Tireless commenter typhonblue suggested someone do a post on this ad for the Summer’s Eve line of vaginal cleansers:
Shit, how can I resist a big, slow-moving target like that?
In keeping with my policy of accentuating the positive first, let me say that this is a visually charming commercial with excellent production values. And hell, I’m always a sucker for a martial arts sequence. Welp, so much for the positive.
This is one of those wonderful commercials that’s misogynist and misandrist at once. Damn, we seem to be getting a lot of those, don’t we?
Women, the most important thing you have to offer the world is your genitalia. You’re not a warrior or a hero or a fighter, those are men’s roles. You’re the transport mechanism by which your pussy gets through its daily errands. The most powerful thing in the universe isn’t your mind, or anyone’s mind. It’s not technology or philosophy or the march of human progress. It’s your cooch. Despite being so magical and powerful and perfect, however, your pussy isn’t good enough. You need this fine line of products to fix your pussy and bring it up to an acceptable standard.
Men, you are incapable of love. You don’t want companionship or intellectual stimulation or emotional fulfillment from a woman. You only want one thing, ha-ha, amirite? Furthermore, that isn’t just the only thing you want from a woman, it’s the only thing you want in the universe. All human accomplishment has been entirely hoo-ha based. Sorry if you thought you had any sense of ambition, any higher ideals or principles, but it turns out everything you do is entirely about crotches.
Note, too, that this ad is based entirely on the idea that women exist as objects of desire. Women don’t desire men, don’t do things in pursuit of men. They just stand there being desirable as human civilization revolves around their vag. It’s that same old ugly transactional notion, that women are selling sex and men are bidding for it, wrapped up some bullshit fake empowerment and decent CGI.
Sigh.
These commercials have always pissed me off when I see them.
@typhonblue on July 22, 2011 at 2:23 am:
In English speaking countries, the vagina is still probably the more sacred of genitalia – hence the greater shock value behind the female “C” word than the male.
noah:As Holly Pervocracy recently said, if you want to see misandry, watch misogynists talk about men. True if for no other reason I’ve seen it happen in reverse. Mythago: “The vag is more like Satan; evil, but with a huge and sinister ability to warp good-thinking people into doing bad things.” TB: Hm. I guess that’s why Saint Augustine called the penis the ‘demon rod’ and made no mention of the vagina. Or when it comes to sex a woman is considered “clean, pure, and virtuous” until she has sex with a man and all of a sudden she’s “unclear,… Read more »
kaija24: There is still a need for douches. Just not in the vagina, or at least, not in healthy vaginas. There is, after all, another orifice down there. 😉
“The vag is more like Satan; evil, but with a huge and sinister ability to warp good-thinking people into doing bad things.”
Hm. I guess that’s why Saint Augustine called the penis the ‘demon rod’ and made no mention of the vagina.
@Thomas: Gaaah! Testicle cream containing lavender oil? Don’t these folks know that lavender oil is an endrocrine disruptor with feminizing effects? http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/jan2007/niehs-31.htm Admittedly I don’t know if there’ve been studies about what effects there are in grown men, but still, this seems like the LAST thing a man would want to rub on his balls, srsly. Talk about a hormonal own goal. Although that does make the stuff somewhat more equivalent to the women’s douching products in that it adds a bit of possible harm in along with the creation of an unnecessary problem that needs solving via a particular… Read more »
I thought it was the phallus that’s worshiped in our society… 😛 The vag is more like Satan; evil, but with a huge and sinister ability to warp good-thinking people into doing bad things. re circumcision, I could ‘easily argue’ anything at all, but my anecdotal experience with new parents is that Dad is the one calling the shots about Baby Junior’s penis. I’m sure there *are* marriages where Dad is fiercely anti-circ and Mom insists on it for her son’s future sexitudinousness, but I’ve yet to meet a “Oh, I want my son to look like his dad” /… Read more »
I thought it was the phallus that’s worshiped in our society… 😛
The vag is more like Satan; evil, but with a huge and sinister ability to warp good-thinking people into doing bad things.
Wowww….. those are TERRIBLE commercials -_-;;; it’s funny that they play into the v dynamic me (and so many other female bloggers I know in the comics comm) are against (women as being the “prize” to be won instead and that this is our role, not just historically but now too..) xD The Wushu part rly hit home w/ me b/c I grew up on those movies… and they’re such a big part of the way I think in terms of fantasy and how I relate to fantasy fiction as an Asian person, etc.. and all I can think of… Read more »
@Kita
Skincare for men’s private parts exists. To be fair, I was surprised too when I found it. Though, I don’t think it has any negative side effects apart from the steep price.
http://www.frenchtruckers.com/ayurmen-intimity-skincare-for-men/
Apparently, the cream smells like lavender and has some anti-aging effect. It’s available in France, in case anyone is interested 😉 .
I once saw a mock ad in the Whole Earth Catalog featuring Ken Kesey and the slogan “I’ve been using cornstarch on my balls for years!” (Evidently cornstarch stops your nutsack sticking to your leg on hot, humid days. Me, I just keep the equipment stowed for transport, if you know what I mean.)
