-I've always thought that Pears soap being appointed by the Queen was kind of classy and weird at the same time. The 'Soft Soaping Empire:Commodity Racism and Imperial Advertising' was a fascinating read for me in that it made obvious what I'd not been able to piece together with respect to my suspicions about this brand of aristocratic grocery store soap. Anne McClintock's take on the relationship between soap and early imperialist advertising, colonialism and the cult of domesticity is truly interesting. While her argument makes perfect sense, I could not help but notice some glaring historical omissions. In light of class conversions on the role of inter-disciplinarity in women's studies however, I'm unsure as to whether I should really taking fault with these. That being said, I just can't get past the fact that an article on imperial advertising, colonialism , and the cult of domest
icity would fail to at le
ast passingly mention religion. The Reformation bears a huge responsibility for the cult of domesticity and for the popularity of evangelical missionaries. In light of that ultimate prize both catholics and protestants were busy converting the primitives into Christians. Pictured here is the early 20th century African missionary Ora Lovelace, and a late 19th century graduating class of missionaries. Incidently the name of the website these pictures are taken from is called Global Ventures, which kind of sounds like a fun and exciting safari if you ask me.
McClintock's piece is not on religion so I'm unsure as to how to feel about what I think is a glaring historical omission. Also, in making her case for the popularity of soap McClintock makes no mention of the overcrowded British slums and factories, both of which were a threat to the ruling class' sensibilities. While an in depth exploration of these issues was not the goal of 'Soft-Soaping Empire', I remain unconvinced that they were not key factors and thus worthy of mention.
