7.Genderization

In 1930s ads, “dishpan hands” threatened marriages. Click image to see the larger version.Petrovic: It’s something nobody ever talks about these days, dishpan hands. I remember back in the early’70s, an ad for Palmolive showed a woman dipping her hands in the dish water because their soap wassupposed to be a beauty treatment at the same time. Besides things like Palmolive, we also havedishwashers now, so advertisers had to try some other way of marketing that product, like focusing onconvenience. Back in the 1930s, a wife’s hands spent a lot of time in hot water, but she had to staybeautiful.Also, big pores were really terrible for some reason. Anxieties go in and out of style, and people werehooked on having attractive pores for a while. We’ve always got to find something new to worry about.Today, the focus is your stomach, which has to be punched back into shape. We come up with new termsto make fun of body parts, like “cankles” and “bingo wingos,” and then we start using them. “I can’t go outin my swimsuit because I’ve got bingo wingos.” We accept it and adopt it as reality.Collectors Weekly: It’s amazing how many different ways you can smell bad.325 She Culture CRT: Genderization