Extra Credit- Cleaning Products
Last night I was flipping through channels and a commercial about the new windex was on. Two birds are sitting in the tree watching a women clean the patio door window. She cleans it with the new streak free windex, after cleaning the window her husband tries to walk outside without opening the door. The birds in the tree start laughing, as the women goes back and wipes off the mini-mark her husband left on the glass. The window is being cleaned by a women because thats what women are trained to do. When I was growing up and even to this day my mother made me clean the bathroom which required cleaning the mirrors with windex. My brother would only have to empty the garbage and occassionally mop the floor. But I already knew when I cleaned the bathroom, I had to clean the sink, toilet, tub, mirrors, sweep, and mop the floor (moms idea of things being clean). If the mirror in the bathroom was dirty she would call me to clean it off or if I was in the bathroom and noticed that the mirror was even a little messy I would clean it off. Getting out of the shower the mirror would always be foggy, my mother and I would always wipe the mirror off with a towel whenever we got out of the shower but everytime I went into the bathroom after my father or brother took their shower the mirror would still be foggy. I also wondered why they never cleaned the mirror. My father told me that certain jobs around the house are for women and others are for men. Like what I wondered, is cleaning dishes for women, taking out the garbage is for men, cleaning the bathroom for women, basically anything dealing with cleaning around the house is geared towards women. Most commercials advertising cleaning products or cleaning in general feature women using the products. I have even seen commercials about cleaning guters featuring women.
As women we are locked into the sterotype of being clean.