*(A.K.A. How Not to Spouse)
I pride myself on my gift guides. I spend all year gathering the items therein, I carefully curate the lists, and I firmly stand behind every hand-picked item in them. Today’s post is not one of those. If anything, this is an anti-gift guide.
In postwar America, the majority of women spent their days cooking and cleaning and making themselves appealing to their husbands. And what do you think the advertising world thought these hard-working women deserved, nay, desired for Christmas? Art? Theater tickets? Music? Jewelry? Or, heaven fore-fend, books? Nope. They convinced these idiotic husbands that what their wives wanted vacuums, electric mixers, girdles. GIRDLES. Seriously.
So gentlemen (and others) who are buying a gift – Christmas or otherwise – for your lady, please take the hint. No vacuums. No mixers. And absolutely no damned girdles.
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My OBT 
December 22, 2017 at 8:09 am
When I was a little girl, my father fell prey to this type of advertising and bought my mother an electric frying pan for Christmas. It did not have the desired effect. My mother made it clear that household appliances were not acceptable gift ideas. Years later I asked my husband for a Le Creuset fry pan for Christmas. When I opened it, my father squirmed uncomfortably in his chair and my mother narrowed her eyes and stared at my husband. I had to say that it was ok, I had asked for the pan.
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December 22, 2017 at 9:40 am
Ha! He must have been sweating bullets!
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December 22, 2017 at 8:51 am
Thankfully the world has moved on a bit… I cannot believe that these were real attitudes to be taken seriously.
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December 22, 2017 at 9:42 am
It was a different world. Ironically, I’d be delighted to get power tools, but do NOT give me house cleaning stuff!
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December 22, 2017 at 10:06 am
Yeah, I asked for several tools this Xmas too and didn’t give it a thought. It’s interesting to think about how a power drill is ok but cleaning stuff isn’t. Hummm.
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December 22, 2017 at 10:37 am
Maybe that’s me projecting. Dunno. But I also think it’s different if you’re asking for something. If we had the counter space (and I had time to bake), I’d definitely ask for a standing mixer, and I suspect Beloved wouldn’t mind getting a vacuum (if it were really special…). But I still draw the line at the girdle.
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December 22, 2017 at 11:18 am
LOL…girdles are a HELL NO!
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December 22, 2017 at 8:39 pm
Right?
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December 22, 2017 at 3:35 pm
Interesting… I like power tools too. How come they’re different do you think?
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December 22, 2017 at 8:41 pm
Maybe it’s about stereotypes. I’d fee much better about myself after building something than I would after ironing your shirts.
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December 23, 2017 at 4:41 am
I can understand that… Building something makes you feel good, cleaning and ironing is meh
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December 22, 2017 at 9:04 am
I kind of knew it was like this. I’ve seen these kinds of ads before, but still, I’m completely gobsmacked.
Alison
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December 22, 2017 at 9:42 am
Gobsmacked is the exact right way to react!
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December 22, 2017 at 9:14 am
Oh how funny and sad since some of these are known today to be full of deadly toxic materials. I could us a new sewing machine though.
Merry Christmas to you and let’s have more fun in the new year.
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December 22, 2017 at 9:45 am
I guess it’s all about context. My mother gave me my first sewing machine for Christmas one year, and it started me on some hobbies I truly came to love. I’ve always thought of it as one of my favorite gifts of all time. On the other hand, she wasn’t giving it to me so I could mend her clothes…
Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas and a wonderful new year!
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December 22, 2017 at 9:30 am
In my neck of the woods we use the baseball phrase, “it was a swing and a miss” when it comes to these kind of “good intentions.” Reminds me of how after I nearly died in childbirth, I asked my father-in-law to bring over a pizza when he came to my house to see the baby. Instead he brought me the ingredients to *make* a pizza, saying homemade was so much better. I was so irritated I threw his freakin’ bottle of Ragu in the garbage after he left.
Funny side note: my husband asked for a vacuum cleaner this Xmas, which floored me and made me laugh like a hyena (I don’t think he knows how to operate one). I did buy him that darn vac and it’s wrapped up with a big bow, however, I had the presence of mind to get him a couple other gifts which I know he’ll enjoy.
If that vacuum ever makes it out of the box I’ll be dumbfounded.
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December 22, 2017 at 9:49 am
You’re too nice. I would have thrown that jar at him.
Looking forward to hearing more about the vacuum cleaner saga. Maybe it needs to be its own blog…
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December 22, 2017 at 9:59 am
Believe me, I had to restrain myself from violence!
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December 22, 2017 at 9:51 am
How funny about the pizza. After my 4th child was born a sweet little lady from our church brought over all the ingredients to make her famous Chicken Huntington She later apologized and said she should have gotten her cook to fix it for us. Aren’t we people funny?
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December 22, 2017 at 10:34 am
That’s fantastic. Swing and a miss, to be sure, but hey, you remember her!
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December 22, 2017 at 9:36 am
To me those were the good old days. Hal
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December 22, 2017 at 9:50 am
My father would agree with you, and I’m sure there were many wonderful things about them. Glad you have good memories.
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December 22, 2017 at 10:59 am
The June tan ad is almost exactly like that meme going around!
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December 22, 2017 at 10:59 am
(Realizes that “meme” and “going around” is redundant.)
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December 22, 2017 at 8:39 pm
No worries. You’re among friends.
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December 22, 2017 at 8:39 pm
I thought the same thing!
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December 22, 2017 at 11:20 am
Does “Making America Great Again” mean going back to this “Golden Age”
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December 22, 2017 at 8:40 pm
I certainly hope not! (Hope you’re recovering nicely!)
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December 22, 2017 at 4:12 pm
While we still have quite some way to go in terms of gender equality – especially globally – blasts from the past like this are a small reminder of how far we have come. I am not averse to receiving domestic appliances or tools or such like as gifts but they need to be on my gifting wish list. There are times when I have coveted a labour saving device I cannot justify spending money on so to receive such an item as a gift would actually be very nice indeed. However, my reaction would be dependent on the intention in giving it in addition to it being on my wish list. And a girdle would never be welcomed.
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December 22, 2017 at 8:42 pm
100% agreed!
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December 23, 2017 at 8:21 pm
While I wouldn’t want to receive any of these appliances as “gifts”, I enjoyed looking at the vintage ads. I had never seen the ironing table, I wonder why that didn’t catch on?
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December 23, 2017 at 11:05 pm
I thought that was kind of cool, too. I always thought if I can sew sitting, why can’t I iron?
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December 24, 2017 at 10:49 am
My mother would iron for hours on end while watching television – she didn’t like the soaps but loved wagon train reruns and Gunsmoke. I’m thinking an ironing table would have been helful or at least more comfortable. I never ironed, just learned to like my cotton with the wrinkled look. My husband ironed his own military uniforms after discovering that I had no talent for it (slight brown iron imprint on the back of his shirt which caught the attention of people in his office
).
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December 24, 2017 at 11:19 am
Oops. I’m not bad at it, but it’s still a bother. Bought ourselves a professional steamer years ago, but the hurricane took it, and we never replaced it.
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January 14, 2018 at 6:23 pm
Aren’t the appliances just decoration for the amazing frocks
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January 14, 2018 at 10:37 pm
Or is it the other way around….
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