Thursday, April 11, 2013

Aunt Jemima Commercial 1960

I found this Aunt Jemima commercial from the 1960's. Although Aunt Jemima is not represented in this commercial besides her face on the box, I found it to hold an intriguing intersection between racial and gender tensions. Right from the beginning, the wife seems unhappy about being in the kitchen (hence the reason why she is making quick pancakes) and begrudgingly asks her husband what he wants for lunch. To this he responds, "I thought you would never ask!" For me, this is appealing to both males and females because the man is getting to eat these delicious pancakes made for him and females see a woman in the kitchen having to do minimal work and establishing an almost power over the kitchen by serving the pancakes with raspberry preserves and not syrup.


With a little more searching I found this Aunt Jemima radio ad. In this advertisement, the listener can hear Aunt Jemima talking. She has a thick accent and is talking about how quick and easy her "secret recipe" of pancakes is to make and enjoy. At around 0:15 she says, "I say you can't buy happiness but you can earn it." Maybe I am completely wrong but I wonder if this alludes to the fact that she is a black servant working for other people but comes across as extremely happy and content with her life. Therefore, she is earning happiness through her work for others and through cooking for people. I find this controversial...At around 2:00 the radio host man and Aunt Jemima talk about the nature of the secret recipe. He refers to her pancakes as having "honest to goodness good south flavor."




2 comments:

Sara Eddy said...

These are pretty hard to stomach, aren't they? I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. In the first one, the father saying to the giggling son "That's just like a woman..." ARG. And in the second one--"Smiling, happy Aunt Jemima," the narrator says. Why wouldn't you be happy, to have your entire identity reduced to serving white people their breakfast foods?

Sara Eddy said...

Excellent post, Kerry. Thank you.