Recently in Products Category
Screw you! Beauty products! Screw you!
I read this article from Jezebel.
The product is marketed to older women who lost their color from their labia Really? Don't we have enough products that tell women you are not pretty thin, or sexy enough for a man? Here, use our products so that you fan finally have a ring on your finger. Let me say this, if any man or women complains about the color of you vagina or of any other body part, leave them. Honestly, life is to short to have sex with people who want you to risk your health in order to change you body. So screw you, Beauty products. I love my labia and my labia loves me for not dyeing it!
I was out shopping today at Habitat, a store I generally like but have not been to very often. I was completely disgusted to see these mugs.
I am having trouble expressing exactly what the problems here are in such a way that I can write about it to Habitat (any suggestions would be most welcome!) but honestly, this is so totally gross. These are faces that look like photographs - so, we presume, faces of real Asian women. These mugs use real Asian women's faces as pretty decorations for us to admire, the same as a normal mug would use a design of a flower or something. These women are nameless (quite a different situation from a mug that had a picture of a famous person). They are simply disembodied faces, and even more grossly, disembodied faces that get cut in two if someone ever actually drinks out of the mug. Does nobody see the problem in drinking your cup of tea out of a ridiculously blown-up image of women's lips or eyes?
Newsflash for Habitat! Asian women are human beings, not decorations!
As I said before, I am having trouble expressing myself as I try to write a letter to the company, and any suggestions of things I could say or points to bring up would be most welcome.
Hey y'all!
So, I work at Delia's, which some of you might have heard of (or shop at), which has stores, a catalog (which many of our mother's shopped at) and an online store. One of the biggest reasons I have chosen to stay employed with Delia's is because of their belief in their customer-- a bright, independant, happy young woman (or tweener). Their models aren't too skinny, the clothes aren't too sexy and (until recently) I have never had a problem with the "logo tees'' that we're known for. Delia's always has somewhere between 40-60 tshirts with various graphics and messages on them avaliable in store. Right now, however, Delia's is selling a shirt that says "Trophy Girlfriend." I have a serious problem with this, as does a few other people I work with. We, the consumer have serious power with Delia's. If enough people clamour for the tshirt to be removed from the sales floor, it will be-- last month a Barnum and Bailey tshirt featuring a tiger jumping through a flaming hoop was removed at many parents and ultimate PETA's request. If people can care that much about a cartoon tiger, we can definitely care about our young women wearing a "Trophy Girlfriend" tshirt around. Here's what you can do: If you're at a mall and see a Delia's store, stop in, pretend to look at the tshirts, then ask to talk to the manager on duty and express your disconcern for the Trophy Girlfriend shirt. If you just want to make a phone call, call customer service and tell them that you think the shirt should not be sold at a young women's clothing store-- 888-533-5427. Just, please, when you're making your comments, leave out anything about a Delia's employee posting things online--- I'm already in some trouble for expressing my distaste for this shirt, but I absolutely think it should be removed from my store!! Thanks so much guys!!!
Crossposted at Amplify
Scared of how you smell “down there?” Not satisfied with your oral sex life or foreplay? The makers of Linger, “Internal Feminine Flavoring,” have found a “solution” for this problem: Linger Internal Feminine Flavor, according to their website, flavors the secretions of a woman when she is sexually aroused. What? Flavored secretions? Let’s pause for a moment and think about the name of the product itself: INTERNAL FEMININE FLAVORING.
Ok, let’s get real: Linger isn’t feminine flavor. IT’S MINT.
In describing the origins of their new “sweet tasting sex mint,” the Linger website weaves a tantalizing, exoticized, eroticized, and semi-pornographic tale of desire and what they paint as a ubiquitous fear of cunnilingus. When the woman in the story (presumably the creator of Linger), expresses fear when her lover with “skin the color of caramel” starts to go down on her, Linger Internal Feminine Flavoring comes to the rescue. She writes,
That is, if in the real world girls need practice on how to iron so when they grow up their family's shirts are wrinkle-free.
I saw this "toy" at Big Lots in Augusta, ME today. In case you can't make it out, it's a plastic miniature ironing board and iron made by Black & Decker Junior. The photo on the front shows a young girl evidently enjoying pretending to iron something.
