Domesticity is one of the qualities that we classify as feminine. Think about how many times you have seen a woman being a key character in advertisements for cleaning products, from air fresher and washing liquid to sweepers and vacuum cleaners. It is believed that it is a woman’s duty to maintain the house, which in turn we see household work as feminine.
The association of domestication with femininity and how the stereotype of the housewife came to be could have originated from a movement that was alive between the 1850s and 1950s, called the Cult of Domesticity. [1] The movement refers to the belief that a family can achieve happiness and wholeness as a home if individual family members perform specific roles dutifully. While a husband’s role is to work and earn an income to provide for his family, it was the wife’s responsibility to be a homemaker and a caregiver; maintaining the house as a refuge for her husband, and to care for, teacher, and set moral examples for her children. [2] Many adverts of that era that was themed on home life had contributed to this portrayal of femininity. At the time, these stereotypes are what media is telling you to be: be a perfect wife or mother of the perfect family. Of course, these ads communicate the message of being a perfect family to a wider audience than just women, but the fact stands that women were common characters for household base adverts.
While it is likely not intentional, the ideals from the cult of domesticity are still alive and well, as many of our modern advertisements based on the home feature women playing as busy and doting mothers and wives. That is not to say that no one is trying to change this. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) demands for tougher penalties against cleaning campaigns that show women cleaning up after men who are incompetent to perform simple household tasks, as we are now growing to be more aware of the harmful implications they carry not only towards women for being strictly housewives, but towards men for, firstly, being to incompetent to take care of themselves and, secondly, using the former point to justify that housekeeping is a women’s job. [3] The ASA also further argues that these adverts are sexist and can “restrict the choices, aspirations and opportunities of children, young people, and adults.” [4] However, figures such as Nanette Newman, Fairy Liquid’s star from the 80’s adverts, assert that banning these adverts would be “dangerous”, and firmly believe that women are the domesticated sex and are genetically more prone to respond to adverts promoting domesticity. [5]
“Who is to say that because women are at the moment the only gender that can produce babies that there is something in them that is more caring and wants to create and nest and likes all the things that are connected with homes? And that shouldn’t be considered something that shouldn’t be advertised?”- Nanette Newman on the Radio 4 Today programme.
Her beliefs can be traced back to Ester Boserup’s theory of the plough, which I have discussed in my previous article. The chief executive of the ASA, Guy Parker, argues that there is a danger of these adverts leading to a reduction of women in STEM careers, as the young girls who will be exposed to these adverts will grow up to believe that they are only suited for “caring type jobs.” Newman’s response to this is “I don’t know a lot of women who want to be engineers, I must admit.” [6]
Needless to say, Newman is only speaking from her perspective, formulating her opinion from a selection of women she knows (most likely her age) rather than hearing out the beliefs and aspirations of other young women and girls from later generations, who may wish to work in the STEM occupation.
Despite the fact housewife stereotypes are still present in cleaning adverts, there have been a handful of adverts that broke from the norm and featured male characters to promote products.
People remember the product Cillit Bang for their vocal and boisterous host Barry Scott, who had promoted the product from 2005 to 2016, where he was replaced by another younger male character, simply known as “The Mechanic.” However the mechanic’s advert has an entirely different flavour Barry Scotts as it takes place in a garage setting, an environment typically associated with masculinity, in contrast to Barry Scott’s legacy of the zany garage, bathroom, and kitchen orientated adverts. The new mechanic advert is possibly designed to pander to a younger audience by introducing a younger model and using grungy and dark colours, perhaps even to charm the female audience into buying the product rather than humouring the audience with Barry Scott donned in a cleaning apron and gloves. Alas, the mechanic’s legacy was cut short later in the following year in favour of bringing Barry Scott back, proving that comedy is more effective than charm.
However, comedy is another aspect that should be brought to attention. The mood of Barry Scott’s adverts is entirely comical. While it is highly likely for the adverts to be intended as good fun, there is the underlining hint that it is humorous for men to be performing a “women’s task” of cleaning. The mechanic advert eradicates the humour aspect and replaces it with a mood that combines both seriousness and liveliness.
[1] Griffiths, K., Griffiths, K. and profile, V. (2018). The Cult Of Domesticity, from then until now!. [online] Kgwoman.blogspot.co.uk. Available at: http://kgwoman.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/the-cult-of-domesticity-in-advertising.html [Accessed 16 Jan. 2018].
[2] Sociologyindex.com. (2018). CULT OF DOMESTICITY. Women are chief homemakers and caregivers.. [online] Available at: http://sociologyindex.com/cult_of_domesticity.htm [Accessed 16 Jan. 2018].
[3] [4] [5] [6] Sherwin, A. (2018). Fairy Liquid actress Nanette Newman: ‘Dangerous’ to ban sexist ads. [online] iNews. Available at: https://inews.co.uk/essentials/culture/television/dont-ban-sexist-ads-womens-role-home-says-fairy-liquid-queen-nanette-newman/ [Accessed 16 Jan. 2018].
PICTURE CREDITS
The Mechanic https://www.unilad.co.uk/tv/there-has-been-some-devastating-news-about-cillit-bang-legend-barry-scott/
1950s Persil advert https://i.pinimg.com/originals/74/ea/6f/74ea6f682d9753b69fe1f21bd9486cb3.jpg
1950s hover advert https://visualpast.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/sexism-in-the-1950s/
What It Means To Be Feminine? 
