SILK VODKA CAPITALIZES ON VIOLENCE TOWARD WOMEN

A very subtle type of oppression is when you oppress people without calling it oppression. It's like that old joke about the screenwriter and the movie producer wandering in the desert, desperate for water. They spot a small pond and the screenwriter immediately starts drinking. The producer starts peeing in the water. "What the hell are you doing?" the writer asks. The producer replies: "I'm making it better." Like wise goes on in advertising all the time. Check out the screengrab I snagged from Gizmodo.com over the weekend: Ooo, it's a beautiful woman blindfolded... the man behind her is going to romance her all night long, right? Well, that's certainly what the advertising company would tell you. The text suggests her permission has been given for him to "surprise" her. But look at how her head is angled. To me it looks like he's tied the silk cloth around her head with a bit of force. Not a lot, mind you, just a bit. Now look at the guy's hands. They look almost like clenched fists to me. Both of these reactions in me suggests that I have a subconscious tendency toward violence toward women and that the advertising company is trying to take advantage of it. Ironically, I don't have a tendency toward violence--I don't even like it when my wife playfully slaps my arm because of a bad joke. However, to me, the imagery in the above banner ad is the same. I don't see a woman lovingly giving her man permission to love her in a way that surprises her, I see a woman willfully submitting to a man's will. And that man looks powerful and capable of overwhelming her. So, this banner ad is encouraging women to want their men to overwhelm them. Think I'm over reacting? Then why not show her wearing one of those masks you wear to block out the light when you're trying to sleep? It can be made of silk, just like the cloth in the current add. Why not have his open hands on either side of her head, looking as though they've just slid the mask over her eyes? See how easy it would be to tell the same story without invoking a suggestion of violence and submission to some of your audience? Hm, well, I suppose the above message of willful submission to a strong man is OK since once you click through to the company's site one of the images you'll see is that of a woman tying a man's wrists together. So, clearly since they are both submitting to each other and we now know alcohol is involved, it's OK. Ha. As if. Men submitting to women is no better a message to send than women submitting to men. We're supposed to be equal with neither side submitting to the other's dominance. That said, like a man with his wrists tied couldn't still physically overwhelm the average woman. In other words, the image of him being tied up hardly makes everything better.

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