Essay 2.1
Swiffer's Gendered Ad
Since men and women are different in numerous ways, it must not come as a surprise that advertisements depict men and women in different ways. Stereotypes are formed through the continuous, prolonged exposure of viewers to the various devices of imagery. These stereotypes begin to pray on our gender, and eventually help us form a bias in the media, and in our homes and lives. The notion, message, or idea of an array of depictions must be taken into consideration when analyzing stereotypes. The recent print ad of Swiffer Bissell Steamboost can be used as an example, as it promotes what have become these traditional gender stereotypes. It portrays that domestic work is a woman's strength, and something that she should be proud of doing. In this particular advertisement, Rosie the Riveter’s likeness has been used to sell products, which ultimately is anti-feminist and a detriment to feminism, as Rosie stood for indulging in actions outside of the home, and the Swiffer advertisement seeks to keep women inside it.
A continuous barrage of images and messages about a group shapes the stereotype. For instance, most adult women in postwar America were wives, mothers, both, or plain homemakers. However, in a matter of three decades, the number of women involved in the labor force rose to fifty percent of the total population of adult women. While women embraced and enjoyed their new obligations outside the home, advertisements continued depicting women as plain housewives, seldom acknowledging their new roles outside of domestic responsibilities. Print ads, like this recent one from Swiffer Bissell Steamboost, are still in the habit of depicting women in this domestic role, although empirical studies confirm that this stereotype is false. These images are detested by women today. Advertising reflects societal values and culture, and thus ads that employ stereotypes not merely mirror but also have a tendency to promote and strengthen the stereotypical images that are existing in a society. With regard to women, there has been numerous findings which show that ads have long been representing demeaning stereotypes. In the Swiffer's print ad, a woman wearing a denim jacket and a bandana while carrying a steam mop poses with obvious pride and dignity. The rolled-up sleeves seemingly portray that she is confident and proud of her role-- a homemaker and, more degradingly, a sweeper. Even the way she embraces the steam mop somehow reflects her full acceptance of her domestic role as a house cleaner. It seems that she takes pride in her domestic responsibilities and does not consciously understand her inferior position in the way she projects her image. Simply put, her image is an unwelcoming distortion of Rosie the Riveter.
Rosie the Riveter is a gendered symbol of the American society, an image of a period when women joined forces to provide service to the nation. She is a fictional image fashioned by the American government that appeared at the advent of the Second World War as a piece of the propaganda operation of the government. She was created to inspire white middle-class women to briefly join the labor force so as to serve in the war campaign and free the men of some of their duties. The Swiffer's print ad is especially insulting to women due to the obvious gender stereotypes it promotes. It uses the image of Rosie the Riveter, a powerful symbol of womanhood, and distorts the message. This print ad makes use of this influential symbol to strengthen the stereotype that women are tools, used by extension to sweep or clean the house.
Take, for example, historical feminist icon, Rosie the Riveter: clad in makeup, with hair pinned neatly to her head, she is recognizable by the bandana tied around her head, and the pair of seemingly grease-laden work overalls that cover her body. She holds her fist up high, defiantly stating, “We can do it!” shouting the battle cry for all women of her time and those after. “WE CAN DO IT!” Cry the women, who have always been told they cannot. Rosie the Riveter immediately became the signifier that meant, regardless of what you wanted to do, as a woman, you could. Typically, however, she stood for endeavors outside of the mundane niceties that took place in the home; she encouraged every woman to be the independent, strong, brave, wonderful individual she always had been, and be whoever she was outside of the home, namely, without a man. This Swiffer advertisement, however, abrasively hijacks the image of Rosie the Riveter, using her historical prowess to make it look as though the farthest corners of a woman’s individuality will most certainly by plumbed with the use of this new homemaker’s gadget. It is enough to disgust the modern, and the historical feminist. They have taken an image that was meant to crush that stereotypical gender archetype, and managed to meld the two together in a nightmarish feat only possibly when boatloads of cash are on the line.
The Swiffer's advertisement shows gender stereotypes that viewers or consumers do not automatically identify or notice when they see TV ads. It is understood that the ad will be associated with women because it is their natural or traditional role to clean, this being a household duty. Numerous viewers do not have second thoughts when they recognize gender stereotypes expressed in this manner because it is deeply embedded into modern culture. In spite of the gender bias that bolstered Rosie the Riveter and other ads about war women, the strategies that advertisers employed are still being practiced until now to convince consumers or viewers to embrace prevailing cultural values and ideals as absolute reality. Although Rosie the Riveter was not originally depicted as a homemaker, a variety of the war ads directed at women were. Women were supposed not merely to join the labor force to serve their nation, but also to still fulfill their duties as homemakers. Essentially, they were expected to be in two places at once. While Rosie the Riveter may have had significance for women outside of the home, perhaps she was saying, “We can do it!” as an answer to the hellish demands America placed on the female workforce during the war. This formed a dual identity for women in contemporary print ads, as mirrored in the Swiffer's ad.
