As summer approaches, so does that obnoxious Sears t.v. advert in which a seemingly healthy woman with no apparent physical infirmities cajoles her husband into calling Sears to obtain an air conditioning unit for their home. Every time I watch that commercial, I wonder what could cause her grave inability to use a telephone and call Sears herself. The only solutions I've been able to decipher are that either A) she is a "helpless housewife" who must rely upon "the man of the house" even for simple telephone calls [which is insulting to modern women] or B) her husband is her slave, sexual and otherwise, and she considers herself too "precious" to lower herself to making telephone calls [which is insulting to both modern women and modern men]. I wonder why that offensive commercial still airs after all these years . . . What ~I~ learn from the commercial is not to purchase from Sears, who must hold fairly antiquated views of men and women to use such a t.v. advertisement. - w. everett chesnut This really belongs on the SWSS listserv as well, but every time I've signed up for that listserv, something has gone wrong technologically. (A gender studies scholar who can't get the computer SWSS enrollment to keep him on the SWSS listserv -- oy!) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/