As of Mr. Clean and Brawny wasn't bad enough,
 

http://littlemerrysunshine.blogspot....ts-is-not.html





What This Woman Really Wants Is Not A Vacuum Cleaner


Dear Oreck,

Thank you so much for including me in your current direct mail marketing campaign for your "What A Woman Really Wants Sale." (emphasis yours) You know, most campaigns are boring, use big words and don't really speak to me in a language that my female brain can understand. But you spoke my language: purses, flowers, candles, stilettos, BFFs, beauty sleep, and diamond rings. Best of all, you tell me how I can be "Queen of [My] Castle" as I spend my days cheerfully vacuuming. And you did it using the Universal Female Colors pink and green. I can't begin to thank you enough for your thoughtfulness and ability to speak to the woman of the late-1950s and early-1960s.









I've been Tumblin' around with feminists lately and came across this and figured some people here would find it a worthwhile read!

The name of the sale is pretty bold. It's hard to believe that an entire board of directors approved that ad, most likely with a few females included amongst the committee.

hahahah!

I tell you things come in cycles.
This is the same type of adverts they used in the 50's, post world war II

What the ad doesn't say is that each vacuum cums with a vacuum powered vibrator.

hilarious

so this is not a 50's relic?

i bought a dirt devil. for myself.

No, !@#$%!, it's a serious ad from 2010.

oh yeah, i got that. it's hilarious and demented. that's why i mentioned i gots me a dirt devil. it's all a man wants! ha ha ha.

watching tv ads, you'd think men never do laundry, or cook, or mop the floor.

well, they're still the minority doing that.

I can imagine the board of directors smiling at this, sadly. It speaks to their target audience: housewives and a new generation of women wanting to be old-fashioned housewives.

They won't buy it because they'll clean, but because of how it makes them think of their idea of nice old days in which women didn't have so many responsibilities and doing housework was actually considered worthy.

A lot of women feel let down because now they're expected to be successful professionally and make lots of money, to be educated, to be excellent modern devoted mothers always updated with the latest how-to-raise-your-child studies, intelligent & hard-working, sexually active (and by that read: always willing to act like a porn star and never say no (mood killer)), following fashion trends, pretty, nails done, make up done, always perfect waxing and brazilian (no excuses), THIN (go to the gym, read, exercise and eat the healthy stuff at all times) also HAPPY, SMILY and NURTURING. She must never complain (after all, women got their rights now SHUT UP about it), she must never be unhappy (isn't that a sign of weakness? didn't you women wanna be strong now? now prove it), pretend she doesn't feel there's sexism AND keep the house clean.

It's not surprising some women would vaccum cheerfully. It's not even surprising that ad is appealing.

Most women I know (myself included) would give everything to have one single day to simply clean and cook, no other responsibilities.

who exactly has told women that they need to fulfill each and every one of these "roles" I wonder?
one cannot have one;s cake and eat it too right?

No one told them nothing: they just know/learnt what happens if they don't.

One example is very much clear: whenever I say something, there'll be some reaction like:
"you have nothing to complain about" which is close to shut up, and other reactions that are waaay worse.

it's like: you got your rights, now go to work. there is nothing to do anymore.

There won't be one single time that breaking one of those "guidelines" won't have an unpleasant consequence.

We impose that on ourselves? Partially.

I think many of women THINK they need to fulfill the roles you mentioned in the exact manner you mentioned, but that does not mean society or men are telling them this. Nor does it mean that there are t tons of women like yrself who see through that fake ass bullshit

therefore, if they don't, too fucking bad for them.

Like I said, yes. You don't have to fulfil them, but there are consequences.

Do you need examples?

there are consequences to each and every action at any time.
that is what being an adult is all about.

I think too many people are concerned with what others think of them and how they will judge them than with what will make ther life better and more content.

Those aren't simple consequences of what others think of you.
They are social and economic consequences, matters of survival and quality of life.
But it's pointless to discuss when someone is determined not to change his mind, isn't it?

it is never pointless to discuss. just because someone does not change their mind whne you talk, do4es not mean they will not ruminate and ponder what you ahve said days, weeks or even years later.

never pointless to talk.

A lot of women feel let down because now they're expected to be successful professionally and make lots of money, to be educated, to be excellent modern devoted mothers always updated with the latest how-to-raise-your-child studies, intelligent & hard-working, sexually active (and by that read: always willing to act like a porn star and never say no (mood killer)), following fashion trends, pretty, nails done, make up done, always perfect waxing and brazilian (no excuses), THIN (go to the gym, read, exercise and eat the healthy stuff at all times) also HAPPY, SMILY and NURTURING. She must never complain (after all, women got their rights now SHUT UP about it), she must never be unhappy (isn't that a sign of weakness? didn't you women wanna be strong now? now prove it), pretend she doesn't feel there's sexism AND keep the house clean.


again, I ask, WHO expects this of women? Is it the women themselves? Is it their husbands? Is it the MAN? is it society? Is it Oprah?

I mean, this is fairly extreme knox. the only men out there who expect their woman never to complain are either dleusional idiots or wife-beating assholes. If you happen to think that is most men, then that's YOUR issue.

I would venture 90% of the men on this forum give not a flying FUCK about whether a woman follows the styles, or is perfectly made up or any of that bullshit.

On a related and more personal note, the females (save for the managers but only JUST IN CASE) at my work aren't allowed to work/be trained in the back. The general manager says this is because,

1. Girls aren't strong enough to lift the things that need to be lifted back there
2. If a girl gets hurt (burnt) it's a lot worse if a man gets hurt
3. She doesn't "need" to cross train people and it's about running the business or some BS (although this has proven to be untrue because almost every guy who is legally able to work in the kitchen but started off working in the front got trained in back. ALSO it's usually only the more manly guys that work in the back, not the nice, somewhat flamboyant ones. ALSO a lot of the guys who work in the kitchen know how to use the register and the other day she was training a kitchen fellow on register).

A handful of girls, including myself, will go back there when it's slow and make some food or ask to be taught by someone who works back there.

Obviously this kind of discrimination upsets me and I've voiced my opinion to the manager (who really doesn't have control over it - it's partially the store owner who is a complete prick and partially corporate. If I (or any other woman) want a job in the future that involves making food I want to have some kind of experience for it.



Fuck the world.

food service is very strictly divided sex-wise, and it is a bitch for a woman to get kitchen work sometimes. anything with long-standing macho cultures takes a long time to come around, if at all.

when I talk to chefs, cooks, restaurant people, they all tell em the same thing.

they keep good looking men and all the ladies out front to "enhance" the place, and they keep men in the kitchen because it is "dangerous" hot sweaty workand, so they say, not too many women want to do it.

I always wonder about that, cuz it sounds like they are just spouting off their work environment status quo...

Then again, try to be an "ugly" man and get a job waiting tables at a fine dining restaurant.
it goes both ways.