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“A dream you dream alone is only a dream; a dream you dream together is reality.” — Yoko Ono
Aug
1
Target Women: Birth Control
Filed Under feminism, fun, media, reproductive justice, sex and sexuality, women’s health | Posted by Cara |
As someone who truly and unashamedly does love her Seasonale and fewer periods, I still think that Sarah Haskins is funny as hell, even with her simple lady mind — and totally right. Also, I love her birth control commercial; someone really ought to put that to air.
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“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
“sit in that hut for a week”
LOL! Thanks for sharing.
Errr…the sad thing about all of these target women commercials is that I AM THAT WOMAN…
I am completely sucked in by yogurt commercials, I spend hours in bubble baths, I cry at hallmark commercials and one of the big selling points of my Mirena was the “no periods for the next five years” line.
I will go hang my head in feminist shame…
Hey, like I said Kristen, I love Seasonale! And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, or with necessarily marketing these aspects . . . it’s the way in which they do it by acting as though women should want to not have periods and using such condescending girly language in the process. For real, that Yaz commercial in the nightclub has left me bemused since it premiered like over a year ago.
Um. I love her.
You know I really hadn’t thought about it, but I never have seen a birth control pill that talks about sex. I think I’ve seen one that mentions babies, but the lady in that one already has like 2 and doesn’t want MORE. Never seen one where she has none and doesn’t want ANY. I guess we’re weird if we don’t spawn at least once.
Also, Sarah Haskins is made of awesome.
*er, a birth control pill commercial even. Sorry.
I would totally buy a birth control pill advertised as, you know, birth control.
But then, I want to see ads for Plan B. “Buy Plan-B! Be pre-abortion today!”
Definitely! I’m really happy to say that that my PP affiliate has an EC commercial on the air. There really ought to be more, yes including ones made by the manufacturer and run nationally.
I’ve actually talked in more specific terms than the woman going on about potassium or whatever. And I did kinda run an evangelistic kick after my doc put me on the NuvaRing, which is my favouritest birth control ever. (Yes, I just said that.) But I probably also go further than the adverts do or ever would in descriptive terms.
That said, those commercials are kind of inane. And I really really despise that one with Emotional and Logical. Way to bust the stereotypes. BLECH.
That would all be great if many women with severe menstrual symptoms weren’t on “birth control” specifically because of their severe menstrual symptoms. Further, several of the Yaz commercials are very specific about the severity of PMDD, which is a real and impactful problem for those who suffer from it. Way to make light of real medical conditions.
You know why birth control commercials don’t talk about sex? Because we want them on before 6pm and we seem to have an issue with airing stuff like that. So. When you fix censorship, a problem for everyone, then please tell me how awful it is that birth control commercials can be on during regular tv hours while condom commercials are still refused by most networks and are only on after the magical 8pm mark.
No one was making light of a real medical condition, Brenna. If anything, Sarah was mocking those who are making light of a real medical condition by portraying said condition as “logical vs. emotional” or as just some bloating and irritability. Furthermore the vast majority of women who use birth control use it primarily for pregnancy prevention purposes. She didn’t say that period control is a horrible awful thing (that would have definitely pissed me off), but pointed out how advertisers are for some reason trying to obscure that fact. And I have yet to see the Yaz commercials that you’re referring to — are they any of the commercials that Sarah mocked? Because I’m pretty sure that they’re not.
Lastly, I don’t think that anyone said how “awful” anything is, but jokingly pointed out a very real phenomenon. And if you do your research, I do believe that you’ll see that many feminists (this one included) have loudly complained about how condom commercials are censored. (But they’re not refused by “most” networks — I do believe that the last blowup with the “evolve” commercial was over 2 rejecting the ad, which makes it 2/5. And correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve never seen a commercial for the pill AT ALL on a network station.) Oh, and is it just me or are Axe commercials shown all the time before the magical 8pm mark? Because those ads are a lot more sexually explicit than any birth control commercial I’ve ever seen in my life. The point you seem to be missing is that while our country certainly does have an issue with sexuality, it has no problem parading around female bodies for male viewing pleasure (and YES this is done way more often than the opposite), but does have a problem with talking about women having any sexual agency or desire of her own — and therefore needing to be on regular contraception.
Hi, I took birth control to control my screwed-up disabling periods for three years, and OMG I love this segment.
I’d actually never really made the connection. We all know the idea of women having SEX! (and not just getting fucked) is off the table, but hey, maybe the baby thing… oh… wait, actually, opting out of childbearing is the elephant in the societal room. It’s Bad and Evil and very seriously Frowned Upon, but we all know the scary wimmins would have a (menstrual!) bloody riot if we pushed the issue too hard. So everybody just keeps quiet and smiles those tight-lipped “I fucking hate you” smiles at each other.
Sigh.
Thanks for posting these, Cara. I’m a total nutterbrain so I doubt I’d be able to find them if you weren’t posting them, and my life is better knowing women like Haskins exist and have the generosity to share their hilarity with the rest of us ;)
Two things that would make me 1482% happier with birth control ads:
1. Talk of hanky panky without the baby risk. I could really give a shit about controlling my periods.
2. Real talk of how your tits grow to massive proportions, you might bloat and gain weight uncontrollably, and the extra hormones might make you so depressed you have to take Zoloft four times a day (yeah, that last one was me).
Because if I’m going to risk all the nasty side affects in numero dos, I would like to know that I could engage in a little extracurricular casual sex without popping out some spawn.
I guess preventing birth while still having sex is way too edgy for prime time television! Wait, women have sex and don’t want babies? Blasphemy!
haven’t you heard? pills aren’t just for period-control any more, they are actually ruining your chances for future happiness by making you choose the wrong man, by as a british “study” puts it: “Disturbing a woman’s instinctive attraction to genetically different men”
honestly, i’m not making it up…
http://irresponsibility.wordpress.com/2008/08/14/pill-side-effect-having-control-of-your-life%e2%80%a6/