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.
What to know why this stuff exists? In the 1960's household spending flipped from mostly men buying the goods to mostly women. Link to Forbes WSJ LInk to better data The consumer economy is roughly 2/3 of the total US economy. As much as I hate advertising, they are not stupid and they do tailor everything they do to trigger spending in the groups of people most likely to make a decision to buy their crap. And if you are an advertising guy, you run the numbers and play the averages and work your ads to trigger the buying patters of the people who spend the most money on household goods: women. Advertising does not care about any of us, does not care about cultural norms and does not care about anything but cash. We are nothing but wallets and eyeballs to them.If the consumer economy had a sex, it would be female. Women drive 70-80% of all consumer purchasing, through a combination of their buying power and influence. Influence means that even when a woman isn’t paying for something herself, she is often the influence or veto vote behind someone else’s purchase.
Don't take this the wrong way, but fuck right off with that shit. Not enough? Here's a playlist. Women are not equal in the United States. There are problems with being female throughout society. Women are paid less, have less autonomy, are more likely to be victimized and far more likely to contribute more to a household. But you don't get to point at Mr. Clean and bitch that he's not lifting a finger. I'm willing to accept that I'll be portrayed as a fucking idiot who doesn't know how to use a flip phone in exchange for the fact that I'm likely to be dominant in any business discussion. I'm okay with being portrayed as a moron incapable of protecting myself from makeup and dresses under the siren song of Doritos in exchange for the fact that culturally, I'm allowed to do fuckall for my family whenever a sporting event is on television. And I'm willing to accept that I will be reduced to a blubbering pile of incompetence the moment I see a diaper in exchange for the fact that statistically speaking, I don't change diapers... except actually, fuck right off with that shit, too. Men are dominant in culture. White men in particular are on top of American society. One consequence of that is the media regularly portrays me as this guy: So quit your bitchin'. Yeah - you're more likely to do the housework, you're more likely to be paid less, you're more likely to experience violence. It's much better to be male than female by almost any metric. Almost any metric but this one. So yes: let's talk about ways in which women are not being treated fairly, and do everything we can to fix that. But no: you don't get to gripe about Mr. Clean. Especially when you have plenty of other shit to gripe about in advertising.
Controversy sells, as does conflict. "Your husband is an idiot, we all know it, purchase this mop to overcome his stupidity." Which, really, pales in comparison to "all women are pieces of meat to objectify, eat our burgers." My grandmother scrapbooked. This was not known to me until I became the keeper of the albums. Her remodeling ideas? Her "pinterest?" a book of advertising lovingly and carefully put together after she graduated Radcliffe in '37. You want ads, I got ads. It's easy to find the jaw-droppingly terrible ones because Tumblr regurgitates that shit like a momma bird but even the inoffensive shit speaks pretty broadly to institutionalized marginalization. It's interesting - back when introduced, Mr. Clean actually lifted a finger or two. Six years later, P&G veered flagrantly into infantilization, but at least they made room for the possibility that a man might at some point actually have to do something about a mess. Six years after that, there's no cleaning - just an ecstatic, orgasmic, lemon-fueled acid trip: Six more years, and we're at least showing that cleaning might be the goal... but the Mr. of the house is still absent: Six more years, and the extent of Mr. Clean's involvement in your chores is to beefcake it up. Worth pointing out - at least the ad passes the Bechdel test: Now it's '91 and holy shit, we actually have a family (a lilly-white, WASP-ey college-bound family, but still) cleaning together, dad included: By '97 we're banking on nostalgia and the family is gone. I am woman, hear me roar into the emptiness. And now, per the ads you found, P&G are clearly still banking on nostalgia and brand recognition, showing a bunch of lily-white women doing lily-white women things. I mean, you could go the other way... Realistically speaking, you've got a 50-year-old relic of the Golden Age of Advertising anchoring your brand, and he looks like he just stepped out of the Bally Total Fitness in Sand Point, Idaho. There's only so much Mr. Clean can do before he starts reminding people that he's the Ubermensch. Frankly, standing by and letting women do their thing is about the least controversial thing he could do. And at least he's no longer asking overly-probing questions.
Advertising is noxious. It's persuasive speech that pretends to aim for our hearts and minds while really aiming for our pockets. But advertising is also honest. Maybe it is the most honest form of speech. We understand what's going on when we are being pitched. An NBA coach might be racist, but if she selects players on any basis other than their ability to play well, the team will be at a disadvantage. In the long run, a coach can't afford to promote anything but skill. In my speech I can can indulge a preference for inclusive language, but in reality NBA coaches are men. If I am in business selling clothing to coaches, I must focus on men's suits and not women's styles, or I will lose business to others who know the market better. Procter & Gamble wants to market to the people who make buying decisions for household goods. Traditionally, these people have more often been women, and the marketing reflects that history. The spanking ad is jarring, just like the one showing a doctor smoking Camels. In the U.S. market, Mr. Clean appeals to a slim, white, lovely housewife. In another market, a full-figured, black, lovely mom uses Ariel Washing Powder (in a plastic tub!) to ensure her son's success. Such promotions can reinforce stereotypes, but they can also subvert them. Frey for Men is "the detergent that works as hard as you do." P&G is paying attention.Today's man rejects one-dimensional labels such as macho and strives to be what we call the "Modern Mensch" – good hearted, well rounded and family oriented. Defying stereotypes of the past, he cleans, cooks meals and takes charge of the grocery shopping.
One of my preferred adverts at the moment is this: I like that they made the decision to have the Mum at work, and that they purposefully highlighted this, but also that by using bears they meaningfully bypass having to identify the family with any one race or nationality. I would love to see more bear based advertising to be honest.