In the Swiffer's ad, it seems that women were, on the one hand, psyched up to be strong, burly, and able-bodied so they could perform the laborious household tasks that had to be accomplished. On the other hand, it appeared they still desired to be womanly and were willing to serve their household in the stereotypical way they always had, by caring for their families as they were expected to do. In truth, advertising built on the societal ideals promoted in the postwar period to generally identify women into two-- as mother and wife. Afterward, the Swiffer's ad expresses specific characteristics required to thrive and sustain these roles, especially in terms of their domestic responsibilities-- wives have to be trendy, obedient, and submissive, and mothers should possess the attributes of the wife, including being frugal, nurturing, and agreeable. In addition, the Swiffer's ad shows that women cannot merely take on these responsibilities and simply because a woman is a wife or a mother does not imply she performs the roles ads portray. Rather, it implies that young girls need to be trained to possess these characteristics for them to be future homemakers. In other words, the ad promoted the idea of domestic roles or household work and even if women deviate from these traditional roles and had participation in the workforce, she never severed her ties to her homemaking duties.
Moreover, the woman is depicted in the Swiffer's ad as a passive decoration and an active product user. The woman is shown clutching a steam mop and seems to be actively interacting with the product, but, at the same time, she portrays a passive image of a decoration. Decorative images are believed to be embodying society's belief of the proper or correct position of women-- assuming a submissive, docile position. When decorative images are employed, just like how Swiffer's ad used it, ads usually insert nonverbal hints as a suggestion that women do not have control or power even in their own household. In the Swiffer's ad, these hints involve holding a cleaning tool and posing as a working class capable of performing only 'dirty' jobs. Numerous ads still depict women in this form of traditional gender stereotypes. Nonetheless, representations of womanhood were totally superseded and that girls and women are depicted wrongly. Women had accomplished a great deal during the Second World War in careers that had been prohibited from them for so long.
In fact, numerous women refused to discontinue working after the war. There were women who needed the additional earnings to contribute to their household. Others plainly reveled in the privilege and freedom of going after or getting involved in what had been a male-dominated domain. Men and women nowadays have quite complicated lives with diverse roles. Women today are not just homemakers; they are also employees, corporate executives, colleagues, and so on. This is highly distinct from the 1950's society, where gender roles were far more clear-cut: women as homemakers, and men as wage earners. Nowadays, unfortunately, society remains under the grips of the 1950's gender stereotypes, as clearly proven by the Swiffer's ad. As Katha Pollitt observes in Why Boys Don’t Play with Dolls article, “The feminist movement has done much for some women but it has hardly turned America into a playground free of sex roles. It hasn't even got women to stop dieting or men to stop interrupting them”. (381) Pollitt claims that although the feminist movement happened and it helped a lot, there is still a long way to go and to reach the goals intended, to turn America into a place where gender roles are banished. Until’ today, 2016, some ads still portray women and men with specific sex roles. Without a doubt, advertising has vigorously preserved and disseminated such traditional depiction of women as domestic workers and makes use of these images to endorse all kinds of products, especially those associated with household chores.
Traditional gender stereotypes still run rampant in modern advertising. The Swiffer's ad is a perfect example. The woman in the ad is a clear distortion of the powerful image of Rosie the Riveter, a symbol of strong womanhood and the dual role that women perform--- as part of the labor force and as homemakers. The appropriation of her likeness is anti-feminist, promoting traditional gender roles as it uses a familiar icon women want to look up to and follow in order to sell an item that is meant to constrict women to more housework. Rosie the Riveter was meant to speak to individuality, but more importantly, work outside of the home. She said, “We can do it!” to all women, and for all women. The Rosie imposter in the Swiffer add says, “Get to mopping, it’s what you were born to do.” This form of gender depiction has trickled down from the postwar period, particularly during the 1950s, when society was markedly divided into two genders- men and women-- and their specific roles. However, these traditional gender stereotypes shown in contemporary ads are no longer applicable and true, because women nowadays take on multiple roles.
Works Cited
Pollitt, Katha. “Why Boys Don’t Play with dolls”. Seeing and Writing 4. Ed. Donald McQuade and Chrsitine McQuade. Boston & New York: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2010. 381-383. Print.
