(found here)"Dad's not lazy... he's just occasionally damn tired and after a hard day there's nothing he loves more than settling into "Dad's" chair and letting the worries of the day drift away.
One thing Dad won't be worried about is the cost of a (chair) at (store). Our Inspiring Prices will give Dad even more reason to drift away and forget his worries - like the worry that it's actually Mom's chair!"
Apparently, mom doesn't get tired after a hard day of working the double day, or maybe she just doesn't have time to be damn tired, at least until after the kids have gone to bed.
And only dads are worried about money. I'm not entirely sure what they mean by the worry that it is actually mom's chair... is mom going to take over the chair if she ever gets a few minutes to sit down, or does mom only let dad think it's his chair? I don't get it.
What I do get from this ad, is the representations of "dads" role in the paid workforce. He is employed at a job important enough to cause him to worry about it after work, and works hard enough to come home tired after a long day. I'm not sure women's work is being represented as entirely invisible, because she doesn't have time to sit down and be mistaken for lazy. However, it is justified that "dad" gets to sit down because he has been working so hard whereas "Moms" aren't afforded that luxury. "Dad" also requires a comfortable chair to lounge in after that hard day's work.
And there is always a mom and a dad, and dad always has a job...
I can relate to the allusion of the imagery in this image. I'm only commenting on the image and not the text. To me, it harks back to a time when "the man" would come home from work and sit in his chair, wearing his smoking jacket to read his newspaper and have a scotch on the rocks. Now did this actually happen a lot in the 40's and 50's? I can't really say. But the allure is strong for a 21st century man who thinks back about the admiration he had for his father when he was still a child. Even if I didn't know my father in that period, I still feel drawn to the sense of importance of the man in the smoking jacket sitting in his chair.
ReplyDeleteWhat you are describing could be referred to as the fetishization of the role of father, especially if that isn't how the family dynamic played out (I'm not old enough to know, but look at Edith and Archie Bunker, if it's true in sitcoms...). But think about what the wife was doing in the 'typical' 1950s family while the husband was sitting in his armchair with his smoking jacket.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the ad is alluding to this male privilege that you described quite well, but I question whether it is appropriate, from a feminist perspective, to use this type of imagery, especially now that women are working outside the home in almost the same numbers as men. Men come home and sit in their special chair while women start the second shift while the mass media normalizes this division of labour.
There might be a possibility that saying it is mom's chair means that she really is in charge of the finances and the purchases that are made in the home. She might also be the one actually using the chair during the day when dad is not around, so when he comes home and uses it she is letting him think that it is his. It's the same when the family leaves and the dog has full control of the home, it's not mom and dad's bed it's his.
ReplyDeleteok... so when the "owner" is away, the woman can play??? As long as she gives the chair back to it's rightful owner when he comes back from doing the important work out of the home.
ReplyDeleteShe is not giving it back to the rightful owner, the ad clearly states that it is actually hers. And I don't think she is actually "playing" as you say, if she is sitting in the chair watching Oprah.
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