Jul 17, 2024

It mildly terrifies me that a lot of things we think are natural are just things that were invented by American advertising agencies in the 40s and 50s

The nuclear family, diamond engagement rings, owning a motor car, etc are all works of fiction that we have subsumed into being part of our culture, instead of it being astroturfed by a bunch of skilled marketers

Show thread   Jul 17, 2024
Even the idea of a woman being a homemaker while her husband goes out to work is, in itself, a fiction. That never happened. Women have been working for hundreds of years, but only in dirty jobs. The only women who could be homemakers were those whose husbands were wealthy and worked in the service economy… And therefore able to purchase microwaves and washing machines!
Show threadhavocJul 18, 2024

@yassie_j My wife's a home maker right now. I will tell her she's fiction.

Okay, I told her she's fiction; this was her reply:

"That's erasure of me and my choices as a woman; who would say that?"

Which I think is hilarious.

Show thread   Jul 18, 2024
@havoc I am trying so desperately to find out who asked
Show threadhavocJul 18, 2024

@yassie_j I mean you stated it:
"Even the idea of a woman being a homemaker while her husband goes out to work is, in itself, a fiction. "

So I wanted to tell my wife she was fictional because I thought it would be a gas. Her response was... cutting, to put it mildly.

Show threadcobwebJul 18, 2024
@havoc you missed the point spectacularly, go read Yas's post a couple more times my guy
Show threadhavocJul 18, 2024

@cobweb Oh no, I get it, I just think a lot of that shit rocks.

The nuclear family where you can all afford to live on one salary? That kicks ass. The car? Freedom to go anywhere? That's an easy sell, it wasn't dastardly marketers.

And the whole point about home making wasn't very solid at all - lots of people choose it because it's fucking great.

Show threadLisPiJul 18, 2024
@havoc @cobweb > Freedom to go anywhere?

Traffic, road presence, maintenance requirements, minimal income required to acquire & maintain the car and blockades not withstanding, of course.

Between all that, it didn't really have any advantage over rail. What the car did was take the cost of maintaining public infrastructure, and then essentially duplicate it so as to also charge private individuals for it.

It was a lot cheaper for a low-income worker to afford a train ticket to go wherever than a car. It was also more reliable and less subject to ridiculous delays.
Show threadhavoc

@lispi314 @cobweb In Grapes of Wrath the poor family has a car.

Even in our classic stories of being ground down by the boot of Capitalism we're able to afford cars. Cars aren't that expensive.

Jul 18, 2024 at 6:47pmWeb
Show threadLisPiJul 18, 2024
@havoc @cobweb I don't think a fiction novel with a very specific drama story it wants to tell is a good idea to rely on as a historical reference.

They also very much didn't acquire that car /while/ they were poor.