Ack!

Has anyone else seen these Electrolux commercials with Kelly Rippa running around being super-mom to music from a 50's TV show?  I can't watch them without feeling like I have a split personality - on the one hand, I am completely offended and appalled, and on the other, I totally want to buy those darn appliances she's hawking. 

I would love a washer and dryer that are that fancy.  Seriously, it would indeed change my life to be able to do a load in half an hour and steam wrinkles out of Bret's nice shirts and pants.  (I would still prefer a gas range to the fanciest flat top, even if you can supposedly boil water in 90 seconds...)  We don't have a microwave, so I have gotten used to things taking time,  but I would be a liar if I said that our beautiful new dishwasher wasn't my favorite inanimate thing in the house because of it's quiet efficiency.  

As a life-long feminist (and a big old nerd with a Masters degree in Women's Studies), I can't help but be totally appalled with myself for wanting stuff openly utilizing such arcane stereotypes and reviving the cult of true womanhood to get me to want the products.  No joke, I have taken whole classes on this crap (for an amazing look at the intersections of marketing, technology, and feminist theory in the US, check out this book), and it's still working on me.  Ack!