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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be apoplectic with rage

141 replies

couldntlovethebearmore · 12/10/2016 09:41

Over the vax advert?
Nice family having breakfast, the kids and man make a massive mess everywhere.
Mum walks in smiling and cleans it up with the vax.
WHEN the fuck will this sexist shit ever end?

OP posts:
BlancheBlue · 12/10/2016 09:42

yes and vax hoovers are shit

FlyingElbows · 12/10/2016 09:42

Lol, I've ranted at that one too, it's outrageous. The actual product is good though.

BigFatLoser · 12/10/2016 09:43

Yes. What a waste of energy to be so angry about something so petty.

couldntlovethebearmore · 12/10/2016 09:45

Whats petty about being pissed with the message lets make a trail of mess and mum will come along smiling and happy to clean up after every fucker. Are you an actual mug?

OP posts:
Captainladder · 12/10/2016 09:48

YANBU. Those ads send me a bit loopy too.

MsStricty · 12/10/2016 09:48

Unfortunately, BigFatLoser's attitude is the reason why ads like this are still around.

MilkTwoSugarsThanks · 12/10/2016 09:53

I don't think ads have that much influence tbh. Sure it might make you think "ooh - I need a new vac, maybe I'll try a Vax this time" but it hasn't yet made DH go "ooh look - the woman in the house should be doing all the cleaning", and any household where it does has probably got bigger problems. DS does the hoovering in our house though.

I'd save your apoplectic rage for soaps and shit.

Bluebolt · 12/10/2016 09:57

Hate it but whilst women are still more likely to be the purchaser the ad designers will continue to target them. Women need to demonstrate with their wallets.

NothingIsOK · 12/10/2016 10:01

The ad is targeted at men who do the buying. Some arseholes will see it and get the message... get this for your woman and she will be happy, smiley and efficient at clearing up all the mess the rest of you make. No doubt many of them will gift it to the lucky woman, possibly for Christmas.

Yanbu.

ZuleikaDobson · 12/10/2016 10:01

Apoplectic? Really? So how do you cope with, say, bombs being dropped on children?

Laiste · 12/10/2016 10:04

Actually more and more over the last few years i have come to realise how much power subtle everyday sexism like this (ie ad's like this, the normality of seeing half dressed women standing around for no reason but being eye candy at sporting events ect) DOES absolutely entrench a subconscious idea that women are an underclass.

It's the constant drip drip of small things which keep the general undercurrent of sexism alive in our society i believe. We don't even register we're seeing it half the time.

MilkTwoSugarsThanks · 12/10/2016 10:04

Tbh Nothing of all the men I know not one of them is responsible for buying household appliances. They all use them, but they don't buy them.

BewtySkoolDropowt · 12/10/2016 10:05

I do love a good apoplectic with rage thread. They invariably don't disappoint in their over the top reaction to something.

deydododatdodontdeydo · 12/10/2016 10:09

Men buy women vacuum cleaners for christmas? Confused

ooodly · 12/10/2016 10:10

Fucking hell. Get over it. Is this honestly where you direct your energy?

PunySorrows · 12/10/2016 10:10

Of course you're not unreasonable. Advertising is one of the most unavoidable sets of images and assumptions we get confronted with on a day to day basis, and yes, repeated tropes like 'smiling woman does cleans up family mess as a matter of course'/'mother's main obsession is getting her husband's team's football shirts gleaming white' etc etc do normalise sexist and reactionary expectations about domestic workload.

I have never seen anyone as surprised as a plumber we had installing a shower last winter, who, when passing through the kitchen at breakfast time, saw me reading a book (for work, I was giving a lecture on it that morning) while DH ironed his shirt. He stood in the middle of the room bleating 'Well, I MUST say, I've never seen THAT before!' and we genuinely had no idea what he was going on about. Those attitudes don't grow out of thin air.

whattodowiththepoo · 12/10/2016 10:13

YABU to be apoplectic with rage, YANBU to be pissed off.

tofutti · 12/10/2016 10:14

what about the one where the kids make a bloody foody mess on the dining room carpet at a birthday party and mum just smiles at it? annoys me every time.

MadameCholetsDirtySecret · 12/10/2016 10:15

These lazy stereotypes are frustrating, I'm sure plenty of men are also pissed off with being viewed as messy and incompetent.

RepentAtLeisure · 12/10/2016 10:16

The ad is targeted at men who do the buying.

It's well known that women tend to be the decision makers when it comes to buying household appliances.

OutDamnedWind · 12/10/2016 10:18

There was a quote somewhere about images like these in adverts being 'the wallpaper to our lives'.

Of course no one consciously looks at it and goes 'a-ha! Women must do all the housework because te advert says so', but the constant drip feed of these messages everywhere you look had to have an impact.

a8mint · 12/10/2016 10:19

Their job is to sell vacuums not correct social stereotype s

AuntDotsie · 12/10/2016 10:19

Apoplectic is slightly U, but I get it. Once you see this sort of thing, you see it everywhere and can't stop seeing it, it can really get on your nerves.

I find the best way of coping is opting out by watching things on demand and via streaming. Also Adblock. My life is now about 90% ad-free and it's bliss.

Isitjustmeorisiteveryoneelse · 12/10/2016 10:20

Puny - re the plumber, thanks for the first belly laugh of the morning!

Pipthedog · 12/10/2016 10:21

I think an awful lot of adverts don't show either gender particularly well.

How often do you get a male portrayed as a gormless idiot who does nothing round the house? Who withers because of the beautiful, sexy, sassy woman and inevitably falls over because he is so besotted?

Look at any betting advert and men are portrayed as boorish, football obsessed lads. Older men always are often portrayed having a 'hobby' such as train sets....

But its an advert designed to sell things. Not real life....

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