and people wonder why feminism is a joke
I haven't read the magazine Bitch for a while, so i picked up a copy the other day. There was a full page article in it about the General Electric ads that have 2 people, a guy & girl, with contrasting stereotyped titles that are typed across the top of the ad.
For example "GQ marries IQ" has a "brainy" girl (with brown braids and glasses and a button up dress shirt, carrying some folders) standing next to a "model" guy (done hair, tan, wearing a tight black shirt); both are standing in a modern kitchen, the point being that GE's new line of kitchen appliances is a merging of styles. Another ad has a "brainy" looking guy and a "model" looking girl and says something like "Beauty marries Brains"
Bitch magazine was pissed because, according to them, the ad are based on the assumption that a brainy girl can't be beautiful and vice versa. What they failed to point out is that the ads make the same assumptions for the guys. The brainy guy is ugly and the model guy has no books. The issue should be GE's lack of creativity in advertising, their inability to come up with fresh ideas instead of wearing out old stereotypes.
Sometimes activists need to pick and choose their battles. The effort put into nit-picking those dumb GE ads could have been put into something a little more influential and meaningful, like listing the networks that have pulled out of the Lingerie Bowl.
For example "GQ marries IQ" has a "brainy" girl (with brown braids and glasses and a button up dress shirt, carrying some folders) standing next to a "model" guy (done hair, tan, wearing a tight black shirt); both are standing in a modern kitchen, the point being that GE's new line of kitchen appliances is a merging of styles. Another ad has a "brainy" looking guy and a "model" looking girl and says something like "Beauty marries Brains"
Bitch magazine was pissed because, according to them, the ad are based on the assumption that a brainy girl can't be beautiful and vice versa. What they failed to point out is that the ads make the same assumptions for the guys. The brainy guy is ugly and the model guy has no books. The issue should be GE's lack of creativity in advertising, their inability to come up with fresh ideas instead of wearing out old stereotypes.
Sometimes activists need to pick and choose their battles. The effort put into nit-picking those dumb GE ads could have been put into something a little more influential and meaningful, like listing the networks that have pulled out of the Lingerie Bowl.