You’ve come a long way, Baby, but your coffee still sucks…

I was working on another post when I read a post by my friend Pat Williams. At the same time, she challenged me:

@cletch

I LOVE that her blog is named The Sticky Floor. At least as much as a glass ceiling exists, there is that sticky kitchen floor that holds women by the soles of their feet and keeps them from flying.

We have come a long way in one respect from when I was young and the prevalent (voiced) opinion- by both men and women- was that women could never lead a company or a country because they did not have the strength of character, nor did they have the mental stability. This was NOT whispered in smoke-filled dens; it was an acceptable counterpoint in a discussion.

-hey, give her a break; she did a great job packing his clothes.

When women (again) entered the work arena, things changed. They were allowed to hold down a job as long as they didn’t slack off in the other departments:

I remember when this commercial came out, and -zing!- it struck a lot of women smack in their insecurities. It vocalized the unwritten promise that there would be no neglect, that the crumbs would still be swept up, and, no, we would NOT be too tired at the end of the day. Who wouldn’t race out and get a bottle of perfume?

We have probably come a pretty long way in that a lot of this chatter appears shocking now, or, at worst,  is kept behind closed doors. But sometimes words are easier to change than the underlying social sentiment that cause them to be said.

Ads are great, because digging through them is like looking at the social archeology of the time. The Folgers ads weren’t a one-shot deal. What I am wondering is- why the eff WOULDN’T my mother be depressed knowing that her worth as a human being, as reiterated in the ads at the time, depended on how her coffee tasted?

Thank god we have come as far as we have.

So, Pat, this is my answer- and it is an answer to a question based on society, based on generalities, not based on the individual. There really isn’t much incentive for men as a group to change, in this regard, and more than this- I was speaking about this the other day to a [male] friend and he stated that women are more tolerant of bad behavior in their significant others than men are. And I think this is probably true, and is why it is remarkable when men do equal shares within the household, or refer to watching their own children without using the word “babysitting.”

Better bring home the right kind of coffee

Are things better? I suppose so. But I have lost my taste for coffee.

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