The Wonderful World of Tupperware

Given that Tupperware is culturally significant because it was an entry point for middle-class housewives into the business of selling to other women -- a model that was already in use by Avon cosmetics, it's noteworthy that we don't see see a woman until ten minutes into this industrial short -- assuming that the cartoon dinosaur is a boy. After that, the number of women on display -- ordinary-looking, often middle-aged women, not glamor models -- increases steadily: running industrial machines, inspection for quality control, packing and shipping. Heavy lifting i and driving trucks is still left to men. It all ends with a party for the leading saleswomen, where they sexually assault a male entertainer.

The change in cultural attitudes, from the 1950s, when the idea of a lady in her home, raising children, supported by her husband's job was not all of it. My mother was a full-time housewife, which was a lot of work, with a daughter and two sons. She also worked a second, unpaid job as a volunteer at a VA hospital.

However, if that was some sort of ideal, it never fit every situation and set of desires, and selling Tupperware -- or Avon cosmetics -- was a way for suburban women to earn their own money. It wasn't third-wave feminism, but it was a start.