What really bothers me about this toy is how it is presented. This toy is for girls and every other toy B&DJ makes is for boys (with pictures of boys on the front so don't get mixed up and accidentally buy a table saw for your daughter!) It's almost like the creators thought "well, we're getting flak for only marketing toys to boys, so let's see, what do women like to do that we can make a toy version of? Oh yeah, women LOVE to iron!"
No, sorry, maybe some people like to iron, but I do not. It is a menial task that I avoid at all costs and only do when absolutely necessary. There is no higher level thinking involved in getting the wrinkles out of my dress clothes. The workbench toys, on the other hand, engage kids on a different level. They're creating somthing, using their imagination to decide what to make, how they'll design it, and [pretend] implement those designs. There is an element of creativity and choice involved. See how happy that boy is? He made a bird feeder! He didn't need to. There wasn't a pile of lumber accumulating, needing to be made into bird houses.
So I guess I'm not sure what B&DJ were thinking when they designed this toy, but they must not have thought very long. I mean, sure, part of it is emulation. I used to like watching my mom do housework when I was a kid and probably would have played with a child-size ironing board in order to act more like her. But seriously, of all the things to emulate, housework? Any why are only girls allowed to want to do this? Pretend college would be more fun, and something actually worth aspiring to.
Samhita's September 4th post on "Go Girl," the product that allows female bodied folks to pee standing up, reminded me of another product called "Go Girl," which I saw an advertisement for while on the road this summer. It was so bad that I had to take a picture. The bright pink poster advertised Go Girl Sugar Free Energy Drinks, tag line "Beautiful Energy."
The poster featured three young, thin, feminine, able-bodied, light skinned women-on-the-go and a pink ribbon-50 cents from every 46 dollar case of Go Girl is donated to breast cancer research. The ad also offered the following information: Go Girl contains less than 3 calories, less than one gram of carbs, and "Super Citrimax, a mild herbal appetite suppressant."
Okay, forget the creepy "modelquins" commercials for a second. Old Navy has managed to once again be condescending to its customers. They have added a new style to their ridiculously named women's jeans that neatly packages their women customers into brightly colored, cotton, female stereotypes.
Previously, you could be slutty (the Flirt ), a doormat (the Sweetheart ), or a bitch (the Diva ). Now you can be The Dreamer :
In other words, you're fat and you better push those curves into the appropriate shape.
Cause if you don't, you'll only get to daydream about a boyfriend to steal jeans from when you would rather not be a slutty, doormat, bitch.
I hate purses. I hate them for being one more thing I have to worry about carrying, and one more thing I might forget somewhere. I hate them for dangling so much I have to put them down somewhere to take action shots, take notes (I'm a photojournalist) or do anything like dance and move. And I hate that purses are supposed to be for women only, and men can't wear them without being ridiculed, so they invented the fanny pack and lug around big backpacks instead, which presumably are so much "manlier".
What I hate most of all, however, is the absolute dearth of pockets on the vast majority of women's clothing. Without these pockets, of course, we can't do away with the purse, ultimate symbol of the albatross we bear around our necks for being female. I can't count how many additional clothing stores I've had to enter and look through in order to find clothes with pockets. My wardrobe today may be full of pocketed items, but it must have taken me four times longer to find them, let alone the extra money they cost.
Pockets are more convenient than fanny packs, which don't always match or fit properly, or the way we want them to, and can feel as heavy as purses. This said, I've caved in and bought different designs.
Why don't women's clothes have pockets? I suppose designers and manufacturers just assume we have purses, or use them. However, I wonder to what extent pockets are considered to "bulk up" pants or a dress. It may be automatically assumed women want to look slim, without any "unsightly" bulges, no matter how inconvenient the lack of pockets can be.
This may seem like a small matter, but it's one more factor in our autonomy, mobility and equality.
So I'm watching TV (a rare moment of relaxation), and this commercial comes on. I've never seen it before; I don't know what the ad is about yet. But the content of it appears to be a father and a little girl building a treehouse together. Seriously - together. He's showing her how to use the tools, read the plans, and in general be involved in an actual construction project. And I think, "This is great!" The ad blatantly defies the gender stereotypes of mainstream advertising by showing a) a father interacting with his child in a competent, supportive, and non-discriminatory way, and b) a girl learning skills all too often considered "proper" for only the male segment of society.
I am thrilled.
I am elated.
I am vindicated to the point of joyful gasping.
This lasts approximately ten seconds.
The reason for the short lifespan of my joy, you ask? Once the establishing shots of the ad run by, the girl springs up and declares, much to her father's confusion, that she will be right back.
