Posts by Emma Hart
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I've always felt that it's social conditioning that makes women want to wear impractical things. It's fashion, isn't it?
My friend wears them to play piano as part of her job, so perhaps they're not quite as impractical as they look?
And it's just occured to me, a propos of this, that all the "sluttiest" clothes I own were given to me by mother, who is famous in my social group for her excellent taste in my clothes. This perhaps compensates for her telling me when I was thirteen that I'd want a nose job one day. (Often we don't have to look very far for our mixed messages on body image, yes?)
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Moreover, I can't stand those plastic nails women wear. I've always thought that these sorts of fashions were a sign of female insecurity - the pressure to look pretty.
Cecelia, I have a very dear friend who is one of the most intelligent people I know, who wears acryllic nails all the time. They're her treat for herself, and they look beautiful. Did you consider when you wrote that, that some woman wearing fake nails might read it, and feel bad about herself?
Would you like your 15 - 16 year old daughter to dress like that?
I have a twelve year old daughter. I want her to wear whatever she feels comfortable in. Currently that's baggy cammo pants and sweatshirts, and my frisson of anxiety is around her feeling so uncomfortable with her body that she feels she needs to cover it up all the time. She does at least have the strength of character to not just wear what all her friends are wearing (black leggings, and at least three layers of knit tops).
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5.30pm this friday, Aug 28
What a suck piece of timing, I shall be in hospital.
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was it the romans or the greeks who tended to get their body hair plucked out by slaves wielding assorted tools in the baths ?
Romans. Also Egyptians. Who also wore perfume cones on their heads.
I am so chuffed by the English Poetry Invasion in my absence.
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Okay, I have to pop out for a couple of hours - son's IEP, book in a tattoo. While I'm gone, Megan and Danielle are in charge of voicing my opinion, k?
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Maybe if the guy stays in control and doesn't get tanked up on booze he and Lisa get it on with consent?
Dude, the guy in the Lisa ad isn't drunk, he's dead sober. (Is that just my perception, that he's portrayed as doing what he does entirely coldly and deliberately?)
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Trouble is that when they make these ads they can't accurately predict how the message will be perceived because of the variability of the target audience
I've never seen anyone complain about the Dennis From Accounts ad, or the one where the woman comes home pissed and phones her ex-boyfriend. Neither of those ads is designed to scare the bejeesus out of you. But ALAC brushed off formal complaints over the Lisa ad (see upthread), and those complaints came from within the target demographic for the ad. That's... just not good Public Service Announcing.
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But that is a wee bit different.
Yeah, because the Lisa version of that ad would go something like this. Guy goes out with his mates, they're getting tanked, having a good time. Through the evening he gradually gets separated from them. Then because he's so tanked he, say, trips over someone's shoe, and gets the living shit beaten out of him by a group of obviously sober guys. Then at the end they say "It's not the drinking, it's how we're drinking."
Not an impossible situation by any stretch, but perhaps a slightly uncomfortable message?
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There is some responsibility on us all to minimise our likelihoods of becoming a victim.
I don't think the message is 'be careful', I think it's 'be afraid'. When you make a decision about what to wear or where to park or where to go, make it out of fear. Not walking anywhere after dark is not, to my mind, a reasonable precaution, but an unreasonable restraint, but that's where some (young, capable) women are ending up, because of the constant message that doing quite normal things is irresponsibly risky.
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In both cases the feeling (while real) is wrong.
Indeed, and what bothers me about this 'careful ladies' attitude is that it's wrong. Factually. Where are women most likely to be assaulted, no matter how they're dressed or how much they've had to drink? At home. And which group is most likely, statistically, to be on the receiving end of a stranger-assault on the side of the road? MEN. Yet where are the 'careful gentlemen, if you get drunk you might get punched in the face' ads?