As I have mentioned in a previous post, the hatred towards mothers always seems to go unchecked and is always the norm. Whenever a mother shows any concern of the impact of sexualization of women on her children she is immediately branded a “prude” or someone with “no life.” It’s incredibly ironic that many will accuse a mother of “having no life” because the minute she does not center her life around her children she is also branded a horrible mother.
Likewise, they will find ways to accuse her of hypocrisy, or imply hypocrisy, by asking her if she allows her children to watch any television. I am not certain about how exactly that is relevant to her concern because the difference between media consumption in the home versus public advertising is that she at least has some control over the media her children consume but out in public she does not have this power. You cannot simply “ignore” a hyper-sexualized advertisement when it is a fifty foot billboard in full view of the young impressionable children. Liberals may deny this, and most certainly will, but children do notice their outer environment, they do not live in a bubble (as much as Liberals would love to make it so) and they do take in everything that they see around them. They cannot ignore that it actually does take a village to raise a child and our mainstream media is part of our global village. The accusations of moralistic pearl-clutching against Jennifer Campbell is absurd and the other arguments against her very legitimate concern are also astoundingly ridiculous.
so i guess her kids have never been to a beach then
If they were using these posters to sell perfume, or cars, or beer, her complaint would be more relevant. But they are using images of scantily clad women wearing skimpy lingerie, in order to sell skimpy lingerie… so I don’t think the ads are inappropriate or even misplaced.
Why is this poor woman so upset? Is she for real? Does she really think that by her NOT shopping at Midtown Plaza, they are going to forced to close the doors? Come on lady, are you for real? You know, really have to pick your battles these days. And I really don’t think that this is one of them.
There are advertisements in magazines these days that show even more than what is on those elevator doors. Prime Time television, between 7:00pm and 9:00pm, there is more bare skin, showing couples in bed, no pajamas on (bare skin) suggesting there is more going on than just laying there. And the conversation they seem to have, well, it leaves very little to the imagination. So my dear, I’m pretty sure that if you were to take a step or two back, you’d see how silly you are making this whole thing out to be. I really do wish you luck with your protest. But I think you are pretty much on your own on this one.
Because how dare a mother be concerned with advertising? These people have already shown that they do not care for the well-being of children. This is not to say that children are not intelligent, of course like all human animals they are also capable of reasoning. This, however, does not leave advertising corporations or even society off the hook for their insidious use of hyper-sexualized imagery with no concern for how this might affect young girls. Advertising corporations feed off of the insecurity of the mass public while simultaneously selling them a lie. The lie that if they buy what they are selling then they will be loved and adored by all, no longer a pariah in society. You can have your cake and eat it too, they claim.
What these easily swayed people don’t understand is that the cake is poisoned and addictive, yet they still claim they are autonomous human beings. With young girls suffering from eating disorders and self-esteem issues at extremely young ages, does it seem elementary to point to the advertising industry as at least one of the main causes of this? Do these people believe that eating disorders and self-esteem issues are origin-less and fall from the sky without any explanation? How can they simply “ho-hum” at this serious issue and patronize those who raise the next generation? As an auntie to various nieces and nephews, I will say that this deeply concerns me too; call me “moralistic” all you wish, just don’t then turn and point the finger at the parents when a child becomes the product/victim of that culture.
Life in the Patriarchal Matrix: I mainly blog about feminism, misogyny, disability and activism.
