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Somehow I couldn't help thinking of the study below when reading the recent article on a scientific study of sarcasm. As with that (sarcastic?) study, this one also considered ways to understand humanity with scientific analysis. As published in Life magazine in 1946, let's call it the optics of housewifery. The title of this post was the title of their article. Please comment away. Yes, as facetiously as you'd like.
(as found in Caroline Jones, "Talking Pictures: Clement Greenberg's Pollock," in L. Daston, ed., Things That Talk: Object Lessons from Science and Art [Zone Books, 2004], 329-373, on 371)
Physical Science
Humanities & Social Science
Comments
So ... the light patterns represent her shocking her spouse and/or kids with a cattle prod to make them clean up after their own damn selves. Right?
Posted by: Warren | June 4, 2008 3:56 PM
That would be a pretty accurate depiction of how I make a bed, if the light was attached to my ass and there was a book within reach. :)
Posted by: speedwell | June 4, 2008 5:14 PM
Take that picture, remove the caption, and show it to somebody out of context. It'll be funny.
Posted by: Brandon | June 4, 2008 6:55 PM
My way is much more efficient. Grab covers, pull up over pillows. And don't bother with any bed besides my own.
Do you think I could get a grant out of that?
Posted by: Miss Cellania | June 5, 2008 12:07 AM
Where can I get an invisible homemaker to do this for me?
@ Warren: =ROFLMAO= You hit the nail on the head with that one! (but iz rly no fair wen teh furstest coment iz win teh thred.....)
Posted by: themadlolscientist | June 5, 2008 11:12 PM
Crossposted on my blog, sciencegeekgirl
In a similar vein, check out this "Good Wife's Guide" from Housekeeping Monthly 1955.
http://maxwell.ucsc.edu/~stephanie/1images/housewife.jpg
I originally thought this was a spoof, but a while after I had posted it on my website, I got this email:
Greetings Stephanie,
Thought you might like to know that "The Good Wife's Guide" is NOT a spoof. About three years ago, I bought a handful of old magazines at a garage sale, one of which was "Housekeeping Monthly", May 13, 1955. "The Guide" is/was
indeed in there.
If ya Google Image "The Good Wife's Guide", a number of the images have some lines faintly highlited with yellow, and the last line, in the RH column, has a squiggly circle drawn around it. That is my highliting, and my squiggly.
The tragedy here is that in the process of trying to get rid of some clutter, I tossed the magazine. Been kicking myself ever since. Learned my lesson tho, ..
Never, Ever, Throw ANYTHING Away!
The attachment is a scan of a real ad, on a real magazine, dreamed up by un-real minds.
So, anyhooo .. take care out there. I wish you Peace
later daze,
- bryan
Posted by: Stephanie C | June 6, 2008 11:30 AM
The chances are really good that that's from Lillian Gilbreth's work; it can seem like crazed micromanaging of the housewife now, but in the 1920s she was definitely trying to reduce the amount of work expected.
She is now mostly remembered for the movie version of _Cheaper by the Dozen_, which suffers from having been made in a twee period, but she was a professional pioneer.
Posted by: clew | June 6, 2008 1:39 PM