Today, I found something I'm not sure how I feel about. I can't quite pinpoint what is unsettling me.

We were discussing gender and work in one of my classes, specifically the impression of the notion that household labour is "women's work" onto children through advertising. Not a new topic, I know - obviously the 20th century presented some horrifically sexist ads, and there continues to be similar issues today. However, these ads are much, much more subtle.

Let's do a little background here. Traditionally, commercials involving domestic work such as child care, cooking, cleaning, and general home management are performed by the woman of the house. The man of the house is sent away to work outside the home and provide for his family. "Family" meant a heteronormative, middle-class, white husband and wife with two perfect children. I think we all know the score on this one. There are literally thousands of analyses on gender stereotypes, so I won't get into that.

However, we happened to watch a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser commercial, and it stood out for me. I'll be keeping the focus relatively contemporary.

Obviously there's the bumbling man who is impressed by how well his wife has cleaned the house, and I won't even get into how it's always a woman (of a heteronormative, middle-class, white couple) who is most interested in a magical sponge.

But I wondered: Does Mr. Clean actually clean anything? Or is this just a muscular man showing women how to clean properly?

Oh look, two male voices are commenting on how well this woman is cleaning.

I FOUND ONE WHERE HE CLEANS... for 5 seconds. While showing the woman how it's done.

And I mean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. "But goo!" you exclaim, "How is this any different from other cleaning commercials? Why is Mr. Clean worse?"

Well, I suppose I'm used to seeing women on commercials showing other women how exciting new laundry detergent is. Mothers are usually the ones shown to pass on their knowledge to their daughters. However, it feels like this is the next level up by not only enforcing the stereotype that women are supposed to be the ones who clean... but also that men know how to do it better, presumably by simply being male.

Maybe it just sticks out because I never noticed how thick the layers can get.

Other thoughts? Am I reading too much into Mr. Clean commercials? I haven't found a lot of discussion on this besides this one ad that stirred up controversy.