somniloquence

I frequently get annoyed by TV, especially commercials, and have many "that __ drives me batshit" reactions. But I very rarely have ones where I physically scream and try to throw things.

My addiction to HGTV is no secret -- I love home improvement shows, and a lot of what I learned in terms of putting together a beautiful kitchen during the remodel came from my endless hours of watching the network. But lately they've been running these commercials from the Maids, a housekeeping service, that are moving me to class-inspired violence. I say class more than sexism because they draw such an offensive line between the people with the houses and the people hired to clean those houses that I was just gobsmacked the first time I saw them.

The first one featured this woman kneeling down to dry off her little rugrat with a big fluffy towel, in a bathroom that is the size of my whole damn house. She's all stern and momlike and then she says that she likes the Maids because they clean on their hands and knees -- the way it should be done. I just. I ask you. WTF? The idea of some poor woman without your education and marriage to a doctor or lawyer to keep you in Egyptian cotton towlels and 10,000 thread count sheets from Italy scrubbing your Travertine tile floor on her hands and knees makes you feel satisfied that your precious spawn are healthy and happy? I... gah. Just gah.

And the second one might even be worse. This priveleged young woman cooking in her fancy-ass kitchen that probably would cost three times what my remodel did and is built in a housing development of uniform ugly houses built in an area that used to be family-held farms or held a winter breeding ground for endangered birds tells the camera that she likes "using" the Maids because they get all the grease and grime that builds up in her fancy-ass kitchen. "Better them than me," she simpers at the camera in what I'm sure she thinks is a cute tone. And no, it has no irony or humor in it.

I'm just aghast at what these commercials say about the underpaid women (and you know it's always women) doing these thankless, backbreaking tasks because they have to. We've always known that the people in the big house are snobs and the help living in the maid's quarters are but lowly uneducated laborers, but why would you base an ad campaign on that kind of classism? What could you possibly be saying except that you're encouraging these suburban witches to envision themselves as the kinds of women who can and will hire less fortunate people to slave on their hands and knees for you? It's appalling to me. I feel a nasty letter coming on.