I'm dating myself, but I htought right away of Carol Channing singing "Housework" on the Free to Be You and Me album.

Selected lyrics:

"But I'll tell you one thing I know is true.
The lady we see when we're watching TV,
The lady who smiles as she scours or scrubs or rubs or washes or wipes or mops or dusts or cleans,
Or whatever she does on our TV screens,
That lady is smiling because she's an actress,
And she's earning money for learning those speeches
That mention those wonderful soaps and detergents and cleansers and cleaners and powders and pastes and waxes and bleaches."

It's not supposed to be realistic, the joke is that her Tide obsession is a little weird, see the look that the party give each other at the 27 second mark like "what's wrong with this lady?"

it may not be realistic, but it adds to the overarching societal message that women are supposed to adore cleaning and housework...so much so that they attack it with zeal and glee.

Reminds me of the commercial where the man and boy are playing air hockey with the bowl of salsa, which of course ends up making a mess, which of course enables the lovely lady to swoop in with paper towel to save the day. Her boys-will-be-boys facial expression is meant to take the sting out of her subservient role. We've seen that look on every television mother's face since the dawn of the medium. But in the interim, and just for a moment in time, there were commercials that had the woman tossing the paper towel to the boys to clean up their mess. At this point, we're definitely in retrograde on women's roles in the household. Spiking everything with heavy irony doesn't mask that one bit.

I am a SAHP and I HATE cleaning. The dirty little secret of stay at home parenting, at least from my personal experience, is that it has way more to do with cleaning than parenting. So I actually am thrilled when I find a cleaning product that does its job well, not because I love to clean, but because I HATE it so much. Every little bumble, mishap, and blunder that happens in my house (and they are many since we are home most days) inevitably translates into more hateful cleaning work for me. Beyond that, as a mother (I think this applies whether you stay at home or not) my success and worthiness are measured in the world at large not by how happy and well adjusted my family is, but how attractive they look in their crisp stain-free clothes stepping out of our sparklingly tidy home. When you are on a tight budget and can't easily replace the items that are accident-damaged on a nearly hourly basis, finding products that help you quickly, efficiently and effectively keep up appearances makes you pretty damned happy - in my personal experience.

I was ecstatic when I discovered a detergent that actually eliminated the funk of the smelliest workout clothes. I made other people smell them.

Two things are happening (well, at least two).

1. Like Shorelines, I hate cleaning. Hate it hate it hate it. And I was taught by my very hygienic mum that this hatred made me a "bad woman," one who was essentially failing in her womanly role. Therefore, a product that WORKS, rather than simply one that TALKS about working, is a delight. I am judging myself based on the success of my home cleaning products.

2. I have internalized the message that even workout clothes should never have the funk. Indeed, clothes you SWEAT into shouldn't smell. That's a pretty bizarre cultural construct, too.

Yeah, there's that other commercial where they're at the stain factory and it's all women and teyre so excited when they see all the stains created by their slovenly husband and children that Tide can remove...

This unrealistic portrayal perpetuates the societal notion that women should joyfully embrace cleaning and housework. Such depictions reinforce traditional gender roles, suggesting that women should find fulfillment in domestic chores with enthusiasm. self service laundry