As we move closer to the 22nd Century, women's bodies are still being used as marketing tools in every area of life. Women have objected over and over to this trivializing of our physicality, but the message still falls on deaf ears. Or more accurately, the money to be made from showing women's flesh drowns out our outrage. But then women have never been taken seriously by the men who still run this country (and if you think women have really made significant inroads in the power structure, you are fooling yourself).
We women squander our power. The patriarchy counts on that. We outnumber men in the population and at the ballot box. We control most of the discretionary income in the home. Who, after all, does all that grocery shopping, buys school clothes, chooses home furnishings, buys gifts for others? Sure some men take part, and some actually do these things, but in the majority of cases, the majority of the time, women are holding the purse strings. But do we use that power? No.
Don't you ever get tired of seeing men in suits, ties, and pants on your tv screen with women dressed in bikinis? Don't you ever get tired of laugh tracks that roar when some man is face to breasts with a woman's body, and she is acting oblivious to this? Wake up women! This is what the culture is saying about you, and teaching your daughters about themselves -- that our bodies are for display. That being leered at is "natural" and that we should not even notice it, or worse, that we are not capable of noticing it. That men ogling our breasts and butts is humorous, and we should not be offended by these jokes at our expense.
This kind of humor is the staple of sitcoms. You may think, "well it's harmless. Just one low brow show. How can that harm me personally?" Yet take a tour through most of the sitcoms on today and find out just how often women's bodies and their supposed lack of brains are the vehicle for that evening's entertainment. Then watch to see who is sponsoring this offal.
Look up the corporate sponsors on the Internet and email them. It's easier than letter-writing and it's free! Let them know you won't be buying their products while they continue to support shows that degrade women. Write or email the networks and complain. Tell them you are tuning them and their corporate sponsors out until they change how they present women. Until we women stop tolerating this, it will continue.
We can only blame the networks and sponsors to a certain degree. When we say nothing and do nothing, we share the blame.
Copyright December 1, 1998