Ring Around the Collar
Back in the 80's, laundry detergent companies like Tide or Cheer used to have these TV commercials with the classic phrase "ring around the collar". What would happen on the commercial is some guy wearing a white dress shirt would be talking when someone would stop him, look at his collar, and say,
"You have ring around the collar!" Shocked and embarassed, the man wearing the white collar shirt would look to a woman, presumably his wife and the wife would have this mortified look on her face.
The whole underlying message was very chauvenistic back then. Woman, because you're supposed to do the laundry and wash all the clothes, it's YOUR fault if your husband ends up with a "ring around the collar". I don't think this commercial would do too well in today's world, especially with all those radical femenists watch-dog committees out there. As my college professor once said,
"Why is it the woman's fault that her husband has a dirty neck? Let him do his own laundry, then." But that statement was back in the early 90's.
Today, we're in the year 2006 and equal rights between men and women are closer than they have ever been in American society than before. However, given this same commercial, the underlying message would STILL be "it's the wife's fault for her husband having ring around the collar." Ridiculous you might say? I think not, and here's why:
Young women who are of marrying age this day and age have been treated like a princess at home while growing up, never once having done the laundry. Then, after getting married, she's suddenly supposed to know how to do it, except she doesn't. So the husband does his own laundry because he doesn't want his wife to ruin his clothes in the wash, and he doesn't touch her laundry because women always wear these delicate frilly things that could possibly be ruined in the washing machine. So if it's going to be ruined, better to let the wife ruin her own clothes than for the husband to ruin it and get blamed. So he does his own, and she does her own. When the wife gets around to ironing her clothes she, once again, because she never ironed before a day in her life, ruins the iron. Unbeknownst to the husband, he starts to iron his shirt when suddenly, he's surprised to find that his shirts have this crusty burned texture to them, especially on the collars.
So, given the same commercial in today's world, everyone would still look at the wife with a mortified expression for "ring around the collar" and it wouldn't be sexist or chauvenistic in the least.
"You have ring around the collar!" Shocked and embarassed, the man wearing the white collar shirt would look to a woman, presumably his wife and the wife would have this mortified look on her face.
The whole underlying message was very chauvenistic back then. Woman, because you're supposed to do the laundry and wash all the clothes, it's YOUR fault if your husband ends up with a "ring around the collar". I don't think this commercial would do too well in today's world, especially with all those radical femenists watch-dog committees out there. As my college professor once said,
"Why is it the woman's fault that her husband has a dirty neck? Let him do his own laundry, then." But that statement was back in the early 90's.
Today, we're in the year 2006 and equal rights between men and women are closer than they have ever been in American society than before. However, given this same commercial, the underlying message would STILL be "it's the wife's fault for her husband having ring around the collar." Ridiculous you might say? I think not, and here's why:
Young women who are of marrying age this day and age have been treated like a princess at home while growing up, never once having done the laundry. Then, after getting married, she's suddenly supposed to know how to do it, except she doesn't. So the husband does his own laundry because he doesn't want his wife to ruin his clothes in the wash, and he doesn't touch her laundry because women always wear these delicate frilly things that could possibly be ruined in the washing machine. So if it's going to be ruined, better to let the wife ruin her own clothes than for the husband to ruin it and get blamed. So he does his own, and she does her own. When the wife gets around to ironing her clothes she, once again, because she never ironed before a day in her life, ruins the iron. Unbeknownst to the husband, he starts to iron his shirt when suddenly, he's surprised to find that his shirts have this crusty burned texture to them, especially on the collars.
So, given the same commercial in today's world, everyone would still look at the wife with a mortified expression for "ring around the collar" and it wouldn't be sexist or chauvenistic in the least.
posted by V-Hume at 5:06 PM
6 Comments:
How do you ruin an iron?
how am i supposed to know that my cheap scrubs would stick to your iron?
and, please use spell check. it drives me nuts. hehehehe.
How do you use spell check on this thing?
there's a spell check icon
that brown gunk could be the result of using too much starch. BTW, are you using distilled water for the iron? Otherwise you can build up minerals. Gah
Nah, I use filtered water for my iron. Nothing but the best filtered, sparkling clear water for ironing the threads.
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