When a man gives his opinion,
he's a man.
When a woman gives her opinion,
she's a bitch.”
Bette Davis
My friends would agree that I lean more towards being a liberal than a conservative. Attendance in high school and college happened to be in the 1960's which is a reflection in itself. Raising four children, three of whom were boys and obviously one girl, my experiences taught me to be flexible and how to choose which battles to take on.
It is one thing to be bombarded by Christmas advertising before I have even purchased my turkey, but the constant focus on Christmas, by-passing Thanksgiving entirely, is irritating, but it is big business and I say nothing.
Then came the Victoria's Secret commercials. (This is the very company that when my daughter was younger, she used to cover her eyes as we walked by the scantly dressed mannequins in the window at the mall. The blatant display embarrassed her. ) Night after night these commercials pop up unexpectedly with models displaying themselves up and down a run way. Each time they appear, especially early evening, I wonder what a 12 year old is thinking. For girls, personal body image for the future is unrealistically distorted. Most young girls begin false expectations as well as body shame. For boys, the inappropriately dressed models are projecting a particular false image for what a man can expect from their future female body. I think to myself, is this one of the resources where the seeds of pornography are born? So I sit biting my tongue in the presence of my significant other as these anorexic models appear, for fear he will think I am sounding like an old crone.
Then to my amazement, I see for the first time a Joe Boxer Christmas commercial. A line of boxer clad men undulating to the tune of jingle bells. I hold my breath until I can no more and then burst out laughing! My thus far Victoria Secret silent man exclaims about the dancing boxers, "That is a horrible commercial!" I am astounded and ask, "Why?" His condescending voice spits out, "It is in poor manners!" My response, "Well if this is poor manners, what about the Victoria Secret commercials?" There is a pause of course, and a bit of sputtering before he feels obligated to choke out, "Well, yes, they are done in poor manners as well."
I cannot help but compare the nakedness, garter belts, and sexual overtones of women in the one commercial to the clothed men gesturing in the other. Victoria leaves me with irritation whereas Joe ... well, maybe the Joe Boxer Christmas ad can be googled and you can judge for yourself. Ho,ho,ho!
I love it! Oh my, our culture continues to sink to new lows! It is inded a very different attitude female vs male body image projection for advertising. It's interesting too, how differently men respond to the display of the male body vs. female. It's ok, even desired to be blasted with scantily clad "sexy" women, but "sexy" men are too much of a threat to the ego. Yet how deeply embebbed those false images are in the psyches of women. These female images have silently attacked my self-esteem, along with the years of comments from others about how I should look. Personally, I have finally admitted to having some degree of an eating disorder based on body image. What a relief to recognize I am beautiful just the way I am. And so are you! All of my life I have worried about how I look, especially whether I'm "fat" or not. How sad is that... Thanks, Virginia, great post!
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