I wonder if the psychology here isn't that back then, it went without saying that the wife was going to be doing this work--whether it was easy or hard, it was her role. With that understanding, the gift was not to say "get your bum to work doing my cleaning", it was to say "I care enough about you to want your unquestionable lot in life to at least be a little easier.
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot wives felt quite offended, but personally? I would think that luxury gifts such as perfume or jewelry would be even more demeaning and objectifying.
Hard for me to say what the sensibilities of the time were...while my mom is the right age to have been the object here, she was no housewifely example. She was an anomaly back then--a married woman with children who always had a career, paycheck, and life of her own. (she was a master printer and a newspaper circulation manager when I was growing up.)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-12-23 09:18 pm (UTC)I wouldn't be surprised if a lot wives felt quite offended, but personally? I would think that luxury gifts such as perfume or jewelry would be even more demeaning and objectifying.
Hard for me to say what the sensibilities of the time were...while my mom is the right age to have been the object here, she was no housewifely example. She was an anomaly back then--a married woman with children who always had a career, paycheck, and life of her own. (she was a master printer and a newspaper circulation manager when I was growing up.)