Would You Like Some Product Placement with that Sexism?

My good friend Sam has gotten into the feminist spirit! His guest post, "Two Cunts in A Kitchen," is well-written and intriguing, and I hope he writes more for us soon!

Two Cunts in a Kitchen:

The phrase mentioned above is advertising industry slang for the standard kitchenware commercial. We’ve all seen the premise. Two women of different races stand in a immaculate kitchen discussing the life-changing benefits of switching to Gladware. Same old stuff. 

Few women realize how radical this type of advertising is when compared to the old routine. Gone are the days of 50’s advertising where the fresh-from-work mate would complement his wife on how nutritious the Wonder Bread was. The women were in command now. They would proudly announce to their clumsy husband that the frozen pizza wasn’t delivery. This shift in advertising occurred at the same time that women began to leave the confines of the kitchen and venture into the workplace in droves. The new version of the American woman was instrumental in transforming the American viewpoint on what constitutes femininity. 

But alas, the changing portrayal of women did not have a universally positive effects. Men increasingly became portrayed as stupid, clumsy or ignorant. This image of manliness has persisted today. You only have to turn on shows such as The King of Queens to find this degrading image blown up for all of America to see. To counter this, women in television became increasingly neurotic: overbearing nags who pestered their husbands to take on "women's work" in addition to their other schedules. 

If history is any indication, there will soon be a new shift in advertising, dedicated once again to the submissive housewife of the 50’s. However, I desperately hope not. Only when “An Overbearing Cunt and a Lazy Bastard” is advertising jargon will "true" equality be achieved and we're all equally incompetent.