{"id":26219,"date":"2010-08-10T10:10:46","date_gmt":"2010-08-10T15:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=26219"},"modified":"2013-12-05T04:10:20","modified_gmt":"2013-12-05T09:10:20","slug":"colonialism-soap-and-the-cleansing-metaphor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2010\/08\/10\/colonialism-soap-and-the-cleansing-metaphor\/","title":{"rendered":"Colonialism, Soap, and the Cleansing Metaphor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monica Y. sent a collection of vintage ads and cartoons illustrating how soap and cleanliness has been used as a metaphor for colonization.\u00a0 The first two ads show how soap manufacturers and colonialists alike colluded in suggesting that the colonized were unclean\/uncivilized and needed to be cleansed\/enlightened.<\/p>\n

This first ad for Pears’ Soap reads:<\/p>\n

The first step towards lightening The White Man’s Burden is through teaching the virtues of cleanliness.\u00a0 Pears’ Soap is a potent factor in brightening the dark corners of the earth as civilization advances while amongst the cultured of all nations it holds the highest place — it is the ideal toilet soap.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The phrase “White Man’s Burden” refers to the colonial-era idea that white men were burdened with bringing civilization to the uncivilized.\u00a0 See our post on a modern-day Pamper’s commercial invoking a white woman’s burden<\/a> for another example.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This ad for Ivory soap depicts Uncle Sam (I think) passing out soap to American Indians (in blankets, no less) (text transcribed below):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Text:<\/p>\n

A NEW DEPARTURE
\nSAID Uncle Sam: “I will be wise,
\nAnd thus the Indian civilize:
\nInstead of guns, that kill a mile,
\nTobacco, lead, and liquor vile,
\nInstead of serving out a meal,
\nOr sending Agents out to steal,
\nI’ll give, domestic arts to teach,
\nA cake of IVORY SOAP to each.
\nBefore it flies the guilty stain,<\/p>\n

The grease and dirt no more remain;
\n‘Twill change their nature day by day,
\nAnd wash their darkest blots away.
\nThey’re turn their bows to fishing-rods,
\nAnd bury hatchets under sods,
\nIn wisdom and in worth increase,
\nAnd ever smoke the pipe of peace;
\nFor ignorance can never cope
\nWith such a foe as IVORY SOAP.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This political cartoon, circa 1886, uses the metaphor of washing to describe the cleansing of the Chinese from the U.S.\u00a0 At the bottom it reads, “The Chinese must go.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

See also our set of vintage ads selling soap with depictions of African Americans as dirty<\/a>.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monica Y. sent a collection of vintage ads and cartoons illustrating how soap and cleanliness has been used as a metaphor for colonization.\u00a0 The first two ads show how soap manufacturers and colonialists alike colluded in suggesting that the colonized were unclean\/uncivilized and needed to be cleansed\/enlightened. This first ad for Pears’ Soap reads: The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[257,232,23703,85,1758,1759,1757,23705],"class_list":["post-26219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hygiene","tag-cultural-imperialismneocolonialism","tag-marketing","tag-politics","tag-raceethnicity-american-indiansaboriginals","tag-raceethnicity-asianspacific-islanders","tag-raceethnicity-whiteseuropeans","tag-vintage-stuff"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26219"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59864,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26219\/revisions\/59864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}