Not surprising.

First of all, this is not the first Sarah Haskins video I’ve seen, and you know what? Some of them are actually hilarious. I laughed my ass off at the ones about wedding shows and birth control:

However, this cleaning one is a little ridiculous. Well, a lot ridiculous. Yes, most cleaning products commercials are ridiculous. But I always thought they made men look bad, not women. In these commercials, it’s always the men who do idiotic things. They spill, the break stuff, or they just snooze on the couch like the lazy bums all men are. Right? And the smart, witty, sexy mom comes along to save his stupid butt, because a man could clearly never figure out how to use a paper towel, or put a lid on a blender. At the same time, the point is not necessarily to make men look stupid or like slobs. These commercials are overexaggerated to make the cleaning product look that much more powerful. If it one Quilted Northern paper towel can clean up an entire vat of spaghetti sauce all over the kitchen, then surely it will work great for me!

No one disagrees about the stupidity of cleaning product commercials. They’re stupid. There, I said it. But it isn’t sexist. Whether feminists like it or not, women do most of the household chores. More importantly, they buy most of the products used for the household chores. But in 99% of women’s households, the men and kids do not sit around like lazy slobs. I know that in my house, the entire family was put to work every Saturday. But by and large, it’s women who make themselves responsible for cleaning and for buying household cleaning products. This is not because of a concentrated effort by men everywhere to keep women barefoot and in the kitchen. In fact, I don’t think most men even have to say anything about it to their wives or girlfriends. Women just do it. Why? Because it needs to be done. Because women are usually better at it than men.

Also interesting is the mocking of the outfits worn by the women in the cleaning commercials. Do most women dress like that while they clean? No, most women wear sweatpants and the dingiest shirt they can find in their wardrobe. Should they dress more like the women in the commercials? Yes! One of the biggest complaints men usually have about their wives or girlfriends is that they slump around the house in baggy, dingy, ugly sweatpants and make no effort to look good for him. Does that mean that women should wear pearls while they’re scrubbing the shower stall? Of course not, but would it kill women to make an effort to look even a little bit put-together while they’re at home? Too many women seem to think that they only need to look good if they’re going out somewhere. They don’t realize that their man probably would love to see them actually look nice even if they’re staying at home, because they’re looking nice for him. I know that making yourself look nice for a man goes against every rule of modern feminism, but it’s worth it. Am I right, guys?

And then of course there’s the insinuation that cleaning is some kind of substitute for a “healthy sexual relationship”. Because, you know, a woman who cleans will never get laid. Ever. And you know, I guess we could just dispense with the anti-bacterial cleaners and let our homes be crawling with God-knows-what. I mean, who cares if you just sliced up some raw chicken on your kitchen counter? If you think you need an anti-bacterial cleaning product to clean that up, then you’re just paranoid.

Of course, reading the comments at Feministing shows you that yes, Virginia, feminists do have nothing better to do with their time than bitch about cleaning their houses. They say that women who these ads cater to should probably see a therapist, that the video helps one feminist procrastinate more, because her husband made their house a “hell-hole”. Here’s the best one:

I hate it. This is disgusting how Women are programmed to do these tough jobs. This is patriarchy. We should end patriarchy!!!

On the other hand most commercials of Marines, construction workers, auto mechanics are Men – http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7766890229153939703

This is making Men join Army and die. Around 95% deaths in the army and at work place are Men. Patriarchy is making Men to become construction workers and toil in the hot sun, become car mechanics and make their hands dirty all the time.

I would like to see 50% of the Army and work related deaths to be Women, 50% of the people whose clothes are dirty with mud and paint to be Women, 50% of the people who fall down from cleaning 20th or 40th floor glasses to be Women. Make it 54% since there are more Women than Men. This is making Men struggle outside when Women are safe in their houses (usually with AC & heater).

This is Patriarchy. We should end Patriarchy!!! I hate Patriarchy!!!

Of course. Women cleaning up after their families is patriarchy. I keep forgetting. Women are supposed to be in manly professions, sleeping around like men do, having abortions if their birth control doesn’t work, and never ever do anything nice for a man like cooking or cleaning. Men also are supposed to exist as nothing more but accessories for women, to be there whenever we need them but likewise to disappear whenever we’re sick of them. Because really, all men are either evil oppressors or stupid slobs.

Look, I know cleaning isn’t fun. (Some people may not think is cooking is fun, either, but I do.) And no matter how much feminists bitch and complain, the cleaning still needs to get done. I really have to wonder if feminists really think that all of this is truly SEXIST!! or if they’re just lazy and are feigning outrage to get out of having to do chores. “Sorry, honey, I just can’t vacuum. It goes against my principles.” How convenient. It’s not equality they’re looking to find.

Morgan says it best:

To hear them tell it, when feminists live with men they bring their bitching and pissing and moaning to an abrupt halt once they have achieved “equality” as far as “help with the household chores.” But that would imply, would it not, that the feminist of the household is mopping the floor and scrubbing the toilets fifty percent of the time. It’s been over twenty years since my last romantic relationship with a real die-hard post-modern feminist now…I’m not even sure the phrase “post-modern” can apply to days so far gone.

But the image of a self-professed feminist grabbing those Windex wipes and happily scrubbing toothpaste droplets off the bathroom mirror, cheerfully whistling to herself because she’s only doing this half the time — it’s a bit much for me to envision. The message that’s been ground into my cranium, forcefully, for decades now, is that housework and feminine things do not go together. Not even for a moment.

Theory A is that they’re sincere, and they just want a more equitable divide in the household labor.

Theory B is the bitches are just lazy.

I’m going with Theory B.