What is it with the apparent repulsion for Americans and dishwashers machines?

43 comments

1. What shows are you watching? Also, we usually rinse the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.

2. I use a dishwasher every single day.

3. *Having* a dishwasher is extremely common. *Using* it for every single thing is another story. Some pots and pans aren’t considered dishwasher safe, or everything won’t fit in a single load, so someone will wash a small number of the largest cooking/serving pieces.

   In regard to movies/TV, as point out daily in this sub, that’s not reality. It’s an easy stand-in for all domestic tasks, probably because the person is standing in one place and easy to film.

4. I don’t have a dishwasher

5. It’s a device for giving a character something to do while filming a scene.

6. Lol, we all have and use dishwashers.

7. Hand washing dishes is a fairly static act. Loading a dishwasher involves a lot of bending over. It’s a lot easier to capture the former in film.

8. Scene filler for TV. I don’t wash anything by hand unless there’s a good reason not to put it in the dishwasher.

9. About 70% of US households have a dishwasher.

10. TV shows aren’t a reflection of real life. A lot of people in those shows don’t even have a dishwasher to use them. Dishwashers are something found in bigger homes that have the space for it and many people do use it, but many people rather wash by hand.

    There is no aversion to it, people just have a preference.

    In TV, it’s done by hand to give the character something to do and easily film that action. Putting dishes in a dishwasher that has food on it is unpleasant to the eye and harder to film. Notice how dishes in those scenes don’t even have food on them. That would be more obvious if they were putting it in a dishwasher.

    TV doesn’t represent real life very well.

11. Most homes have dishwashers. Virtually all new homes do.

    I have only lived in one place that did not have a dishwasher and it was a studio apartment.

12. I am my dishwasher. If I were to use a dishwasher for anything, it’d be leaving dishes there to dry on the racks.

13. > I’ve been over most of Europe and a dishwasher is just the norm.

    Yeah same here.

    Close to 70% of US households have a dishwasher…

    > Every tv show or almost has people washing dishes by hand…
    > Maybe a trope for tv?

    There we go! It’s common device/trope to give actors something to do while supporting dialog. Filing actors having a conversation while washing dishes and one of them is loading a dishwasher while bending over repeatedly in and out of frame isn’t great cinema. Much easier to keep them in frame and just hand wash stuff.

14. I used my dishwasher last night OP. but I also hand washed some dishes this morning. Land of contrasts.

15. Even in Europe, a dishwasher as “the norm” really depends on your location (and how rich you are). Rented homes often don’t have them, and they don’t necessarily fit in tiny kitchens in flats.

16. Have you been over *any* of America? That would be a good start before making any conclusions about how America is and what Americans think about something as mundane as dishwashers.

    What is the apparent repulsion of Europeans toward formulating reasonable questions? You don’t see dishwashers *in movies* (hardly a plot point) and you leap to the conclusion that Americans are *repulsed* by them. In case English is not your first language, you should know repulse is a very strong word. We are repulsed by things like child molesters and people who kick dogs, not dishwashers.

17. They’re a norm here as well, but loading the dishes in the dishwasher and pressing start doesn’t give people the opportunity to pause and look out a window as ponder a deep moment.

18. [removed]

19. Maybe they do it to like show character action

20. Yes, it’s the movies, but I wonder if there’s some reality in there as dishwashers are likely to be less common in places like NYC apartments, where space is at a premium.

    I lived in one apartment that had a dishwasher, but it wasn’t hooked up to the water. You’d wheel it out, attach the hose to the kitchen faucet, run another hose to the sink for draining, and then let it run. We didn’t use it.

    Meanwhile, out in the suburbs, friends installed two dishwashers a while back. This way they never have to empty the dishwasher and put dishes away. One always has clean dishes, and they just get a dish from one, use it, and put it in the other. I’m never sure if I should be impressed by this or appalled.

21. What the fuck are you talking about? Dishwashers are the norm here.

22. Having a dishwasher is the norm here as well. It’s just a trope.

23. > Maybe a trope for tv?

    Ding ding ding

24. In my life I have only known one family who hand washed dishes for a significant amount of time. But even for them, it was because their dishwasher stopped functioning, and their finances were needed elsewhere.

25. You can pry my dishwasher from my cold, dead hands.

26. Yeah, my family just used it as a drying rack. I hand washed everything, and just put them in the washer to drip dry.

27. You know, I go months at a time without looking at this sub.

    Every time I come back, I see a brain dead question like this, perform a Jackie Chan confused movement, then fuck off for a few months again.

28. It’s a trope so the actor is standing for the entire scene.

29. Not every household has both space and money for a dishwasher.

    Counterpoint: Why do Brits have a clothes washer in the kitchen when that’s not where it goes?

30. We have a dishwasher. My gf uses it as much as possible. I prefer to hand wash the dishes

31. I have a dishwasher. It gets used 3-4 times a week and was still doing its thing when I left my house earlier today.

    Basing your understanding of America/Americans on what you see in fictional media is not a good idea.

32. Yes, Americans are absolutely repulsed by dishwashers! Every time we see one we recoil in disgust.

    Everything you’ve seen on television is 1000% spot on.

33. I’ve visited many parts of Europe and seen your fridges, freezers, dishwashers, washing machines & dryers. We do all of those things WAY better. We may screw everything else up, but your underpowered, undersized, piddly appliances generally suck.

34. The same apparent revulsion villains have to just shooting the hero and not talk them to death, allowing them a chance to escape.

    Or same apparent fascination teens/college kids in horror movies have to abandoned houses or checking out the noise in the dark.

    y’know…furthering the plot points.

35. I literally just started my dishwasher and washed a bunch of dishes by hand.

    We do both.

    Washing by hand is a movie and TV trope because it looks better than bending over and pressing buttons on a dishwasher.

36. I have one, I just don’t use it because I was raised by immigrant parents

37. >I’ve been over most of Europe and a dishwasher is just the norm.

    Funny, because we’re always chastised for using dishwashers and dryers here on Reddit by Europeans…

38. I owned one home that had no dishwasher (it was built in the 30s). It was horrible and I’d never do it again.

39. TV IS NOT REAL!

40. Almost all Americans have dishwashers. This is simply a movie thing so that the characters can do something in a scene in the kitchen.

41. Movies and TV are not real life. I am almost 40 and I remember my home always having a dishwasher since the 80s. The only exception was a tiny closet sized kitchen I had for a few years in NYC.

42. Seems like a TV thing. Everyone I know that has one uses it almost daily. I certainly do.

43. I own a dishwasher and use it regularly. My boyfriend’s family of Asian immigrants also owns a dishwasher but insists on hand washing their dishes and using the dishwasher as a glorified cabinet to store large dishes.