Kenwood is making a very strong sexist statement by saying that cooking is "what wives are for" as they create a very gendered body, representing women as cooks whose place in the home is in the kitchen. My initial reaction to this advertisement was basically the expected "who would listen to this?" followed by the typical woman line of "men are idiots." The primary argument in this image, the object, is that the Kenwood Chef kitchen appliance is capable of doing such a wide range of things in the kitchen that it can do "everything but cook." By adding the "I'm giving my wife a Kenwood Chef" statement, the writers/advertisers greatly narrow their audience to married men. More specifically, they are targeting the subculture of men whose wives are the one in charge of all the cooking in their home. Their intended goal is to convince men that by buying this product for their wife, they will actually be helping her out because the Kenwood Chef is capable of performing so many kitchen duties.
Even though the advertisers appear to be trying to make up for the sexist message in this ad by emphasizing the benefits and usefulness of this appliance, it is still impossible to ignore the implications of the "that's what wives are for!" message. They are constructing an image of a happy couple with a wife that is thrilled to have another appliance to help her better serve her husband, aiming to force men to believing that this is exactly what his wife wants. The advertisers are subjecting women's bodies to fit the image of a docile womanly body that is an excellent cook in order to be a good housewife.
The politics of representation with this image couldn't be much clearer: women belong in the kitchen. This ideal flows with everything discussed above and with what anyone can simply see as they glace at this ad. Regardless of how much this old idea maps itself onto women's bodies, it is still a demeaning message about women and "their place." I hope many men avoided falling into the advertisers' trap by reading this image carefully.
Ahh! This is so sexist! It just amazes me what advertisements used to look like. It is so crazy the struggle women have had to go through dealing with equality. I love to cook and don't get me wrong I would use that kitchen aid all the time, but I do not need a man to tell me to cook dinner, or expect that I will cook dinner for him. Its relieving that the cultural view of women as equals is changing.
ReplyDeleteThis is somewhat true in a sense that it shows a little bit obscured misconception in gender in my humble opinion. Most of men do not wish to cook after work but expecting women to cook instead. But the irony is that majority of world-renowned chefs are usually men. So I was thinking that this might contradicts the sense of humour.
ReplyDeleteThinking about this kind of thing astounds me. When I first looked at it I noted how happy the couple looks, especially the woman. At the time this was presumably produced, thinking like this was actually socially accepted. It's amazing to think that wives were expected as servants to their husbands and be happy about it.
ReplyDeleteThis ad is so amazing to me because it shows the depth that culture and social structures have on our thinking. The expectation that a woman make dinner every night and find her "place" in the kitchen is so ingrained in society (at that time) that women are supposed to be happy about it!