Am I a chauvinist?
Is there a subtle effort to escalate the battle between the sexes? OK, first tell me this, is anyone offended by the box cover to this product:
I was walking through my local COSTCO store this weekend, and came across this play kitchen in the toy department. It is like an easy bake oven on steroids. The concept is fine; a simulated kitchen for kids to play house in, great. I would have walked right by it until I noticed an item featured prominently in the center of the kitchen; a phone. At first I dismissed it as an amusing commentary on modern society, that a cordless phone is featured in the center of a child’s play kitchen. It did make me take a closer look, and notice that the scene portrayed on the box was not of a little girl cooking in the kitchen, but happily chatting on the phone. Opposite her, was a little boy (of diverse culture, of course), wearing an apron and stirring something in a bowl. Now, if this scene portrayed on the box to appeal to potential buyers of this product, why? Is it because that’s what mothers want their daughters to aspire to? Is it because this is the scene most typical for children to see in their home? Who’s “Dream Kitchen” is it?
Please tell me if I am being a misogynist by noticing this, and more importantly, tell me what you think of this. (Comments section below). I was amused by the overly political-correctness of this box cover, but I’d like to hear if you think I am making to big a deal out of it.
In this era of TV shows and news stories portraying men as bumbling idiots (Everyone Loves Raymond, King of Queens,) I wonder whether the trend of stirring the pot between men and women is just a coincidence, or a concerted effort by the media and others.
Jim Kunstler posted an article today in which he had a similar reaction, being offended of after watching the movie Avatar. “… the depiction of our national character through the whole course of the film was of a thuggish, cruel, cynical, stupid, detestable, and totally corrupt people bent on the complete destruction of nature…”
Divide and conquer is a time-tested method to keep the masses at bay. Just sayin’.
The staging and production of a packaging photo like this is preceded by huge amounts of discussion, planning, thinking and re-thinking, and mulitple layouts (versions) given tremendous consideration by the executives at the corporation as well as the marketing agency that probably concieved it and put it all together (story board concepts, model searches (the children) and consideration, photo studio contracting, etc., with focus group testing very likely involved as well). In other words, this photo in EVERY DETAIL of its ramifications is undoubtedly totally deliberate. It is intended to appeal to the target audience (market) which they assume, probably correctly so, will be subliminally attracted to the product by their warm-fuzzy internal response to such “progressive” depictions. It constitutes blatant psychological manipulation of “consumers” who’ve been carefully groomed to respond accordingly. We are surrounded by this stuff. You just happen to have a brain that is aware of it.
If you think JHK was offended by the portrayal he described in the movie, you know nothing about the man or his work. That is pretty much the same opinion of Americans that he has.
Where’s the misogyny? Are you offended by the stereotypical woman on the phone, or the gender bending sight of a boy cooking?
Surely most people nowadays realize that men and boys can cook.
I agree with Greg, though, that this was a product tested depiction.
Misogyny, no. I’m offended that the dream itself is the kitchen. Whooopee, big dreams. Made in the USA. Before long the real kichens won’t be of any use if the dreamers can’t grow their own food. Male or Female ~ the unlimited text cell phones and 700 channel TV won’t mean a damn thing when you can’t buy Oreos.
Its quite simple. The box describes reality. The woman is a communicator. The man is a servant. The woman is trained from a young age to control men and manipulate them into doing things for her. The man is trained from a young age to be a servant of women, by his mother, his father (the expert servant model), and the legion of female youth school teachers. The media will silently and effectively cement this conditioning through its advertisements. After he reaches puberty, his sexual drive will finish the physical aspect and his enslavement will be complete. There will be nowhere he can turn without hearing and seeing the endless propaganda that reinforces the social role of servant and subordinate. It is a woman’s world. Civilization is built for the protection and fulfillment of women.
Recall the answer to question a soldier fighting in war thousands of miles from home is asked: Why? The answer is always, I will do whatever it takes to see my family again.
just a little snapshot of society as a whole, the woman is in charge of course, and the dummy in the picture is the white male. the phone is a big part showing that the female is calling the shots and the male is beneath her since he is cooking.
these large companies are well aware of what that are doing and it is just part of a larger picture to make the white male look dumb and in some way a lower class citizen.
notice the commerical about pain killers on tv, two or three people are talking about the kind, type and number of pain killers they need to talk when a black female walks up and shows them the best type to buy.
the sad thing about it is there is not one “damn” thing that we can do about it.
watch out for a female president this time or at least by the next term.
the days of the great powerful white male are done