This old advertisement, found in a men’s magazine promises a small miracle: an all-nylon shirt that doesn’t need ironing. Convenient, especially when the unspoken assumption of the time was that ironing shirts was only a woman’s task.
Old advertisements like this are cultural documents that reveal how equality, and everyday labor were once imagined, and how much has changed since.
It resonates with the documentary The Day Iceland Stood Still, which tells the story of the Women’s Day Off on October 24, 1975. On that day, around 90% of Icelandic women stopped working for 24 hours, both at home and at their workplace - bringing the country to a standstill. Through archival footage, animation, and interviews, the film recounts this act of civil disobedience with wit, and power.
Placed into the context of that historical movement, the promise of the “miracle shirt” gives us a printed real life insight into the past, where care work and domestic labor were mainly a woman's task.
Today, the message luckily feels outdated. Shirts still need washing, folding, and (unfortunately :-) ) ironing: but that work nowadays belongs to whoever wears them. Or at least, it should...