This Clorox advertisement taken from Working Mother
Magazine (11/2001) is interesting because it aims to sell a cleaning product
using the image of an overtly masculine black woman. This woman is overtly
masculine because she is both the antithesis of what traditionally has been
fashioned in advertising as feminine, and because she appears to be in dialogue
with the well-known advertising image of Mr. Clean, the image of a hyper-muscular
bald white male used to sell cleaning products. She is the antithesis of what
tradition dictates to be feminine because she is neither thin nor remarkably
beautiful. Rather, she is a large muscular woman of average looks. Her attire
also contributes to her masculine appearance. This is true, for it resembles
that of a weightlifter. Her hands are taped, she is wearing a sweatband, and
the sleeves of her sweatshirt are cut off. Such physical characteristics combined
with her pose and the ad logo are what suggest that she is in dialogue with
Mr. Clean. The logo reads, "More grease-cutting power than the â?~other guys'."
Clearly, there is not a large group of male cleaning icons with big muscles.
And, she stands sideways so that her flexed bicep, upon which a bottle of
Pine-sol gently rests, becomes clearly emphasized as a focal point. The emphasis
on the bicep as a focal point, a well-recognized symbol of strength and power,
should clearly be read as a competitive gesture towards Mr. Clean's hyper
masculine physique. But why is she so masculinized? How would this campaign
increase the appeal of the product?
The woman's masculine appearance speaks to ideals
surrounding women's empowerment. As Sut Jhally argues, "advertising talks
to us as individuals and addresses us about how we can become happy."(Jhally:
1990:251) Thus, under this logic, presenting a masculine woman speaks to how
women can be masters of themselves, and of their own households. In using
this image, Clorox is literally attempting to sell feminism back to females,
but without upsetting the basic gendered division of labor that places women
"in the home."
The juxtaposition of this ad with an image of Rosie the Riveter, an ad campaign
from the forties appropriated by the Tampax Corporation in 2002, reinforces
the idea that this image was chosen as a means to appeal to notions of female
empowerment. Rosie the Riveter was a female icon created in the forties during
WWII in order to promote women entering the workforce while the men were away
at war. Looking at the two ads together there is a striking resemblance between
the two, clearly indicating that the Clorox ad was no accident. The women's
stances are almost identical, each standing sideways exhibiting a flexed bicep,
the bicep serving as a podium for the product being sold. What is interesting
about Rosie is that she is marketing Tampax tampons. Tampons, a creation of
the 1930's, lent itself as major symbol for women's personal freedom.1
Tampons, because they were inserts, offered women a new range of freedoms
that had been previously unrealized with pads. Pine-sol, by using the same
positioning as Rosie the Riveter, demonstrates that the two ads are sending
the same message. Just as tampons
afforded women a new range of personal freedom, Pine-sol, too, can offer a
woman personal freedom; the freedom of mastering oneself.
As an overall value judgment, it seems fair to say that this ad strives to
link itself to positive notions of what it means to be happy. However, at
the same time, linking women with cleaning products, especially black women,
is inherently problematic. This is true for various reasons. The most obvious
of reasons is that it has the potential to be viewed as reinforcing perceptions
which dictate that a woman's proper place, regardless of her color, is not
in the workforce, rather, it is in the home doing mindless housework.
Linking such perceptions with female empowerment
suggests that to belong only in the home is something to be proud of, something
empowering. Another reason this ad is inherently problematic is that black
women have been historically viewed as being biologically more masculine than
white women. This notion stems form ideas that emerged in the nineteenth century
when anatomical studies concluded that the size of a black woman's clitoris
was naturally larger than a white woman's. These studies were conducted around
the same time that eugenics emerged, and therefore, one can also question
not only what this ad is saying about black women's masculinity, but also
about their cleanliness. (Somerville: 1997:41,43) Basically, although this
ad image has good intentions, the message conveyed in actuality is very ambiguous,
and thus, can easily be interpreted as very negative and offensive.
Sources:
1. Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health. http://www.mum.org/faxAd.htm
Jhally, Sut. "Image-Based Culture:
Advertising and Popular Culture," in Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez, (eds.)
Gender, Race, and Class in Media. London: Sage, 1995.
Somerville, Siobhan. "Scientific Racism
and the Invention of the Homosexual Body," in
Lancaster and di Leonardo, (Eds.), The
Gender/Sexuality Reader, New York: Routledge, 1997.