@ Kita “Can you imagine a product sold to men that told them it would make their penis more attractive in some say (other than, of course, Steve Martin’s Penis Beauty Cream) but in fact, aggravated the problem they were “solving” and were actually dangerous to the user’s health?” Um… I imagine a great deal of the ‘enlarge your cock’ snake oil spam spinning around the web at this very moment does exactly that. Plus you could easily argue that circumcision–being pretty much a cosmetic procedure–is often defended by mothers doing it to their sons as something that makes their… Read more »
@RFA: What exactly constitutues “the entire research community” is vague; is that the academic research community, all independent think tanks both feminist, masculinist, and nondenominational? All government agencies? All governments? All political and social justice groups? Nevertheless, a “research community” rarely agrees 100% on anything, especially a topic that is so qualitative and subject to interpretation and methodology artifacts as sociological research. Furthermore, I highly doubt that the research community in question has appointed you as their spokesperson. YOU ARE ARGUING FROM AN AUTHORITY THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE in order to give the appearance of your opinions and conclusions… Read more »
@Brian 10:11 & 10:50:
I agree with you, I dislike Shakesville for several reasons, but they’re coverage of this ad was pretty good. Your last sentence in the 10:50 post sounds an awful lot like their position a lot of the time, which is part of the reason I don’t like them.
The more I read blogs, the more I’ve come to identify the phrase “advanced $position/movement/ideology space/place/forum/blog/whatever” as being explicitly indicative of that kind of reasoning, unfortunately.
On a happy note /s now they’re using totally racist tropes too! http://consumerist.com/2011/07/summers-eve-promotes-wash-with-talking-vertical-hands.html
Can you imagine a product sold to men that told them it would make their penis more attractive in some say (other than, of course, Steve Martin’s Penis Beauty Cream) but in fact, aggravated the problem they were “solving” and were actually dangerous to the user’s health?
@Kaija Please stop miss characterizing my position. I am not simply stating my “opinions and objections as if they are authoritative and widely agreed upon and somehow people here are mistaken or misguided; that is not the case…” I am stating the opinions of the domestic violence research community, not my personal opinions. I am backed up by 100s of studies and in the case of Brians NVCAWS, I used the researchers comments and description of how the feminists that ran the study requested a biased instrument and so produced a biased result, as you can see above in the… Read more »
I’d like to say here that my current position is already a change* from “women universally hit men more than the reverse”. So it’s not true that I wouldn’t change my mind if he gave sufficient evidence; it’s just that as far as I can tell the evidence doesn’t support him.
*: I don’t want to go into more detail here for risk of derailing the thread, sorry.
@RFA: You are stating your opinions and objections as if they are authoritative and widely agreed upon and somehow people here are mistaken or misguided; that is not the case…other people simply have other opinions and have come to conclusions that are not in line with yours. You have a strong opinion, which is fine, but seem to be upset that you can’t get everyone to agree with you, which is why I am reluctant to start another thread for this topic…I don’t have much confidence that it will be a civil or constructive. You are not going to change… Read more »
@Kaija Please don’t miss-characterize my position. I made it clear that I objected to certain bloggers on the basis that the publish lies, abuse apology and bigotry (see jpeg) and questioned how appropriate it is to feature them in a positive light on a masculist/egalitarian blog. I didn’t simply object to certain bloggers. I’ve also made it clear that what I oppose about Brian’s position is the use of biased research and statements about the CTS that aren’t true, both are tactics that are regularly used in feminist circles, to minimize abuse victims. I’m not simply objecting to the results… Read more »
Sorry for the derail (and this post), but I should point out here he didn’t accuse you of linking to the .jpg, he used the .jpg as proof that Amanda Marcotte is “an abuse apologist”. Which it isn’t, although it is definitely proof that she disagrees with him.
Per the comment policy: “Commenters…who repeat the same point over and over again, who abuse contributors or other commenters, or who massively derail the thread from the post topic will be first warned, and then have their comments deleted.” @RFA: You objected to a link that noahbrand, the OP, used in his piece. Noted, but that’s noah’s call. You accused me of linking to some .jpg that I did not. You are derailing from the topic, an offensive product advertisement, to argue about domestic violence or abuse and studies and statistics thereof. You have made it clear that you oppose… Read more »
Straus and Gelles and some other researchers might think I’m wrong (though as far as I can tell I believe something very similar to what they believe, so probably not), but nobody would think I’m actually lying. Or bigoted, or being an “abuse apologist”, or misandrist.
I could turn it back on you and say that you’re sexist for “minimizing violence against women” but we both know that’s silly. They’re both variations on “your-argument-is-morally-wrong-so-we-can’t-even-consider-it”, which is always bullshit.
@Kaija “@RFA: Please stay on topic per the comment policy, which is the Summer’s Eve ad. You are now slinging insults at people who don’t agree with your personal opinions and that is unacceptable.” That’s a misscharacterization. Its not my personal opinion that the Brians positions on cts are lies and that the NVCAWS is biased. That’s the opinion of the credible domestic violence research community as is evidenced by the links posted to Brian, who is arguing based on myth, opinion, the misandrist view that abuse is gendered and biased research. I see feel abuse apology and bigotry so… Read more »
BUT back to the ad.
Don’t usually like Shakesville much, but they have a point here:
“I will, however, just quickly note that the ad is, ironically, the best argument against the product: Millennia before there were products designed to make women feel ashamed about the smell of our vulvas and/or vaginas, they were still pretty popular.”
@RFA: I will give you the Straus quote, and then I’ll refuse to talk to you because you keep calling me a “liar” and an “abuse apologist”.
I don’t know why I haven’t kept that promise the last five or so times I made it; you never actually stop insulting people who disagree with you so I’m not sure why I keep expecting you to every time you make a coherent argument.
@RFA: Please stay on topic per the comment policy, which is the Summer’s Eve ad. You are now slinging insults at people who don’t agree with your personal opinions and that is unacceptable.