First: *headdesk*
Second: what the fucking hell??? Are there no bounds to our sexism that even breast cancer awareness becomes a fetishized striptease for the heterosexual male gaze???
While I'm all about promoting awareness for breast cancer, I don't think reducing women to their "boobies" accomplishes very much. Because what this really achieves is telling women saving our boobies is for teh menz. We have to protect these luscious beauties, so men will stare at us when we bounce them around! And don't forget ladiez: street harassment is totally a compliment! Ugh.
There's also another issue I have with this video: what exactly is this saying to women who have survived breast cancer? What about women who have had to have mastectomies to survive breast cancer? As if we needed another god damn affirmation that the entirety of our femininity and womanhood is what's stuffed in our bras. Protecting and familiarizing ourselves with our bodies is one thing--it's entirely another to do those things within the parameters of the male gaze--I don't need men drooling about my breasts for me to suddenly be filled with a desire to "save them." Fuck this ad.
H/T: Feministing
crossposted
Thursday, September 24, 2009
God dammit--is there no low our sexism won't stoop to?
Posted by FilthyGrandeur at 9/24/2009 05:44:00 PM
Labels: body, breast cancer awareness, sexism
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I am so thankful for a womanist/feminist blogosphere to turn to. I was watching a discussion of this on CNN and not a single person brought up how sexist it was. They simply declared it an inventive way to talk about breast cancer. That a video like this could be celebrated makes me sick.
i am also thankful of the blogosphere. i mean, this is offensive to women and men--it should not be celebrated!
Way back when I was in college I asked a male friend why he wasn't at school the last quarter . He told me he had a double mastectomy for breast cancer. I insensitively laughed thinking he was joking. He wasn't. Men do have a small amount of breast tissue and can get cancer there. I apologized profusely but I could tell I made him feel ashamed. I wonder how ads like this make him feel?
@darkles--
i think ads like this completely erase that men can also suffer from this. i honestly did not know men could get breast cancer until i saw it on an episode of Nip / Tuck. how sad is that?
Post a Comment