Keep the house clean and better look good while doing it!

I found this advertisement as I was searching for vintage advertisements for another project, and to be perfectly honest, I was blown away by the blatant sexist message. One of my group members and I both had the same reaction which entailed pure outrage and disgust, while a male member of my group simply shook his head and said "it’s just an old ad." After viewing these reactions, I realized this is the best subject I can blog about.

Just reading the physical appearance of the advertisement, I can see proofs of Susan Bordo's theory of "body practices." We can see in this image of the woman so strenuously doing her household chore with a smile on her face which makes me suspicious of the reason behind that smile. That smile I believe is a marketing strategy designed by men who undoubtedly think that women should be doing house hold tasks and since that is their 'niche' in a man's world, she must obviously be happy. Such a chauvinistic attitude may seem old fashioned but I still see signs of it around me even in college environment. This image also reminds me of the idea of 'essential-ism' women as those responsible for domesticity.

Furthermore, the advertisement's main point is not only to keep women doing what they are meant to do, but to keep their bodies at the society's standard. This angered me to no end. Why does this woman have to clean the house? Why is she not at an office, a park, a school or anywhere that does not imply marriage? Why does she have to lose weight to please the society?
The image represents the culture at the time it was published but the woman in the image represents Susan Bordo's concept of docile bodies. This white woman cleaning the window thoroughly with a light blue, conservative clothing, a content smile and in a dark confined area, has been trained through childhood to be this particular person. The everyday practice of being a nurturing, responsible, conservative has honed a woman that is being told what to do by her peers. It makes me wonder when her content smile is going to transform into a sad expression of an agoraphobic. I understand that Stuart Hall was speaking mostly about how the society tries to maintain the racial and political order every day, but I believe his theory also applies to the maintaining of gender roles.