Lies, Damn Lies

faux feminism

I don't know whether this is the case in anywhere other than the UK, but here there is a bizzare kind of faux feminism in some adverts I find very irritating. This basically emerges in adverts for washing up liquid or washing powder. Basically, men are always utter, utter bufoons who seem to have never glanced at a washing machine in their life. The message appears to be "oh women, the menfolk can't handle all this household stuff like YOU do. Laugh at their olly antics." This might even be broadly true, but I wonder if it's the most positive message in the world- "men are clueless- why don't YOU do the work."

This is especially poignant to me because a tactic I used while younger (and on occasion still do), where I act even more incompetently than usual, hoping to elicit the excalmation "oh give it here!" While this can be rather effective, it's probably not a habit to be encouraged, partially because it inspires laziness, and also because after a while you come out to be a simpleton who apparently cannot handle any task at all. I suppose in that case you could be like the character in those films who appears to be really stupid and turns out to be a secret agent. Or something similar anyway.....

posted by Mr K @ 5:20 pm