DETERGENT

By Natalie Skominas

            Detergent is meant to be more than just a cleaner. It can be seen as a weapon to “fight,” “lift,” and “destroy” stains. While working class men may have their tools to get a job done, detergent has shifted from a simple cleaner to the stay-at-home mother’s tool. Some may even see it as her weapon against stains. It is the mother’s job to keep a clean, respectable house and to take care of the men and children. To send a husband or a child out into the public eye with stains on their clothing is a bad representation of the woman. For working class families specifically, detergent is a tool, forcibly removing tough stains so the men and children look presentable.  No matter what class a family is a part of, stainless clothing and a clean house can elevate a woman and her family in class and respectability. When the stains are gone, there is little to no indication on their clothing of the hard work or class they may belong to. Proctor and Gamble, well known for products such as Tide, use testaments from 1970s housewives, as they explain how the detergent has worked for them and how it has given them comfort when their children and husbands go out into the world stainless and sterile.

            In the late 90s and early 2000s, detergents were still seen as an essential weapon for the women of the house. With the rise of the infomercial, testimonies from housewives alone just did not cut it. Infomercials needed an energetic, unforgettable host that captures your attention. This is where Billy Mays makes his popular debut in the Oxiclean commercials. With the tag line, “Don’t Just clean it, Oxiclean it!” this middle-aged male rocked the infomercial industry. Although this pragmatic male took the place of stay-at-home mothers in detergent ads, it was still aired on daytime television where women would likely be at home. One would assume that a male presence on a very female household product would cause a bad perception. Instead, the opposite happened. Mays had a way of almost protesting his sureness of the product, conducting test after test on everyday items. It was almost as if women needed to see this man test it out to actually believe he was offering them an even better weapon, something that does not only clean, but cleans better. Soon, Mays became a household name, a person people identified along with the product he was selling. In this specific case, it was almost as if the stain fighting weapon took the back burner to the now pop-culture icon known as Billy Mays. People wanted Oxiclean, not because of its magical stain removing power, but because of Mays’s performance on the infomercials.

            Between the early 2000s and the present, there have been several huge shifts that will fundamentally change how people consume the detergent myth. The death to infomercials, as well as Billy Mays himself, means Oxiclean is no longer a part of the greater detergent myth. Tide, however, is still a mythologizing detergent and has adapted to the times. The visibility of stay-at-home moms has declined a great deal, and the professional woman and Mr. Moms have become a force in the detergent realm. Now, not only does a detergent need to be a stain fighter, but fast, easy, and efficient. The Pod now takes the front line in the battle against stains. Pods are action packed stain removers meant to fit in the palm of your had and casually strewn into the washer. Instead of measuring how much detergents or even adding fabric softener, these two-in-one pods do the job for you making it so easy that even a man could do it. These easy, and now essential, pods portray washing clothes as something no one has time for, but everyone has to do. With women sometimes juggling a profession and a family, laundry must be efficient so as to not waste their time or energy. The shift from stay-at-home moms to stay-at-home dads is also addressed in the detergent myths. Laundry is something that only mom can do or that moms to best. There is always mistrust in men doing the laundry in the correct way, that they could never clean clothes quite like a woman does. With the pods, there seems to be little room in which a man could harm the precious clothing.

            Aside from the professional women and the Mr. Moms, the attention span of a majority of Americans is short. With the rise of the Internet, where just a press of the button can give us what we need, the laundry simply takes too long. Most Americans need their clothes, and they need them now! Anything to quicken the stain defeating process and still producing stainless, crisp clothing will have anyone running to the shelves to purchase the product.  

            So whether it be the 70s stay-at-home mom fighting the stains, the professional women with no time, Mr. Mom with no clue, or the average American with a short attention span, there is a detergent for you!