Quick & clever problem solvers!
Do you get the Improvements catalog? This catalog is probably the root of all our country’s problems. Really. Just by flipping through the glossy pages, deeply ingrained assumptions are clear. Assumptions they have made about you, the American citizen who did not ask for this catalog to be mailed to you. If you have achieved what you are supposed to do as an American, it is a given that:
1) You are upper middle class with way too much money, and why not burn it making your life even more convenient than it is already? Buy those rubber treads for your outdoor steps! Get a big fancy shower organizer!
2) Suffering is: - getting chilly while you lounge on your outdoor patio!
- exposed ashes in your fireplace!
- no cover for your riding lawnmower!
- pet hair inside your SUV!
- having to use a snowblower on your sidewalk without a heavy duty cab with freeze-resistant super-clear vinyl windows!
3) You are white. Obviously. All the models having their problems solved are white. All the hands operating hose attachments and stocking handy organizers are white.
4) You celebrate Christmas. And you want to spend hundreds on wreathes, lawn decorations and stocking holders over your fireplace. And why not throw in a 7′8″ candy cane archway to “greet your guests with Christmas cheer”? Your guests, naturally, also celebrate Christmas.
I am going to continue to rebel against all that they hold dear at Improvements. I’m going to let my electrical cords show. I’m not going to sort my mail. I’m going to leave my shoes by the door in a big heap!
8 Comments »
Oct 25th 2005I Misheard When & Peeves & Uncategorized & making fun
8 Responses to “Quick & clever problem solvers!”
mg on 26 Oct 2005 at 9:42 am #
YOU GO, GIRL!
mb on 30 Oct 2005 at 12:21 pm #
Don’t you have this?
http://www.improvementscatalog.com/Parent.asp?product=205786x&dept%5Fid=1
Sarah on 30 Oct 2005 at 2:06 pm #
Yeah, but we got it from Bed Bath & Beyond, a slightly lesser evil..
billie on 30 Oct 2005 at 3:39 pm #
America stands for freedom, which includes the freedom to spend one’s money as one desire’s, i.e. the hurrican victims spending tax dollars on lap dancing….or one getting pleasure out of non-practical, or practical things for the home and yard
one person’s trash is another’s treasure idea….
Sarah on 30 Oct 2005 at 5:19 pm #
It’s not so much how one spends money- it is rather the catalogue’s assumptions about the consumer’s class and race (and even religion) in their portrayals of the home environments and the models they chose to represent their products.
billie on 30 Oct 2005 at 7:40 pm #
Every business has a target population - nothing wrong with that - just the way business is done
Sarah on 01 Nov 2005 at 5:20 pm #
Wow, this catalog is like the Democratic-Republic faultline. Democrats look at this catalogue and see it as a result of oppression, Republicans look at it and see it as a result of freedom.
cresmer on 02 Nov 2005 at 10:08 am #
Hey, I linked to this excellent post on my blog.