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Written by The new MasterChef Australia ad has caused a stir in some circles being labelled as archetypal and “achieving a new low in sexism”.
Others have called it So Sexist, It’s Insulting To All Humans
Carey Polis in the Huffington Post writes
People never seem to tire of discussing the role of women versus men in the kitchen. There are books, columns and incessant panel discussions on the subject. While there are some hard truths — such as the fact that the restaurant industry is largely dominated by males — there are obviously many talented, hardworking and dedicated female chefs. That last sentence shouldn’t even have to be written, except for the fact that a new ad for “MasterChef Australia” (embedded below) seems to have set feminism back at least several decades. But it isn’t just females that should be offended by this ad — males are also reduced to silly, out-of-place archetypes as well.
Carey goes on to disect each line of the commercial questioning some of the statistics used.
Well of course the statistics are absurd, it kind of re-enforces the adverts message and debunks the stereotype.
“The average woman cooks 1,000 meals per year. Men can’t compete with that.” Let’s first note that this woman is described as a “1950s housewife,” a title that she presumably is cool with, given that she seems to certainly be going for the old women-belong-in-the-kitchen notion. After all, 1,000 meals per year comes out to about 2.7 meals per day, which certainly is a lot of time to spend in the kitchen. Also, where is that stat even from?
You can see the full Carey Polis dissection here but one would think that after she went through each line and found it either to be absurd or just plain dumb that she would have caught on to the irony?
“All the top chefs in the world have one thing in common. They’re all men!”
“Men are more experimental. A woman can multitask.”
“Women are better at presentation. We’re used to grooming ourselves.”
“When a man puts his mind to a job, it always turns out better.”
“Men should really stick to barbecues. You know, the simple stuff.”
When I first clicked play to watch the ad I immediately expected to see a full frontal attack on the sensibilities of woman in the kitchen downgrading them and denigrating them to an inept and subservient role.
Instead I saw a television commercial which tackled the exact same issues that Carey Polis raised with great humour. Instead of reinforcing them it makes those who hold those views in contempt by making fun of them.
Both the male and female stereotypes have been buffed up, larger than life, blowing them out of the water and exposing them for all to see, reducing them to silly, out-of-place archetypes.
The irony appears to have been lost on some?
So what do you think of the advert, does it re-enforce sexist stereotypes in the kitchen or does it debunk them.
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