And then she runs off and makes him a sammich.
I cry out in pain and dismay. I seethe with loathing for the cruel advertisers who have taunted me with their pretense of progressiveness. And as the elitist and until-recently-sexist tagline reaches my ears: "Choosy moms - and dads! - choose Jif!"... I am no longer surprised.
The Jif advertisers have been a philosophical thorn in my side for many an ad, and had I known they were behind this one, I might have been more guarded - but alas, they have managed to hit me where it hurts.
You win this one, Jif. But I'll be back.
(For the sake of illustration, I'd include a link to the ad here, but I could only find the 15-second version, which lacks the longer buildup and sharper backstab of the full 30-second version.)
I am not sure how long this has been out, but I just ran into this Depend ad on television about five minutes ago and was really bothered by it. While not only emphasizing a strict gender binary and presenting played-out gender roles as laughable truths, it positions the realities of patriarchal oppression as not only acceptable, but comedic, and implies that women only find power to combat this as manipulating wives.
This entire ad drives me insane, but what particularly gets to me is how Depend depicts its claim that "men and women are different" through these responses to the same question: the man answers immediately and confidently, while the woman's response is prefaced with "oh dear" and "do I really need to answer that one?", as if stating her opinion is somehow scandalizing.
I guess worn-out stereotypes reemphasizing "traditional" gender roles is how the Depend brand thinks it should target its clientele? Unacceptable.
"For the girl who has everything- except hair!"
In case you haven't read anything to make you utterly disgusted yet today:
Baby bangs! were created for baby girl's (sic) who have little or no hair, to enhance their natural beauty.
I sincerely hope that this is a joke, if not I don't know what the world has come to.
P.S. they're also scented. gag.
(Cross-posted at Women's Glib.)
A few things I can think of that are really fucking wrong with this, just off the top of my seriously pissed off head: a) the whole objectifying women thing. Just a reminder: we don't like being defined by our breasts, or any body part for that matter. And b) that said body parts are fucking for sale. In an arcade game. Where you'd pay something like 50 cents in the hopes of winning this horrendous "prize" and probably wouldn't even beat the machine nine times out of ten.
Stay classy, objectifying motherfuckers.
Via Copyranter.
It always makes my blood boil a little bit when feminist language is co-opted to sell clearly un-feminist products. I did a women's studies project a couple years ago on portrayals of body hair removal in the media, and while a lot of ads stuck to the more traditional notion that women should remove their hair so that men will find them sexually appealing (one Veet wax ad reads, "Leave him hot and bothered, not you"), there's also been an emergence of ads that play up how liberating the act can be (provided you buy the proper product).
The Gilette company has adopted this tactic to sell the Venus razor line that has become more or less ubiquitous over the past several years. The tagline for the razor is “Reveal the goddess in you” and it pushes a message of female empowerment. Shaving with such a luxurious razor, so the reasoning goes, makes women feel good, because “every inch of a goddess is divine.” This marketing technique is (I assume) supposed to appeal to women because it encourages them to feel as if this product were made specifically for them, for their pleasure (the ads highlight the "intensive moisture strips enhanced with natural aloe and botanical oils"), and in celebration of their femininity.
"Ever want to just rest your head in a woman's lap, without those pesky arms, torso, and head leaning over you and complicating matters? Now you can, for only $98.99."
I was just looking around for a pair of skis to buy at the end of the season and went to this website , where there are 3 categories of skis: ADULT, LADIES and JUNIOR. Since when are "ladies" NOT adults, I wonder? Fortunately the boots and clothes are categorized as men, ladies, and junior.
Recently I've been seeing commercials for a product called Easy Curves that can supposedly increase breast size and shape through exercise. I can't help but wonder just how stupid these people think women are.
Anyone else hearing the infamous "You must improve your bust!" chant? Easy Curves is essentially the same motion as the accompanying exercise but much more technologically advanced:
"Developed by a woman, the Easy Curves' patented dual-direction resistance produces resistance when you push in and resistance when you pull out... sculpting a beautiful bustline through a full range of motion, to lift, firm and enlarge in just 5 minutes a day."
Whoa, resistance produces resistance? I never would have guessed. And of course we can trust it because it's developed by a woman! It's even pink!
