Advertisers must convince young women that they are in need of constant improvement without threatening young women’s views of themselves as intelligent, self-directed, and equal. Buzz words like “empowerment,” “self-determination,” and “independence” are sprinkled liberally across their pages. But this seemingly progressive rhetoric is used to sell products and ideas that keep girls doing gender in appropriately feminine ways, leading them to reproduce, rather than challenge, gender hierarchies…
As soon as I meet a man that pays half the bills and invests equally in birthdays and holidays I’ll be happy to split the housework. He better be doing just as much laundry as I am and spending the same amount of time taking care of the children. Otherwise I’m going to expect you make some coffee, lick my pussy and drive the car.
