I was watching TV the other night (not something I do super often so bear with me if you’ve seen this already!) and I saw a commercial that somewhat surprised me.
It was for Wal-Mart, I believe, and in it was a woman and her husband working to get everything ready for Christmas. At the end, the ‘typical bumbling husband’ turns and says something about Santa..and trails off as he sees the kid opening the gift from Santa. The Mom completes the dad’s thoughts with:
Dad: “Santa…
Mom: …doesn’t need any help.”
Wow.
I was struck by this – I guess first by the image of Mom as Santa (in the past, it was always the ‘guy’ role), and second by the subtle yet affirming message in this commercial of “women do it all, from house work to Santa, and the guy is an idiot who can’t do anything on his own.”
What kind of message does that send our sons, our husbands, our fathers, our guy friends? Are women being conditioned to see the men in their life this way?
Think back to ‘Tim-the-Tool-Man Taylor’. What a funny show to watch growing up, but as an adult, I see how much of this feminist “women rule, boys drool” message was layered into the banter, into the conversations Jill had with her women friends, in the convos and actions of Tim when he was away from home. And I can’t help but feel that this is detrimental for our society.
There are many reasons for this – and I’ll unpack this idea more as we move into the week. But for now: what are your thoughts on this TV commercial? What do you think – is this a subtle way to re-inforce our feministic western worldview, or nothing but a simple and harmless advertising message?
I don’t know about the commercial per se, but I definitely agree in general with the sentiment. There are several shows (and most commercials in general) that just drive me insane with their dumbing of husbands. Men never help, they are incompetent and are generally jonly good for bringing home the money. Sigh.
That commercial really disturbed me too, but it was more because (a) it was encouraging spending more than you have and (b) it was showing the man as being the frugal one while the woman was the one spending too much.
So for me, I guess it was the commercialism of it (ha, it’s supposed to be, it’s Walmart) as opposed to the gender issue. (Though it did bother me that the woman was the one spending too much.)
Anne: I know, and it just makes me sad. My hubby is amazing – he does so much for our little family of 2, and is so not imcompetent. And while I don’t think women’s lib is a bad thnig in and of itself, I feel like it’s going too far and now poor men – they just get knocked down in media quite often.
Sarah – hey there!!! I liked your thoughts here – I hadn’t even looked at it that way. And yes, of course they’re encouraging you to spend more than you have – it seems par for the course these days. And as for the woman being the one spending too much – well, I guess it didn’t bother me because I do know many women who have a hard time not overspending. But, it’s a good point that the commercial stereotypes in many ways. In fact, to me, the woman being the one spending the money on all these things almost again subtley puts the man in a ‘one-down’ or powerless role. It’s just amazing to me how subtle the messages are, but how powerful they can be on shaping the mind.