While it's true that chest muscles can be excercised and strengthened, breast tissue is not muscle. I'm no doctor, but I'm pretty sure there's nothing short of surgery that can alter this sort of tissue. The TV commercial claims to see it working (and it makes this explicitly clear through all the close-ups) but it's obvious that flexing your chest and pushing in your arms will push your breasts together and make them look larger.
As for the five-minutes a day thing, that's just ridiculous. You can't change anything by exercising that little. Of course, they try to remove our doubts by saying that this product is university tested and scientifically proven just like every commercial for diet pills that don't work. As Carl Sagan said, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." This just doesn't cut it.
The site and the commercial are pretty hilarious though. The main page has animated GIF images of a woman using the product and of breasts inflating like balloons and, as always, the site is excessively covered in pink.
This product is just pathetic and insulting but, sadly, I think that a lot of women and girls will buy into it. Young girls and women who haven't been very well exposed to things like skepticism, critical thinking and feminism may be drawn in. Even some who have may be so desperate to fit the "ideal" that they might buy it. While it's somewhat benign and absurd, it makes me angry that they would try to sell something so clearly useless to women and sad that some might actually trust their claims.
Playtex Sports Tampons
Obviously tampon companies work hard to appeal to women and girls, but Playtex Sport Tampons really irk me. I purchased a box on a whim, and to my surprise, each tampon wrapper had an insprirational message on it. Fabulous. Which makes me wonder what inspired them to do this.
I suppose they may claim their intention is to positively support women/girls who play sports while selling their product, which is the gist of what I get from looking at some of their website, but many of the sayings are absolutely ridiculous. How many male athletes are told that it doesn't matter if you win or lose, it's how you play the game? Sure, that sounds nice, but playing competitive sports is NOT ONLY about playing your hardest. It's playing your hardest TO WIN.
And it's hard for me NOT to correlate the sayings as being related to my period, because, umm...I'm changing my tampon. The sayings are something related to being "sporty" and the tampon is cheering you on! Woo hooo! I certainly get really pumped up when I change my tampon now, because while doing so I get to read:
"Victory! " or "Game on! " as though I'm in a fight against my period?
"I'm on your team "--- creepy.
or "Celebrate your efforts " (huh? is that similar to "Winning isn't everything, as long as you do your best"?)
and similarly, "Who cares if you win or lose - play the game! " Which kills me, because alot of the sayings are all about doing your best but it's ok to lose. Fuck you, in my book, I'm a competitive person and so are other female athletes, and no, I'm not going to smile if my team loses a game and hug everyone and say oh well.
How those could be related to my period, I have no idea. Celebrating my efforts to use the 'right' tampon and not worry about my period while I'm playing a sport? lol
But my absolute FAVORITE is:
<
"You can play hard and still be girly "
oh good. phew. I was worried about that. Especially playing competitive soccer at college level, I know the first thing I worried about before I played a game was if I was still going to be girly (barf). I just couldn't believe I was even reading this. I know for a fact that my gf, as well as a number of my friends, who are athletes, and very much boi's, have also never worried about playing hard = not girly , and were insulted by the idea that this should be somethign they should be worried about. As for non-boi's, the girls I know who are athletes are more concerned with winning than looking hot. In fact, playing hard = hot .
I understand that maybe some (especially young) girls are afraid to be "overly athletic" for fear of losing their femininity, but I'm not sure having my tampon wrapper reassuring me not to worry about this is the best action to take to rectify that. It shouldn't be the first thing girls worry about when being athletic and having to deal with their period. And I do NOT think a tampon wrapper is the appropriate medium to discuss femininity and athletics, (which I do think are important topics in relation to female athletes etc).
Let's be honest, Platex has a goal = $$$ .
And I just have my damn period.
duh.
I was browsing Walmart's cheapo 97 cent shipping stuff (horrible habit of mine...), when I came across this shirt. I found it pretty cute, and cool that the sample name was the name of my friend's ten month old daughter. And then I read the description, which included the following:
"Please specify boy or girl, girl designs will include some of the female Sesame Street characters."
Because, oh my God, a boy can NEVER have something with a GIRL character on it.
Also nice they don't have an all female option - you can only get all male or a mix of both.
Unbelievable, even though it really shouldn't be that surprising to me at this point - every time I go shopping for said friend's baby, I end up infuriated with the overgendering of baby clothing. It's damn near impossible to get anything gender neutral.
Hey cleaning product companies... want to get me to buy your stuff?
