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to watch TV like he normally does and to make a mental record of how many times a man was featured in an ad for a cleaning product, and how many times a woman was featured in an ad for a tool or hardware.
In a week's time, he noted none.
Altho, he stated, Mr. Clean is a man, and in the one commercial (where the Kangaroo with muddy paws jumps through the kitchen), there IS a man 'coming to the rescue' with an oh-so-nifty mop WHICH HE HANDS TO THE WOMAN FOR HER TO CLEAN UP THE KANGAROO MUD SPOTS!!!
Every commercial for detergent, sweepers, vaccuums, window cleaner, dish soap, etc, has a woman as the central point of the commercial. Every commercial has a woman doing the cleaning (usually with a messy husband/kids dirtying up everything in the background). Actually, I shouldn't say "every" because there's a commercial for a Swiffer or whatever where the man is cleaning the fans and talking to his wife in baby talk as she's in the office setting up for a meeting.
Every commercial for a hand-tool, peice of hardware, tool, saw, hammer, car-cleaner, oil, gasoline, has MALES as the central point of the commercial. Every commercial shows men using the tools (usually with a dim-witted woman looking on in awe as the man uses a hammer without mauling several limbs in the process).
Does having a uterus predispose me to being a better cleaner? My husband (the 'domestic' one in the relationship) would argue that point.
Does having a penis predispose my husband to being able to handle saws and pliers better than a woman (My husband would disagree with that as well, as I was sawing away excess limbs of the lilac bush this weekend and DIDN'T EVEN WORRY ABOUT BREAKING A NAIL)
I took a sociology class a few years ago and its focus was "Sociology of Minority Population" and we dealt with all issues about gender, race, class, religion.
We specifically looked at gender-targeted marketing, and sexism in marketing.
Next time you see an ad which has children in it, notice that if there's a boy and a girl in the ad, the boy is usually standing up (dominance), while the girl is sitting (Submissiveness). Girls are often shown covering their mouths (keeping silent). Women are shown in ads selling everything from car oil to dish detergent, always the sex-symbol, legs spread, mouth covered, breasts almost showing.
There's a really good video series about this--done by a woman first in the 70's, then again in the 90's. I wish I could remember the name of it. But she is taped as she has a lecture at a college for marketing students I believe, and she shows these very sexist images AND messages that we're shown every day, and breaks them down. I never noticed the thing about the kids--boy standing, girl sitting, girls covering their mouths, girls always in submissive photos, vunerable, sexy, ready for the taking. Men always upright, standing, dominant, ready to do the taking.
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A few years ago, there was a commercial for Sears. Mom and daughter were in the kitchen and the idea of the commercial was "Make Mom's Day" and magically, the girl and mother were whisked from standing in the kitchen (such an apt place for a woman to be, right?) to standing in the middle of Sears' women's clothing department! What a DREAM for not only a mom, but HER DAUGHTER AS WELL!!! Because ALL WOMEN LOVE TO SHOP, right?
And on birthday's and holidays, we prefer to get useless jewelry and photo frames over useful things that we really WANT (but are too conditioned by marketing to realize that we don't want a three-stone diamond pendant with an oak-stained photo frame)
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