I found the ad at The Atlantic.
Being one of those humorless feminists, I was, at first, speechless. Now, I'm choleric.
Where does one start? With women's naked breasts used to sell what? Chicken? the World Cup? South African culture?
And then the assumptions that white Europeans would find it so damn funny that South Africans can laugh at themselves. Well, of course we all know that African women walk around shirtless--we all read National Geographic as kids, didn't we? Wasn't the whole purpose of looking through National Geographic to see as many naked boobs as we could see?
Of course, the boobs we saw were frightening. Generally, there were children hanging off them, or the breasts themselves were hanging, drooping--not the pert, perky "full-figured," packed into an 18-hour bra that Jane Russell advised us all to do.
The history of using the "dark" African continent to express the hidden, dark sexual desires of white people has long played out in literature, film, and now, television. From Shakespeare's Othello to the Hottentot Venus
the "other's" sexuality has been used to titillate and to fuel the masturbatory fantasies of the more staid, more "civilized" west.
By focusing on the sexuality of the other, on their lack of inhibition, on their nakedness, westerners were able to assert not only that the other lacked civilization, they were able to assert, in effect, that, just as women are tied to the body, so, too, were these people.
The effect? The feminization of the other.
And that which can be feminized can be raped.
The feminine does not always have to be a woman. In theoretical terms, the feminine is a position of powerlessness, and one way to define such powerlessness is through the notion that the Other is over-sexualized. Thus one can be hypersexual and weak. And that which is weak can be controlled.
So, all those World Cup fans who are watching this most puerile of ads may yuck it up, but for some of us, it is an all-too-painful reminder that the west still considers the Other to be weak, hypersexual, and effeminate. Not fully human.
(And it makes no difference if the ad was produced by South Africans themselves. White South Africans consider themselves western.)
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But I suspect you'd know nothing about that, since your rubber doll and your hand are both worn out. How do you carry so much hatred for women around in you? What happened? Did your mother cut you off from the breast too soon? Or are you a lousy lay and no one will play with you anymore?
I tell you what. Why don't you go bugger off and the rest of us will go back to having a good time.
@Arthur: Offensive, MUCH!
I wonder what the fuck that man is supposed to represent? the women seem healthy but he's a fat ass mess. this is a very bizarre chicken commercial.
arthur, overreact much? asshole. this IS offensive to any one or thing with a brain in it's head.
Sorry that you can only read things on the surface. I always find it interesting that whenever a woman publishes anything that doesn't automatically find anything sexual "funny," but she points out that sometimes, things meant to be funny and sexy are really puerile and based on a whole history of violence, she's the buzz-kill.
SFT--whatever gets your rocks off. But you might want to read a bit of history to find out why people might find this offensive.
and btw, are lesbians the only ones who are allowed to call bullshit on this stuff?
You have no idea how ironic it is that you think I'm humorless and stodgy. My friends are rolling in the aisles.
Hatchetface--you're my hero.
p.s. I think Arthur Grahame is about offensive than the ad - can't you delete him, Lorraine? for the record, Lorraine is beautiful in brains and physique. de-friend this creep.
Normally, I don't respond to trolls, but I wanted them to stay on the record because I wanted to point out, once again, that often, when women criticize this kind of stuff, knuckle draggers come out, call us names, and then disappear back into their caves. The fact that I chose to engage him was also unusual, but I needed to vent a little. Just didn't feel like being quiet.
Julia. Thanks for saying what you said. For the record, having one of the best writers in the world commenting on my blog is a huge honor for me. I'd offer to kiss both you and Joan, but you're both too far away. :)
And I think AJ gets an award for using the word "fuck" more often than I do.
It never ceases to amaze me that fat, flabby men, in leopard loincloths or otherwise attired, can be counted on to pitch the watching of sport they themselves obviously do not play. Your two detractors, grayheads both, haven't the presence of mind to wrap themselves around anything that deviates from their own tiny world view. Get a clue, you two. All feminists are not lesbians and vice versa.
If men had been portrayed as objects for the last several thousand years, I'll bet they'd be sick of it too.
Just love it when you peel back the layers and ask folks to think (while the first responder proved your point graphically).
Cannot view the video on dialup but am offended by the still nonetheless.
"Othering" is hard to recognize by those who practice it.
(But would it be any better if the guy in the racist get-up were thin? I just don't see the point in bashing the add on that basis. It's a horrible, enraging, embarrassing enough add on its own.)
Another thing: South Africans have a great sense of humor, and many of their ads feature sexual innuendo. This ad may be nauseating to you, but then it was your choice to look at it...like Fox news, you can change the channel!
The sadness of the commercial is not in the humor of the breasts being endlessly fascinating to many men, but in the sad reality that the thousands of world fans going to South Africa will be likely engaging in sex for pay or sexual aggression. The entire female population has just been painted as a fair target, like a Girls Gone Wild video, and there has been little or no support in HIV prevention. Likely there will be no legal recourse for the women who are going to be getting the back hand of this "joke".
I think you've said better than I could one of my concerns. And it gives me a chance to segue into something.
I love the fact that friends of mine have come to my defense, but I do wonder what would have happened if I had practiced censorship, and simply deleted the comments that were ad hominem (or ad feminem as the case may be) and forced people to stay focused on the issue.
Look. I'm not anti-breast. (I've been publicly harassed for breast feeding. I've bathed topless on a public beach.) I'm not anti-nudity. I'm not anti-sex. But I am anti-exploitation, anti-imperialism, anti-sexual exploitation.
Football/soccer is a beautiful game. In order to enjoy it, do you really need to imagine naked South African women available to you any time, any where?
Sex is fun. Sex is fantastic, and I don't believe you have to be in a committed relationship to enjoy it.
But please, someone explain to me why naked women and football is an appropriate combination? Seriously. "Beavis and Butthead" (which was satire, btw) couldn't be more perfect spokesmen for this chicken franchise. "You said cones," hahahahaha.
In the meantime, my entire point about the fact that there is an entire history of the exploitation of the African continent for sexual purposes -- which it doesn't take a genius to see in the ad-- has gone uncommented on. I should have just posted the video with no commentary.
Instead, the whole debate has become: Lorraine hates sex. Or Lorraine loves sex.
I can't even begin to tell you how sad that makes me.
But to those of you who have sprung to my defense, please know that I'm utterly grateful.
To those of you who remain comfortable in your positions of nonthinking neanderthals, well, more power to you. It must be lovely to float through life, never, ever questioning your place here, never wondering whether your position in life is determined by what someone else has to give up. Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living. These days, the unexamined life can remain unexamined because one can spend an entire lifetime watching television, picking your nose, and playing with yourself.
It's amazing, it's a common male fantasy to see naked women running around, as if they will somehow join into sex liasons because they forgot to put their clothes on. (I understand this is also a common theme in porn, maybe where the confusion started). For women, it is a common nightmare to think of seeing naked men running everywhere. Not because we don't like sex, but that invokes fear of violence and for personal safety.
I remember learning years ago (from a dried up old fuck feminism class) that what men fear most from women is that they will laugh at them. What women fear most from men is that they will kill them.
The number of things you don't know about me are revealed in your rambling, incoherent, tirade against that great chimera of the feminist vagina dentata. I won't tell you about what I do know about South Africa, what I do know about football, etc. Instead, I think it's much more entertaining to watch you spin yourself into a frenzy, "I'm melting! I'm melting! Oh, you wicked little girl, see what you've done!" than to actually engage with you.
(Oh and COS you made me laugh my ass off. I got on the wrong side of HF once and came out the other side to live to tell about it. Then again, I'm almost as big an asshole as he is!)