A friend of mine recently got upset about the following ad from Reebok:
While it does somewhat perpetuate the objectification of women, it's hardly the worst example of it. Yes, the concept of a guy being unable to keep his eyes off a woman's ass is disgusting in many ways. However, the woman in the ad is cool, confident, commanding, and seems to have a very positive self-image. Yeah, sure, the ad leads us to believe she's like this as a result of having a nice posterior due to her use of their shoes, but these are generally good qualities to have, and it is far from portraying her as a submissive object at the mercy of mens' desires.
There is admittedly something wrong with our culture when women feel that they have to use their bodies to even the playing field; however, that is something intrinsically wrong with society, and expecting Reebok to adhere to a different set of standards to advertise their products is ridiculous. To get angry over this ad, one should be expected to admit that every commercial advertising shampoo, makeup, or any other beauty products is inherently offensive for suggesting, however subtly, that women need to look "beautiful" to be accepted by society.
That's a sound argument on a basic level, but it somewhat contradicts my view of feminism, which is that it's about choice. This includes the choice to be a housewife or stay-at-home mom, the choice to get plastic surgery, the choice to wear makeup and other beauty products, and yes, the choice to wear Reebok sneakers in order to tone your ass so that men will stare at it. I'm not in any way suggesting that women belong in the kitchen or need to look dolled up for their husbands, but if they choose to do it, that's their prerogative. So as long as that woman in the Reebok commercial seems to be in control of her choices, who are we to judge what shoes she wears?
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she's not really in control. she's an actress, pretending to live out this ad that was created/written by a bunch of male and/or female-chauvinist-pig writers. it's not her choice, and women who choose to wear makeup/heels/these sneakers (myself included) have our decisions greatly influenced by narrow standards of beauty and the nature of female-targeted advertising. female-targeted ads all over the world are almost always beauty-related, and this is a problem because at the end of the day, we end up being valued for that over anything else. but we're not stupid; we absorb this and try to use it to our advantage. in the end, though, we lose; these ads promote the idea that women would only want to exercise so that our bodies can be objectified. we only exist in relation to men and their insatiable, uncontrollable sexual needs, apparently.
ReplyDeleteyes, this is something intrinsically wrong with society, which is WHY we need to notice it and point it out, as we have with this commercial, because if we don't, no dialogue will ever happen. and yes, I do find all beauty-related ads offensive, and their effectiveness--on me, for one--is just another testament to that.
PS this is Crystal; I made my only Google account for my webisode character Alex Tornado Leung last year.
I don't own the sneakers, btw, the "myself included" was referring to makeup/heels.
ReplyDeleteYes, within the context of the script it's out of the actress' control what happens in the commercial. However, that doesn't refute the fact that the script has her acting confidently, NOT submissively. You sort of missed my point there.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, the kind of change you're talking about would overhaul our entire retail economy, and that's really the kind of thing I was talking about when I mentioned idealism vs. realism last night. It would probably be more prudent to pick one or two battles (like, the Ralph Lauren portrayal of women, which is far more offensive than this Reebok ad) than just complain about advertising in general, because the latter is something that really can't be helped.
what I'm saying is that if her character had been completely submissive, that would have been REALLY bad. I mean, think about where her confidence is coming from--not her brains or her personality, but the fact that her butt looks good. that's "progress" that I'm not satisfied with.
ReplyDeleteI don't even know if that change will come, but if we didn't talk about it we'd be even more fucked than we are now. in any case, don't tell me what battles to pick. I was expressing a personal opinion on Twitter.
I was hardly trying to telling you what to do. I was merely trying to express what I felt would be a more effective way of protesting this kind of thing in the media and marketing.
ReplyDeleteNot to be rude, but you do come across really intensely about this kind of stuff, which can be a turn-off for some people who might otherwise sympathize with you. Just a thought.
I for one appreciate Crystal's intensity; I think it shows that she is passionate about her dedication and commitment to feminism, rather than being solely dry and analytical ^_^
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