{"id":7688,"date":"2009-04-20T10:14:22","date_gmt":"2009-04-20T15:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=7688"},"modified":"2010-12-25T02:45:09","modified_gmt":"2010-12-25T07:45:09","slug":"what-does-the-emancipation-of-american-women-mean-to-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2009\/04\/20\/what-does-the-emancipation-of-american-women-mean-to-you\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhat Does the Emancipation of American Women Mean to You?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve offered many examples of companies co-opting feminism in order to sell products.\u00a0 In the video below, we see that the co-optation of feminism is nothing new:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

(At Vintage Videosift<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Actually, I shouldn’t be so flippant.\u00a0 Inventions like the washing machine did, indeed, save women a great deal of time and effort.\u00a0 From what I understand, however, as women’s cleaning became more efficient, standards of cleanliness rose.\u00a0 So even as time-saving devices were introduced, the time women spent cleaning\u00a0did not substantially change.\u00a0 I’d love to hear more from scholars who have a better handle on this history.<\/p>\n

Here’s another step in the trajectory, this one from 1971, also about cleaning appliances (found here<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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Text:<\/p>\n

The American Appliance Industry has always championed women’s liberation.<\/p>\n

There was a time when women washed clothes by hand in water carried from a well…<\/p>\n

…shapped every day because there was no way to refigerate food…<\/p>\n

..tried to keep house with just a broom…<\/p>\n

…made clothes without a sewing machine!<\/p>\n

It’s obvious.\u00a0 America’s appliances have freed women from the oppression of endlessly dull, backbreaking work.\u00a0 They’ve helped liberate the American woman to enjoy a more stimulating, more interesting life…<\/p>\n

In or out of the home.<\/p>\n

Women who seek successful careers in the arts, sciences, business, industry, education, or the professions are finding themselves.<\/p>\n

It’s all part of America’s new freedom of preference.\u00a0 And Republican Steel Corporation, a leading supplier of steels to the appliance industry, is proud to be a part of it.<\/p>\n

Visit your nearest appliance dealer and you’ll see hundreds of our modern steels — intricately shaped and beautifully finished in the world’s finest consumer appliances.<\/p>\n

Like to help liberate the women in your life from some hard work and drudgery?<\/p>\n

Buy her one of the new convenience appliances this weekend.<\/p>\n

Or maybe a whole houseful.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Notice that women’s liberation DOES NOT involve men sharing housework responsibilities, but men replacing women’s labor with tools he purchases for her.\u00a0 Ultimately, even if she has a “successful career” in “the professions,” it is her responsibility to make sure that the housework is completed (and apparently still wouldn’t be able to buy herself<\/em> one of these machines).<\/p>\n

For contemporary examples, see these posts on make up (here<\/a>\u00a0and here<\/a>), botox<\/a>, cigarettes (here<\/a>\u00a0and here<\/a>), right-hand diamond rings<\/a>, cooking and cleaning products<\/a>, fashion<\/a>, and other miscellaneous products (here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and\u00a0here<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve offered many examples of companies co-opting feminism in order to sell products.\u00a0 In the video below, we see that the co-optation of feminism is nothing new: (At Vintage Videosift.) Actually, I shouldn’t be so flippant.\u00a0 Inventions like the washing machine did, indeed, save women a great deal of time and effort.\u00a0 From what I […]<\/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":[55,2095,2102,2088,253,272,290,23705],"class_list":["post-7688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gender","tag-gender-feminismactivism","tag-gender-history","tag-gender-marriagefamily","tag-history","tag-marriagefamily","tag-sciencetechnology","tag-vintage-stuff"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7688","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=7688"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31499,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7688\/revisions\/31499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}