Show a man cleaning!
My boyfriend pointed out something to me yesterday... You almost NEVER see a man doing the laundry, dishes, or cleaning in a commercial.
I know for a fact men clean. I lived with a father that cleaned, and my boyfriend and I share the workload. When talking to him, I could see how it is almost insulting to guys as well as girls. I found it sexist that they assumed that we women are "turned on" and "amazed" by the stuff we buy. But what about men? If you're not in an Axe commercial (herding women like animals), or selling testosterone filled products, does that mean you're not a man at all? Or a man that is worth being sold to? Is the Brawny man and Mr.Clean the only men allowed in the kitchen?
What would get me to buy a product?
-Show a man washing dishes and discovering that they're amazing, just like women do in similar commercials.
-Show a man and woman doing the work together, and not just him "helping" or as a secondary do-er.
-Show guys discussing what products work for them. I know this happens. It isn't just women who have to get spots out of clothes. And, please, don't do this as a macho thing. Don't show me guys comparing their socks in the locker room, with a penis size joke thrown in.
-Show these things gender neutral. My vagina doesn't help get the clothes whiter or make the dishes wash themselves.
What do you think?Just wondered what you all thought of the new Tampax advert 'Outsmart Mother Nature'. I had seen full page spreads in magazines with the strapline "Mother Nature calls it your 'monthly gift', but your period is more like a curse" so checked out the website. The video - aimed at young girls/women - reminds us how Mother Nature created all the lovely things in the world, plus all the natural disasters/sinking of the Titanic/your period. Strong emphasis on how your period 'ruins' your life, stops you from doing everyday things, and don't forget that resistance is futile! And if you get on her bad side, she might ruin your wedding!
What a cheerful message to be sending to women, and young girls everywhere! I know that Tampax are in the business of making you feel ashamed ("help keep mother nature under wraps") and resentful towards your period, but this still surprised me!
I'm not sure if anyone's posted about this horrific Brazilian lingerie line, which features GPS tracking devices.
Lingerie maker Lucia Lorio of Brazil says her design targets the 'modern, techno-savvy woman.' The lingerie combination set consists of lace bodice, bikini bottom and faux pearl collar, with the GPS device nestled in the see-through part of the bodice next to the waist. 'This collection... is a wink to women and a challenge to men because, even if she gives him the password to her GPS, she can always turn it off,' Lorio said.
Ew.
I was riding the subway yesterday, and I gazed above me at an ad for Ricky's and I noticed that.... in that whole lineup of "Sexy Nurse, Sexy Freddy, Sexy Bumblebee," and her ilk... I was really only looking at one or two dresses. They're all basically the exact same dress.
I propose we get our hands on this One Dress (TO RULE THEM ALL). Can it really be that hard to make our own costumes and make them as sexy or unsexy as we wish? Sometimes we do want to be cute and sexy, but there is more than one standard for this, more than one way to express it. In other words... I don't need the peekaboo window. I think they can tell I'm the short-lived female Robin without it.
I'm having a period. It started yesterday and the beginning was extremely uncomfortable this time. Today I went to browse all the different-but-similar fancy packages for at least 5 minutes untill I guessed I got the right ones. During the process I could not help but thought of a line implanted in my mind through some sort of extraterrestrial contact - Have a happy period . A sentence like this is alien, so alien it may be alien to aliens. On which planet is a period happy? I checked their tips on how to have a happy period. They seem to be advices on releasing stress than gaining happiness, or simple regimes for being healthy. No words about the pads. So the hope of using a particular brand to solve any menstrual "unhappiness" is collasped and gone. Oh but there are heating pads (particularly from ThermaCare) that "will let you leave the house and participate fully in your life"! Sounding good?
I go to school not far from your headquarters in Burlington, Vermont, and we're all really proud of your history of being a conscientious, locally-oriented company now representing a huge portion of snowboarding culture around the world. In light of your reputation, I'm sure it's just a small oversight when this board went on the production line.
In fact, probably the designers didn't really notice that the board is hugely misogynistic and offensive. It must have been an oversight that a blatantly objectified, hyper-sexualized woman was put on the board in two obscenely suggestive poses. And the writer of the description was probably completely oblivious to the horrifying innuendos that were most likely mistakenly put in there. No right-minded person in your company would ever be okay with characterizing a woman in such a demeaning manner. Also, the placement of the bindings must be accidental: Everyone knows that standing on a woman's hands and body is not only disrespectful and dominating--it's not in your company to want to put a woman 'in her place' of course--but downright violent.
