Did Fall River’s Hoo-Mee Chow Mein Take Gazelle’s Advice?
If you're familiar with Hoo-Mee Chow Mein over on 8th Street in Fall River, you're going to love this discovery.
First, let me take you back a few years ago to August 10, 2016.
While rummaging through a cabinet one day, I came across a box of the SouthCoast-famous Original Hoo-Mee Chow Mein. My Vavo would make this religiously growing up and it has been a staple in the Fall River community since 1926.
As I looked closely on the side of the box, something rather strange stuck out like a sore thumb that made me a little uneasy:
"HOO-MEE Brand Chow Mein Mix is the original chow mein mix, packaged since 1926, for the home preparation by the housewife..."
Now, I don't know about you, but that's somewhat offensive and degrading towards women, even back in 2016.
Here's where it gets good.
Sometime between 2016 and 2020, the packaging for Hoo-Mee Chow Mein was changed, no longer displaying the word "housewife" anywhere:
I'm not one to jump to conclusions or make assumptions, but I'm somewhat confident that I influenced this company to change the wording on the side of its packaging.
If you look closely enough, you can see the difference in the two:
If indeed I did convince the company to make a change to its outdated (and let's face it, sexist) messaging on these crunchy little Chinese noodles of pure joy, my message back to them is simply, "good job." You made the right choice. After all, other people besides housewives want to enjoy your chow mein.
Let's eat!