Not An Entirely New Concept: Men Who Clean

I couldn't help but laugh in class today when we began our discussion with women and their platonic relationship with the act of cleaning and their cleaning products....in reality, a lot of women are not compulsive cleaners or homemakers who spend all their live-long day on their knees scrubbing the tile floors. I laughed particularly because my boyfriend, Ben, cleans up after me and he even cleans the dishes at my own house! I laughed also because of my suite mate, who we affectionately pet-named "mom," since she cleans the bathroom after us slobs and takes out our garbage. I never really thought about advertisements targeting that classic, old-fashioned woman who house-cleaned because through my experience, women are not always the ones cleaning, like the example of Ben cleaning my own house.


Later, when asking my roommate if she had ever seen a commercial where a man was portrayed cleaning, she responded briefly: "No, but I've seen one where a man spills sh*t!"

After discussing the miraculous ability for dishes and pans to seemingly clean themselves (showing monkeys even before using actual women), and how since the early 20th century women are now shown with their cleaning products: Mr Clean as the anatomically perfect man-cartoon who helps real life women get the tough job done, or mops ringing the door bells of its ex-user's house (having found a much healthier, efficient relationship with Swiffer wet jet mop), with the background music "Baby, Come back!" alluding to his desire to remain as the reliable cleaning product.

Sarah Haskins of CurrentTv, sarcastically comments on how the media portrays only women in domestic house care cleaning product commercials. Particularly, Haskins, discusses the sexualizing of the female through cleaning product commercials implying that women are sexy when they clean the dirty, dirty sink and toilet. By employing cheesy romance songs, or using sexy, pseudo-Hispanic male accents to discuss how a sponge cares about preserving a female’s soft hands after using the sponge to clean the sink, it is actually quite disturbing to see how women are portrayed. Haskins makes a joke about how having that iconic number of "99.9%" of bacteria fighting chemicals within your armed cleaning product can protect women from sexually transmitted diseases and “kills e-coli, MRSA, and even Herpes!” As if these things will appeal to women. She concludes tongue-in-cheek, by saying that the next time you feel disgusted cleaning after your family or your husband’s messes around the house remember that cleaning products can: “Seduce you, romance you, or protect you from STDs. Remember, it’s not a chore, it’s a date!”

More and more people have realized this trend of women and their cleaning products as well. I stumbled across a letter written by a disgruntled female who commented on the out-of-date and traditional quality of Mr. Clean commercials, suggesting "Why not have men cleaning? She explains how such commercials "seem to reinforce the idea that cleaning and maintaining a household is woman’s work," further claiming that there is no “female gene” or that women are “natural” cleaners. She continues stating, "Mostly women did the cleaning over the years because men went out to work, while women raised children at home, so of course they cleaned if they were at home, and had to clean up after their children," but in this day and age, we have a lot more stay at home fathers, and it's about time things change!

(Read it here:Men Do House Cleaning TOO!)

YET! EUREKA! Alas, I have found a fairly dated Dawn dishwashing detergent commercial starring men!

Still- the men in the commercial still appear as manly. Wayne Knight comes into the kitchen taking a picture of a man with an apron, hunched over the sink cleaning dishes, making him a spectacle. He announces "WOAH! HERE'S ONE FOR THE MACHO HALL OF FAME!" insinuating how men are not usually found in this setting. "Com'on Mr. Stoneage! Today...guys wash pots!" Wayne rebuttals: "Mr. Liberated has taken on Floor grease!" The commercial continues with the male claiming it takes no effort to use Dawn, that all he needs to do is soak the dishes in with Dawn and Voila! They're clean! This commercial comments on how men are "no good" in the kitchen, and how the single, bachelor types can easily half-ass cleaning and get away with clean dishes.
ha...

In conclusion, it's imperative for Pledge, Windex, Dawn, Mr. Clean, Febreeze, and all those other cleaning product brands to start incorporating men in their commercials and advertisements and stop playing off stereotypes.