Brochure touts clothesline as a gift to make a woman feel special

Women are quite sensitive about things that reinforce decades-old gender roles; in between popping out babies and such, chicks are silly like that sometimes. So when a brochure publishes a listing for a rotating clothesline with the tagline “Make her feel special with a clothesline this Christmas,” well, you could see how women might be offended.

Hillier’s brochure promoting festive gifts from the home and garden was reportedly sent to 900,000 homes and featured the £44.99 Vento lightweight aluminium device under the banner: “Make her feel special with a clothesline this Christmas.”

Margaret Green, from women’s equality group WAITS, told The Daily Telegraph that the brochure’s advert was an “insult”. She said: “I feel for any man that follows the brochure’s advice because I don’t think a clothesline is going to make anyone feel special.

“A gift like this is so unromantic and useless it is likely to create a frosty atmosphere in some households on Christmas day.”

I think that Ms. Green has a point. Women don’t take jokes like this well since the oppression of women throughout time is still a sore subject. But there are definitely worse gifts out there. For example, if you give a woman a clothesline like you were “Macho Man” Randy Savage, that’d probably be a worse holiday gift. And slightly more unromantic. Unless there were Slim Jims snapped into afterwards. Beefy, spicy, what woman can resist?

UPDATE: See the original ad here

[Digital Spy]

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