The Idiot Homemaker

There is a new phenomenon in the commercial business! It's called the idiot husband commercial (or so I like to say). It's no news that any advertising having to do with the home and children almost always features a female main character, so I was surprised when I started seeing more and more dads and husbands in domestic commercials. Then, I started to notice a trend; all the men were idiots! So why is it that when a male character is depicted as single he is surrounded by women, driving brand new sports cars, having fun with the guys, but when depicted as married he turns into a complete moron? I have lots of different theories. Maybe by adding a wife and home life into the equation automatically makes men incompetent. Maybe just by being in the vicinity of home makes him lose all common sense. Whatever the reason behind these commercials, there is a pattern in the world of advertising; If a man is depicted as single in a commercial, he is competent, successful, and attractive. When he is depicted as married, he loses all common knowledge and judgment. For example a Pepto-Bismol commercial shows a wife who called the Pepto-Bismol hot line because her husband got into some dog treats. Another commercial shows a man eating a hotdog, while his wife is vaccuming in the background. He turns with his mouth full of hot dog and says "do da thding, lets do da thding." She proceeds to play a famailiar ballpark song on the piano while rolling her eyes and shaking her head in disapproval. Apparently, he is trying to get that 'ballpark flavor' from his hotdog. Unfortunately it doesn't work (suprise). There are countless other commercials like the Lysol commercial that shows a man trying to make breakfast, getting grease everywhere while feverishly trying to flip an egg, and on the verge of a meltdown. The wife comes to his aid and wipes the grease up with a Lysol disinfecting wipe and the family takes a sigh of relief.

This new phenomenon is harmful to everyone. In a society that has (hopefully) moved past the notion that men and women do seperate and different work, commercials are still living in the fifties. These ads are putting men in there place (ie not in the home) when trying to help with their domestic duties by making them look moronic and ridiculing them. I believe that humans are a product of their environment and this annoying persistance of stereotypical gender roles in commercials just makes progress of really seeing men and women as having equal roles in the home almost impossible. The more we see something, the more likely we are to accept and adopt those values as our own.

More idiot husband commercials.
Chore Wars

Birth in the U.S.

We have always seen birth portrayed in the media, always in the same way. A woman in extreme distress, a complication during birth and the doctors who save the day. This is not a normal representation of what birth should look like. The media gives us fear based information and as a result, women distrust their bodies to do what they were so perfectly designed to do; give birth naturally. We think that we need hospital interventions to have a smooth, successful birth. The fact is, there is a direct correlation with hospital interventions and infant mortality rates. More interventions in hospitals means more c-sections and more deaths. Hospitals are a business and to hurry a birth, they inject pitocin (synthetic for of oxytocin made to cause contractions) in order to get more mothers to be in and out as quickly as possible. As a result, birth is much more painful and much more dangerous due to the constant, extremely strong and long contractions. The baby can become distressed and the mother ends on an operating table ready for an emergency c-section. This is not normal, yet this is how we see it every time a birth takes place on t.v. or in movies. Women flock to hospitals to have their babies, thinking it is their only option to have a safe birth. The fact is, giving birth naturally, away from a hospital setting (birthing centers, at home with a midwife etc.) is safer and give the mother the option to birth the way she pleases. Comfort of the mother is crucial to having a successful birth. I have a sneaking suspicion that if the media represented birth the way it was intended to be by nature, we would view the entire birthing process more like a natural process rather than pathological.




http://http://www.storknet.com/cubbies/homebirth/homebirthsafety.htm
http://http://www.gentlebirth.org/format/myths.html#Studies