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The Yellow Wallpaper
A wallpaper company made the unfortunate decision to design a wallpaper that the company says is inspired by… Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.” They describe it as sweet and innocent… and clearly forgot to read the story before making this decision.
The story is about a woman writer whose husband has stuck in an asylum, and the male doctor forbids her from writing. She’s supposed to rest, not write. Her husband and the doctor are gaslighting her. Because she’s imprisoned and creatively frustrated in a room with yellow wallpaper, her mental health goes downhill.
I’ve read that the story is autobiographical. Historically, patriarchal husbands and fathers had a nasty tendency to label women “insane” and lock them away to assert their patriarchal control.
The following is my response to the unintentionally amusing ad about wallpaper allegedly inspired by “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
The best part of this wallpaper design is how, in the middle of the night, it frantically whispers to you in a woman’s voice. After a month with this wallpaper, you’ll be convinced a woman is trapped in the wallpaper.
You’ll quote Oscar Wilde’s alleged last words: “This wallpaper and I have been arguing for weeks. One of us must go.”