Vintage Sexism circa 1990s: Cutting out the dirty lady parts
A reader alerted us to this old Bell ad (an internet provider) saying, "You'll do anything to protect your kids from inappropriate content. So will we."
What's inappropriate is a picture of a woman with her breasts and vagina cut out of what's obviously some sort of school textbook on human anatomy. I also wasn't aware that ovaries are dirty too. (You'll see they're cut out as well.) Because we all know what exposing your children to ovaries will lead to...before you know it, they'll be ovarydosing!
(I know I know, I tried.)
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I can't help feeling that this is an ovar-ryaction.
I think it's mocking the overzealous overprotective parents that would go to such length as this to protect their innocent kids from such 'dirty' things as women's anatomy.
If it's not, I'm angry.
even if it is mocking those overzealous parents...it is still making the connection of women's reproductive parts as dirty and furthering through their mockery.
so be angry.
I am still angry about it, don't worry. ;)
It would be nice to think that the ad was just mocking a small handful of crazy parents, but I doubt it. There's no exaggeration. Lots of people really do precisely what the ad depicts, and they really do claim that it protects the children. Whoever came up with that ad had to know that there are an awful lot of people who will take it at face value and not as mocking them. No, I'm afraid someone thought this ad worked as a serious ad.
I remember seeing this when it came out. There was actually a television commercial that went with the print ad - it's similarly awful. It features the charming stereotype of the frazzled overprotective mother paired with a bemused but tolerant husband.
Bell claimed the ad was "a tongue-in-cheek attempt to show the lengths some people will go to in order to protect their children from 'inappropriate' subject matter". People protested though and the ad was pulled and Bell issued an public apology.
Sorry, my video link didn't work. I'll try again: tv commercial
Wait a sec...is that other cutout the upper stomach and lower esophagus?? I didn't realize that had become dirty also.
The whole thing is bullshit. Ugh.
Wonder where Bell placed their ads?
Kind of a stark contrast after seeing the movie Coraline, which included a pretty flamboyant display of the female anatomy.
Ooooh, how was the moive? Coraline is one of my absolute favorite children's books.
I really liked it. But there is a scene when the ladies downstairs were putting on their show. One of them was really only wearing body jewels. I would agree that is kind of inapporiate for children.
When I saw Miss Forcible I cheered a little. Few things annoy me more than the modern view of "OMG WE MUST PROTECT CHILDREN FROM THE FEMALE BODY!!! OR MALE BODIES! OR ANY KIND OF BODY AT ALL!!!" I rather kids see a good movie with boobs than boring sanitized Hollywood crap like Bee Movie or Barnyard.
Toni, have you ever seen the original Fantasia? Or Kirikou and the Sorceress?* Would you agree that those movies were inappropriate for kids?
*Info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirikou_and_the_Sorceress
I think you're overreacting. I'm childfree and I can't police what other parents let their children watch. Overall Coraline is a great children's movie but that scene was inapporiate.
It's been a long time since I've seen Fantasia so I can't remember what you're talking about. I've never even heard of Kirikou and the Sorceress. I can't give opinions on this without seeing them.
Fantasia's "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence had naked fire demonesses with clearly visible nipples. I watched that in the theatre when I was an itty bitty kid, and honestly? I didn't even notice that until I was much older. Same with the bare-breasted mermaids in the various mythical beasts books my parents gave me.
Kirikou and the Sorceress is an animated children's film set in mythic Africa. True to the setting, the kids are naked and the adults are bare-chested.
Coraline's mild burlesque show is not likely to damage young brains. On the other hand, the film has a lot of things that are frightening to very young children. (The couple next to us had their two kids along; the older one seemed to enjoy himself, but the younger one got scared.)
Ah, bless YouTube!
Night on Bald Mountain. Sorry, it was the harpies who had obvious nipples, not the fire demonesses.
I found the trailer for another Kirikou film: Kirikou et les Betes Sauvages.
The storyline itself was okay, but what was really neat was the visuals... The movie was a piece of art.
I don't know what's funnier, the ridiculousness of that ad or the puns on this site.. keep 'em coming! =]
By the way it's addressing the reader in the second person, it's condoning this sort of action as "normal." Which of course it isn't. I can't think of a single parent who would do this, and I knew a lot of really overprotective parents of friends when I was younger. It's pretty disturbing...
Look on the bright side: at least the ad wasn't "censoring" her brain!
I wish it was, because then it could be satirical humor and not just eye rollingly offensive.
Seeing this, I'm transported back about six years to my days in Middle School and trying to do research in the library for a report. I kept getting met with walls on the computer when I searched for things like "breast" "uterus" and "ovary" (I think I was doing a report on women's health for Health Class or something) and a red flag must have popped up on the librarian's computer because I got a stern talking to about using school computers to look up filth.
I'm just wondering how some advertising company decided that anatomy books were inappropriate, or were they trying to appeal to the ultra-conservative who don't believe in science?
I'm curious--did you explain that you were looking for health information? If not, do you know/remember why? I'm thinking that me-at-that-age would probably have suffered a momentary fear that what I had been looking for *was* considered dirty stuff, or that the adult in question would think it was.
I honestly don't know if I tried to explain myself. I doubt that I did simply because I tend to shut down, hang my head, and fight the tears when I'm yelled at.I do remember that I had to have my mom drive me to the public library (we didn't have a home PC at the time) and have them give me permission to do research.
I don't think I was confused afterwords over whether the body was filthy though, my mom always made a point to tell my brothers and I that the human body is nothing to be repulsed by, but it must be respected.
Oh my god. This reminds me of my cousin's mom trying to cover up her Ken doll's man parts (which were really nude colored plastic underwear) with magic marker when we were little. Even as kids we laughed at the stupidity.
As for the stomach being cut out, they're probably so stupid they thought it was a uterus or something. Again, conservatives who don't believe in science. Like basic anatomy.
Do Ken dolls even have boy bits? I thought it was just a vaguely shaped bulge, rather like their tackle's supposed to look tucked into the pants. kinda like Barbie's breasts are always the same bra-filling shape, and with no nipples? (Of course you can't help the first part as it is after all a doll made of rigid plastic, but the no nipples, not even drawn on, is a different matter).
Which reminds me, I've recently begun to hang out at toy stores again (got two fresh nephews to shop for), and I checked out the Barbie dolls, and they seemed to me to have changed and become slightly more realistic than what I remember when I was a kid, and the Kens are much less square-jawed as well - anybody else notice that?
Oh yes I have, some of the faces look weird, but they look more average now. Last time I looked, their plastic breasts didn't seem SO enormous.
I never understood why Ken had such a weird bulge and Barbie was smooth when I was little...
hahah
I think it's funny that learning about sex organs in an anatomy book, presumably in a health or biology class, is somehow "inappropriate". I'm pretty sure that's the most appropriate time to talk about it.
P.S. - Love how it's only with women's parts. I guess cutting out a man's parts would seem somehow "inappropriate".
what the fuck.
that's all i have to say.
No, see, the ad is alerting potential customers to the important fact that the product (or service, I can't tell which it is) is so clumsy that it will block even science-based information that everyone who has a body ought to know, so it should only be bought by those who are so paranoid about their children seeing a breast that they feel this is a reasonable tradeoff, or who do in fact have such a negative attitude toward the female body that they believe basic anatomy is obscene. Kind of narrowing their customer base there, but kudos to them for being so up-front about the limitations of the software they have to offer!
Women's bodies are dirty and purely serve as masturbatory fodder. har har har. Maybe it would be funny if that wasn't what society actually thought.
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