Dishpan hands, class anxiety and the performance of femininity: marketing Maniol hand cream in early 20th-century Sweden

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to examine how sociocultural changes in early 20th-century Sweden, particularly regarding the roles and expectations of women, gave rise to class anxieties and specific performances of femininity. Specifically, it examines how these tensions were constructed and mobilised through the marketing of Maniol hand cream. Design/methodology/approach Using multimodal critical discourse analysis, this study examines Maniol’s print advertisements from 1920 to 1940, focusing on how linguistic, visual and other semiotic resources were used to navigate and respond to evolving social norms and gender expectations. Findings Three key themes emerge: the burden of respectable domesticity; the performance of professional femininity; and hands as a marker of feminine attractiveness. It shows how advertisements constructed both domestic labour and professional life as threats to femininity – threats that could be concealed or corrected through consumption. They also underscored the social risks of neglecting one’s hands in terms of female civic responsibilities as workers, mothers and wives, arguing that true femininity required hands untouched by visible labour. In doing so, the brand articulated broader anxieties around gender performance, class mobility and the visibility of domestic work in a society undergoing profound transformations in labour, gender roles and social expectations. At the same time, these discourses reinforced whiteness as the normative standard of beauty, positioning racialised bodies as outside the normative boundaries of modern femininity. Originality/value This study uniquely foregrounds the cultural and symbolic significance of women’s hands in early 20th-century Swedish marketing, revealing how Maniol hand cream advertisements became a focal point for negotiating class anxieties, femininity and social respectability. Focusing on class – a vital but often overlooked aspect of Swedish marketing history – this paper provides a fresh and critical examination of how marketing strategies in early 20th-century Sweden shaped and reflected class relations and gender dynamics. It, thus, emphasises the importance of situating advertising discourse within its broader sociohistorical context, showing how marketing both mirrors and actively shapes cultural anxieties, ideals and social hierarchies, while also reinforcing whiteness as the embodied norm of beauty and respectability.