Actually, I'm sure the very name of this product was an accident, too. I'm sure "Love," was a typo, because love surely doesn't include the subjugation, prostitution, and humiliation of women. But you knew that, of course.
In short, I'm writing to notify you of that little oversight that slipped through the designers' room, the board of directors, any qualifying committees you might have for new products, and your advertising agencies. A company of your outstanding record and peerless popularity would never stoop to outright women-hating to sell more products.
Sincerely,
Amanda Rohdenburg
It's not quite clear to me how the company that makes t-shirts and whatnot with this logo:
would also make ones with this logo:
Maybe it's because I wanted to be part of Column A but ended up being coerced into Column B, or maybe it's because I see this as perpetuating the myth of the Status Caesarean, but I think it's just plain gauche.
I am curious to hear what other people have to say, because I think that a lot of feminists view elective caesareans and unassisted birth as value-free points on a continuum of equally-valid birth choices. I can't say that I really agree, as the astronomical rate of medical interventions and women's accounts of feeling "rushed" or "pressured" (cue millionth endorsement of The Business of Being Born and Pushed , etc., etc.) lead me to believe that a number of these interventions --especially caesareans-- are not the product of fully informed medical consent. Of course, I'll add the disclaimer of "if a woman truly understands the risks of a caesarean and decides that it is what's best for her and her family, then more power to her," but I can't help but think that flippant stuff like that evinces a disregard for 1) the real dangers of a major abdominal surgery; and 2) the value of the pregnant woman's body per se (i.e. not as vessel/incubator/time-bomb etc.). Just cut on the dotted line and remove fetus! Not recommended beyond three uses.
Maybe it's just that I can't picture the image moved down about a foot, with "caesarean" substituted for "vasectomy." Or, for the sake of closer parity of risk, "bariatric surgery."
Tell me what you think. Better yet, tell them what you think.
I've never posted before, but after I saw this... I thought it was worth mentioning...
Has anyone seen this:
http://sheweeusa.com
You know, I'm really torn.
In one way, I'm instantly repulsed. What is wrong with the way that I pee now? Urination is natural. We all do it, male or female. So why should we all have to do it the same way? And why should the "male" way be the "correct" way?
I love Neighborhoodies , generally. I have more custom clothes from them that I care to think about. In their last e-mail newsletter they included, along with their other 50 new "readymades" (clever pop culture referencing tees and hoodies for much less than completely custom items) was a design that had images of Obama and Clinton with the text "Bros before hoes."
I was appalled, and immediately emailed them about it: "I love Neighborhoodies, but I can't get behind a readymade that calls Hillary Clinton a ho! Wtf, neighborhoodies?? Misogyny is not okay."
Cameron from Neighborhoodies responded: "You misunderstood! It means that Obama and Hilary are bros! We love Hillz 4evs."
My last response: "It doesn't really look that way to me. "Bro" is not usually a term for a woman. You guys might want to rethink that one. Just saying."
I've posted up about this on my own blog, and showed a friend the design IRL, and they reacted the same way. It just seems so utterly bizarre to me, coming from a company that "love[s] Hillz 4evz." I'm not crazy, right?? Maybe if more people emailed them about it they might edit the design to be more clearly pro-woman/Hillary or pull it entirely.
There are few among us who don't love our jeans. They've been with us through thick and thin. We can pair them with a nice blouse and go to work. We can pair them with a pair of heels and hit the bar. We can pair them with a ratty t-shirt and lounge all afternoon. Yes, we love our jeans, and our jeans love us. But the people who make our jeans? Not so much.
it wasn't long ago that we were talking about Wrangler's "We are animals " campaign, but they aren't the only denim manufacturers with disgusting ad campains right now. Jezebel recently brought to our attention Mark Ecko's "Hot Girls Make Great Clothes " thong fest, complete with videos of bikini clad women slaving away to make sexy jeans, which, of course, none of them are wearing. And Levi's latest "Live Unbuttoned" campaign isn't much better.
Apparently jeans aren't for wearing, they're for taking off in scandalous, sexually suggestive situations. What's the deal?
From Tacori.com, The Tacori Gentlemen's Guide to Engagement.
