Chocolate Conniption
There is an ad campaign for a chocolate bar with the slogan "it's not for girls" along side a symbol of a girl with a stop sign written over her. The Icelandic translation of the slogan is even worse; "it's not for hags".
Um. Ok, fine.
Some, myself included, have decided that if they don't want our business, then they wont get it. The whole company can just do without me for sure. I'm fairly certain this multi national corporation doesn't give a flying forklift about whether or not I buy their products. Nonetheless, I don't feel like giving them any of my money for any of their products.
A whole bunch of young men are writing on the feminist message board that the boycott is extreme.
What?
This ad is not only offensive, it evokes images of apartheid and segregation. There are parts of the world where women are not allowed to vote, where they are not equal in the eyes of the law, and even in our own fabulous egalitarian society we do not get paid in accordance with the male norm and we do not have the same possibilities of advancement.
Many a young man seems to think that we are taking things too seriously. That we don't understand jokes.
That may be. I for one, find this ad campaign tremendously un-funny. Would we laugh if it excluded a race, ethnicity or even religious belief?
The point is that it overtly bans people, if instead, it said "it's for boys" it would simply be a statement that this had somehow been designed to appeal to boys. Granted, I don't really know how that applies to a chocolate bar, but then again this whole thing is incredulous.
On a much sweeter note: A team of researchers in the UK have found that cocoa is three times more efficient for curing a cough than traditional cough drops and other medicines, including codeine (!). The Husband, having been very sickly for the past week, can look forward to many cups of hot chocolate.
It won't be of a certain brand though.
Um. Ok, fine.
Some, myself included, have decided that if they don't want our business, then they wont get it. The whole company can just do without me for sure. I'm fairly certain this multi national corporation doesn't give a flying forklift about whether or not I buy their products. Nonetheless, I don't feel like giving them any of my money for any of their products.
A whole bunch of young men are writing on the feminist message board that the boycott is extreme.
What?
This ad is not only offensive, it evokes images of apartheid and segregation. There are parts of the world where women are not allowed to vote, where they are not equal in the eyes of the law, and even in our own fabulous egalitarian society we do not get paid in accordance with the male norm and we do not have the same possibilities of advancement.
Many a young man seems to think that we are taking things too seriously. That we don't understand jokes.
That may be. I for one, find this ad campaign tremendously un-funny. Would we laugh if it excluded a race, ethnicity or even religious belief?
The point is that it overtly bans people, if instead, it said "it's for boys" it would simply be a statement that this had somehow been designed to appeal to boys. Granted, I don't really know how that applies to a chocolate bar, but then again this whole thing is incredulous.
On a much sweeter note: A team of researchers in the UK have found that cocoa is three times more efficient for curing a cough than traditional cough drops and other medicines, including codeine (!). The Husband, having been very sickly for the past week, can look forward to many cups of hot chocolate.
It won't be of a certain brand though.
posted by disinterpreter at 4:05 PM
4 Comments:
The British government has just published a booklet containing advice for consumers who want to make a modest contribution to improving the lives of farmers in developing countries through buying fair trade products. In the meantime, we are relentlessly bombarded with sexist images of semi or completely naked temptresses draped over mattresses. They are never depicted as successful, independent, intelligent or articulate, but are put on show as a collection of anonymous body parts to stimulate male desire. Perhaps if we had attained genuine equality the chocolate bar campaign you refer to might be mildly amusing. Under the present circumstances, however, I agree entirely that we ought to boycott such items until advertisers wake up to the reality of female spending power.
Sometimes I feel completely overwhelmed and powerless. That is when it is good to know that there are other people, like yourself, out there who think about this.
Never despair Elin, you are not alone! By way of coincidence (although I know you don’t believe in them) a colleague handed me an article from the Daily Express this afternoon (not the most highbrow of publications, but printed en masse). At the risk of breaching copyright provisions by quoting in extenso, I would like to take the opportunity to illustrate the kind of attitudes we are up against. A certain Nicki Vee, occupation “life coach” earns a crust through holding “personal development seminars” with her husband. Here is her patent recipe for female fulfilment: “To Nicki, the secret of a happy marriage is a return to ‘traditional values’, where men make the decisions and women support their husbands in all they do. She also believes that, deep down, every woman wants to be rescued by a man and that we are ignoring basic biological differences between the genders.
‘Women today are ambitious and driven. While this will work with your career, when it comes to dating and relationships, it throws everything out of whack,’ she says. ‘The drive for equality is affecting our basic instinct for what we really want’.”
Pass the sick bag! She is not finished yet, however: “A woman must be prepared to let go of her masculine behaviour – being ambitious, or being in charge. Once you change that sort of behaviour, you become fully feminine”.
And: “‘Deep down, women all want the same thing. We all want a knight in shining armour to sweep us off our feet, someone to fight the dragons for us. Finding the ultimate partner is the ultimate prize’”.
If you have not torn your hair out by the roots by now your self-discipline is truly miraculous!
I am severely stressed out at the moment (departing for work at 07.15, arriving home at approx. 20.15 and completing a conference paper for the University of Glamorgan at the end of next week), hence the lack of entries on Redemption Blues, but I wanted to let you know that (in all likelihood over the Xmas holidays) I intend to write some serious pieces about women’s unacknowledged and unremunerated domestic labour, the social construction of gender, shopping and body image…I am blowing the dust of some of my tomes in preparation. Of course, the inspiration has come from locked in the fridge, a debt I gratefully acknowledge in advance :)
Of course. How silly of me to even strive for any sort of ambition or career. That Daily Drivel sounds about as progressive and openminded as fundamentalist religious crap.
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