I am legitimately upset by this ad campaign.
http://www.1designperday.com/2010/02/23/durex-sexy-cmpaign/
The summation of how a woman
feels when having sex is apparently horny, lustful, heavenly, and orgasmic. And
while giving a blowjob she is apparently pleased, satisfied, happy, and finds it tasty.
All this while a man is simply feeling muscle tension, sensory overload, and
intelligence...
It is bad enough that there are underwear, cologne, and car advertisements that show women as overly sexual creatures who undress at the drop of a hat, but to lower the female experience to this point really astounds me.
I know this is a rather risque first post, but I know you are all women who care about women's rights and the development of gender equality so I wanted to share it with you.
I've been trying to figure out just how to feel about this for a few days.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like they aren't trying to advertise this as a summation of the sexual experience generally, but of that when using their condom brand in particular.
Yet, even so, it definitely simplifies what we are supposed to understand as being good sex. I don't really know who it cuts shorter, the woman or the man... I notice that the man isn't experiencing much beyond the physical in this ad...
It reminds me of an article that was printed in the Manitou Messenger last time that I was at St. Olaf that made me angry about how the "point" of sex is orgasms and how "sex without orgasms is just stupid."
I think what's more upsetting, to me, isn't how they paint women in particular, but the sexual experience generally.
I do think that sex is sacred and much more significant than orgasms.
Thanks for giving us something to think about Hannah!
It seems to me also that they're trying to show how people who use their brand of condoms should feel when having sex, not necessarily how everyone should feel when having sex.
ReplyDeleteThe emphasis on orgasms isn't surprising since they're advertising condoms. It is upsetting/annoying that they use such blatant gender stereotypes when summing up the female and male sexual experiences, though. This use of mere words to show what each is feeling (or should be feeling) is, as Summer pointed out, unfair and belittling to both genders.
On the other hand, I almost think it would be worse if these ads showed real people and had them saying those things. The way it is, it's like those thoughts and feelings are divorced from actual people, making it slightly less disrespectful of real people's sexual experiences.