The Gentlemen's Guide begins innocently enough. "Getting engaged is one of life's biggest milestones and you want to do it right," the site declares. It's a sentiment which I can agree with, and which probably applies to many. Clicking forward to the "guide" itself, I am faced with a page dotted with solid blue circles, each with a title, such as, "What Women Want." I can already feel myself getting mildly irate, as I have yet to see that particular phrase used in a non offensive manner. This time is no different. Moving my cursor over the, "What Women Want," icon displays four options: "Designer vs. Generic," "Her Ring, Her Style," "The Surprise vs. The Plan," and "A Symbol of Love." Clicking on these displays four short videos, featuring either a woman who talks with her hands way too much, or a man who also uses his hands more than necessary, while speaking in clipped, somewhat aggressive tones. The videos are all very short, and essentially try to guilt trip guys in to spending a fortune on an engagement rings at the Tacori store. (I know, big surprise there, right?) What I found most annoying however was not the pushy sales tactics, but all of the damn generalizations and sexist stereotypes.
I had to go buy some shampoo today and I started thinking about the "Health and Beauty" sections of most department / grocery / big box stores. It makes me mad that they call it that. I know that sounds a little silly, but hear me out. It equates beauty with health. While there may be some evolutionists that argue that beauty is a sign of genetic and overall physical health, I don't think it exactly adds up.
The "Health and Beauty" sections have very little to do with actual health. Most vitamins, medications, etc are found in the Pharmacy sections of these stores. So what exactly is sold in this section of the store? Shampoos, conditioners, body wash, lotions, hair products like mousses and gels, hair accesories, fragrances, deodorant, TONS of make-up, skin care products, anti-aging creams, cellulite creams, "spa" products like foot scrubs and face masks, razors, shaving cream, tooth brushes and tooth paste, whitening strips....the list goes on. I'm just wondering exactly which of these things are making me healthier. I'll concede tooth paste and brushes, maybe even shampoo and body wash. The rest of it? It's products that we are told will make us beautiful. They will cover up all of our hideous flaws, medicate them away, keep us from aging, and demolish unsightly cellulite. They will keep us from smelling like humans and replace our natural odor with that of flowers, fruit, or even food. It will shape our hair, get rid of our hair, help us grow hair, and accesorize it. Anything on your body that you think is fine, there is a product there that tells you it's wrong and that they have the solution.
Now why is this all making me so mad? It is people's choice whether or not to use these products. They aren't all bad. We want people to bathe and such. While I personally have a problem with some of these products (see my earlier post here ), I don't have a problem with other people choosing to use them. The problem I have is with the word "health." It's about the fact that they medicalize things like eyeliner. There is nothing healthy about putting chemicals right around your eyes. There is nothing medically helpful in nairing your legs or spraying yourself with chemicals to smell like cake.
Throughout most of the displays there are bright, fluorescent lights that not only make all of those flaws stand out in conveniently placed mirrors, but also are curiously similar to the bright lights at doctor's offices, at visits to the dentist, and so forth. The sterile white and metalic display faces play into the same theme. What disgusts me is the medicalization of "flaws" in physical appearance, and that these tactics are mainly targeted at women (only a few of the products in these section are geared toward men: a few razors, shampoos, and soaps). It makes women feel not only that there is something socially unacceptable about the way the look, but something medically wrong as well. All of the face washes and masks and scrubs and powders have names, packaging, and descriptions that make them sound that way (e.g. Physician's Formula, medicated face washes, etc), but the truth is they are BEAUTY aids.
Women out there: I just want you to know you are beautiful! Stop spending your money on these silly products! Eat well, get the sleep you need, stay hydrated, exercise, have self confidence and you will be healthy! You don't need these!!
So my niece is turning 4 and it's present-shopping time. I don't support Wal-Mart for a variety of reasons so I'm browsing through the Target website planning my shopping trip. Then I found THIS . Granted, this "Bridal Purse & Bouquet" (totally purity white) set is in the dress-up section... for FOUR YEAR OLDS!!!
I was already dealing with trying to find something that wasn't TV-based, excessively pink, "princess" themed, or mommy-training (dolls, strollers, play kitchens, etc.). And you know what? All of that just totally doesn't compare to a freaking bridal set for a girl just outta diapers last year.
Am I being too sensitive? Have I spent too many hours on this site this past week (j/k)? Other points of view greatly appreciated.
Oh, and for those who are curious, I think I'm going to end up getting here THIS birthday cake play set.
