| Frustrated Floor Mop | |
|---|---|
| |
| "What do you mean, the 'Good Old Days?'"
- Claudia Donovan | |
|
Origin |
Unknown 1960s Mother |
|
Type |
Mop |
|
Effects |
Autonomous Cleaning |
|
Downsides |
Mess Creation |
|
Activation |
Always Active |
|
Collected by |
|
|
Section |
|
|
Aisle |
363252-3225 |
|
Shelf |
457716-3244-566 |
|
Date of Collection |
August 30, 1982 |
| [Source] | |
Origin[]
Despite the brief surge of agency claimed by American women during WWI and WWII, by the 1960s the majority of women had been pushed back into the role of housewives. Predominantly expected to clean, cook, and care for their children and husband, and rely on said husbands to enter the workforce, the image of the American housewife had entered a cultural consciousness as a barometer of feminine success in the atomic age.
However, the publication of The Feminine Mystique in 1963 by Betty Friedan prompted a critical look at the role of the contemporary American woman, as it discussed the deep dissatisfaction held by the typical housewife-mother. This book, as well as Friedan's other efforts, helped draw enough upper-class, white, middle age women together to form the second-wave Feminism movement.
Effects[]
Imbued with the frustration of an anonymous mother during the 1960s, who was torn by her expected societal role and her unhappiness in fulfilling it, the mop will autonomously and tirelessly clean floors of its own volition. Once finished cleaning, however, muddy footprints of all shapes and sizes will appear everywhere it touched, prompting it to keep cleaning and initiating the cycle again. If the mop head is unable to touch the floor, the artifact has been observed to be quite upset, and will swing itself around, slinging self-generated mop water everywhere.
People who have taken hold of the mop to clean share in it's original owner's frazzled emotional state.