Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Sexist dryer

In our new house, we inherited a dryer that believes in very traditional gender roles. I don't know how long it's been there, but apparently it hails from an era in which we believed the dryer was an appliance to brighten a lady's day. No more high-effort clothes-wringing. No more backyard clothesline. For you, the fortunate lady, this machine lightens your load and frees you up to do more interesting things with your time.

It reminds me of the "Lady" school sports teams like the "Lady Lions" or "Lady Bears". I wonder what a "Lady Kenmore" mascot would look like and whether the team would rally behind her.

Aside from the dryer's intrinsic bias, I take issue with the design of the door. For the last ten years (and probably longer in apartments), I've had a side-hinged dryer door that swung open and tucked against the front of the washer. This little lady has this Murph
y bed/diving board affair that makes it rather challenging to get back into the back of the dryer and get the last few stray items. I see no advantage to this design; if I had younger kids, I'd worry about them putting their weight on there and bending/breaking it.

But what else would you expect from such an unenlightened appliance?

9 comments:

Amy Maddalena said...

Yes. We have a similar dryer door, and Isaac DOES try to climb on it when he is "helping" me, and he has shut it on his hand before. Ouch.

Anne H. said...

You have a magic marker, no? That Lady Kenmore can become a Man Kenmore in an instant! Seriously, the door design sucks, but how does it dry?

JFo said...

Hmmmm. How does it dry? I've been so distracted I didn't notice.

Lauren Jackson said...

I have to say, a dryer, any dryer, would be awesome. Fortunately, the lady of our house doesn't have to hang the clothes (I did that for 2 weeks--it's awful), but we do have to employ someone for 20 hours a week to do the hanging and ironing. Yikes. No matter how many hours she spends, the towels are still crunchy. (-:

Lauren Jackson said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Azure said...

I actually like a drop door on a washer because I lose less laundry during the transfer to the dryer. (Of course I currently have a side door model.) I agree that there is no advantage to such a door on a dryer.

Unknown said...

If you still have this dryer can you give me the model number? I actually have this one.. timer assembly wore out. I need that model number.. The label on my inside the door is gone.

JFo said...

God bless the Internet, eh, Rob. It looks like the model number is 110.86992100. The 110 may or may not be part of the model number. It's preprinted, where as the part after the dot is printed just on the tag. Also, an excerpt of that model number appears to be the stock number: 69921.

Hope this helps,

Jeff

Unknown said...

JFo

Thanks a bunch! I will see if I can locate the parts I need.

Rob