation of woman after woman... part of me was like 'hell yea men do that too...' and part of me almost hated the fact that they pointed out the 'occasionally' of men doing the 'jobs of women'.
It's interesting how ads have embraced the 'strong, bread winner' woman... but only as long as she also does all of the household necessities too.
I suppose the representation of women only housecleaning, etc. is a major pet peeve of mine.. all the 'baby come back,' mop commercials and the radio commercials of how 'cindy,' can have lunch with her friends, read a book, go get that abortion (okay maybe not this one), have a life- basically, now that she's not stuck at home cleaning her shower thanks to a machine that spits cleaner everywhere...
thank god men have made robots to do what women have to do! now they have time for social lives and educations!