No 10 distanced itself from this advert but, in one way, the images are horribly accurate
Hey pretty ladies, who’s in the mood for some casual lockdown sexism? A government social media advert (sorry, “infographic”) has been scrapped after an outcry from, among others, Yvette Cooper and Rosena Allin-Khan. Some might wonder what these sour feminists are carping about. The “stay home, save lives” advert features four little houses that depict: a man, woman and child sitting on a sofa; a woman ironing; a woman home-schooling; and a woman cleaning. First off, the cartoon ladies look pretty and have nice hair, which is what really matters. In some images, the women are allowed to wear trousers or “slacks”, as the ad’s creators probably called them during Zoom brainstorming sessions. In the sofa drawing, the woman gets a cuddle from the man, probably for doing all her chores in a smiley, positive way without the kind of nagging and complaining that makes her face hard, unattractive and masculine. And the kid is sitting there, so the man isn’t even pestering her for sex. What more does she want?
What’s wrong with this? Apart from everything. The impression is that Tories think women should be forcibly time-travelled back to the 1950s. The insinuation is that, should women attempt to do anything outside housework (think, achieve, wear dark colours), they could be chased down, Tasered and transported to a “fragrant domesticity”-themed re-education camp.
