I got a bone to pick with GE. It's about the laundry.

You see, the company is trying to sell its fancy new washing machines. That's fine. But it is doing it by stirring up an age-old argument. One where my gender usually gets the shaft.

Women do the laundry more than men. Or at least they complain that they do. We (especially us guys) know that.

But the latest study from GE seems to be exaggerating it a bit. Eighty-nine percent of the women surveyed by GE's consumer products division (the one that sells washing machines) claim to be the family launderer. In that same survey, 23 percent of women think their partner has little or no knowledge of laundry dos and don'ts.

Gimme a break. Sure the woman of the house gets stuck with the laundry a lot. Maybe more than is fair. But 89 percent?

I called GE and the company stands by its survey -- based on 1,000 people, split evenly between the genders, and conducted by a third party.

"Those are the numbers," the spokeswoman said with a telephonic shrug.

Like most surveys, though, numbers may not be giving the full picture.

First of all, it is 89 percent of women saying that they get stuck with the laundry all the time. I do the occasional load of work-out clothes behind my wife's back. I'm sure other guys do too. It evens out the household workload a bit. You know your stuff is going to be ready when you need it. And, perhaps most important, your partner doesn't care how the wash comes out since she has no stake in how you look on your morning run.

Which brings up the second point. A good chunk of the surveyed women complaining about laundry duty probably put themselves there. Why? Quality control. A piece of clothing can be folded many different ways ... but in many households there is only one "right way," right guys?

Along that line, one in four of the women in the GE survey claims her partner has ruined a piece of clothing through laundry ineptitude. Hey, the red-white mix up (say hello to your new pink shirt) cuts both ways. And should we talk about how many times the machine gets hammered because the "primary" launderer overloaded it?

These kinds of tit for tat arguments over laundry and other household chores happen between couples all the time. GE is simply fanning the flames, hyping its survey and declaring that August should be "National Men Do the Laundry Month."

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"With this declaration, women are encouraged to put down their laundry baskets for one month and share the load with their partners," GE said in its survey announcement.

Yeah, yeah, women of the world, unite. Can it be "Women Mow the Lawn" month too?

What GE really would like is for enough women to get their partners to agree that laundry is a drag, but would be easier if there was a new washing machine in the house. And guys, most of whom have a path-of-least-resistance gene tied to their Y-chromosome, will give in.

Incidentally, GE (GE: Research, Estimates) in the same announcement points out it has a new "Harmony" washing system where the washer talks to the dryer to avoid laundry mistakes and cut cycle time.

I wonder if the washer tells the dryer how to fold, too?  

Allen Wastler is Managing Editor of CNN/Money and a commentator on CNNfn. He can be e-mailed at allen.wastler@turner.com and sincerely apologizes to his wife if she happens to read this column.