By Morgan Elyse
We all know that when it comes to sexism and the feminist movement to uphold gender equality in all aspects of life, the media is not an ally. From telling women that they could never be considered beautiful without the help of their products to objectifying them in ads – the media is by no means the woman’s comrade.
In conjunction with its symbolic way of encouraging our self-loathing about our appearances, the media also seems to be absolutely comfortable with keeping us in our place. The “woman’s place,” according to Pillsbury, is in the kitchen, baking for our families, and in this case, being told how to “do our job” properly by a man (or boy, even.)
I was floored, and frankly nauseated by the commercial ads I saw on television the other night. Not one, but two Pillsbury commercials, played within the span of ten minutes (during a heavily feminist-themed episode of Cold Case, I might add). One of them portrayed a little boy in the kitchen with his mother and sister. The boy dictates to the females in the kitchen exactly how make his cinnamon rolls. The second commercial portrayed a role-reversal-type situation in which the father is making pinwheels and the mom is genuinely surprised that the man is even in the kitchen and when the kids tell the dad that the cable is out again, the dad looks at the mom and says, “You’ve got that, right?”
Sure, some people might think it’s kind of cute, and I suppose when you look at the anti-feminist abyss that is “the media,” it could even be considered a small step in the right direction; the fact that they’re even toying with the idea of female/male role reversal– or bringing a boy into the kitchen in the first place. Great, yes, boys should know how to cook too, but they definitely shouldn’t be instructing their mothers on how to do it – honestly, what is this ad teaching our young men?
Pillsbury may be patting themselves on the back over their “progressive” ad campaign but, in my opinion, this is not progress, maybe 50 years ago it would have been, but not today. My father did a lot of the cooking in the house when I was a kid and maybe his nightly meals weren’t as decadent as my mother’s thanksgiving dinner but there was never an issue of whose “job” it was and it wasn’t “funny” or “cute” to see my dad (or my brother) in the kitchen whether cooking OR doing dishes, mind you.
And the icing on the cake, so to speak- what really drove me to believe that the Pillsbury Corporation is either completely careless or all-together anti-feminist and, therefore, should be boycotted? I looked at the Pillsbury website and watched all of their featured commercials and, with the exception a single male voice over (in which the baking could be implied), not ONE of them featured a man cooking (and the doughboy doesn’t count!) I really have to wonder what the CEOs of Pillsbury are thinking.
Perhaps I’m blowing things out of proportion. I know that Pillsbury isn’t in control of TV land, nor are they the one company that people look up to and base their morals off of but they’re certainly not helping the cause. Feminism is important – for everyone – and as long as companies and ad agencies continue to cater to these 1950’s housewife stereotypes, it’s only hindering gender equality. I don’t know about you all but I may not be “letting the making begin” for a while.