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Technology Masks Domestic Repression
- Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives dramatizes mid-century America's erasure of women's autonomy under the guise of technological progress.
- The novel links suburban conformity, domestic labor expectations, and fears about technology turning women into compliant objects.
Disney Animatronics As A Metaphor
- The hosts describe Stepford women obsessively performing trivial house tasks like waxing floors and wiping dividers.
- They compare those routines to Disney audio-animatronics and the Carousel of Progress portrayal of domestic 'convenience.'
Milltown Ads Targeted Housewives
- The hosts read a 1960s Milltown ad pitching tranquilizers as a fix for anxious, educated housewives.
- The ad frames pills as a way to adapt women to domestic roles rather than change those roles.