Comments on: Oh, you bad, bad women.

By: Sara

Sara — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:54:35 +0000

Yes, H, I suppose I should have provided empirical evidence in a random blog comment. How silly of me. It’s just that getting this Masters in Marketing is taking up so much of my time….

Just because women enforce some cultural norms doesn’t make my comment illogical. Most marketers (if they have the resources), take their ideas through a sniff test with groups that they are targeting in order to avoid brand dilution through offenses that could have otherwise been avoided. And in my experience as a marketer, when a group of men get together to market on women’s issues, they tend to miss things just because they don’t have that perspective. Same with any other group. Marketing has traditionally been defined in terms of white, heterosexual males, which is why you still hear terms like “price rape” being bandied about, and men thinking that their version of clever is the same as a woman’s. I see it happen all the time.

By: H

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:35:24 +0000

if advertising weren’t so male-dominated (although that’s rapidly changing), we wouldn’t see so many of these bullshit ads.

Sara, that’s a very illogical statement.

1) Unrationalized sexism

2) Unsupported by historical and current sociological data – usually, women pay the most attention to female behavior, and historically women have been the means of enforcing cultural norms (“Real ladies don’t do that”, “No better than she should be”, “What did your mother tell you”, etc). A well-known modern example is wearing nice makeup/shoes/designer-something and having mostly women notice it.

Overall, the only reason that I can see for supposing that women would make less offensive ads than men would be a culturally-inculcated desire to not offend and a tendency towards cooperation. But that’s not necessarily true, just a supposition, and you didn’t provide any reason why you think women would be less offensive than men in your post.

By: Sara

Sara — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:01:01 +0000

I’d also like to point out that marketers do some good stuff, and we are not evil, thank you. Clearly, if there were more working women marketers, and if advertising weren’t so male-dominated (although that’s rapidly changing), we wouldn’t see so many of these bullshit ads.

By: tinfoil hattie

tinfoil hattie — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:57:40 +0000

Seeing as most of these mothers are raising sexist, racist, and disablist children (as evidenced by the overwhelming numbers of sexist, racist, and disablist adults) I would be less apt to call what they are doing ”valuable work”.

You’re an asshole.

By: Mish's biggest fan

Mish's biggest fan — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 16:30:00 +0000

Good post but I think exclusively focusing on all the -isms misses an important point: Some mothers want to engage in paid work and be part of a workforce. They want to build and maintain careers or don’t see their work as moving up a career ladder and move to different jobs and whatever other permutation.

I think to not mention this desire work – and yes ambition – feeds into the shame that paid working mothers are supposed to feel. I.e. the only reason a paid working mother works is because she has to economically do so.

By: jemand

jemand — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 15:59:08 +0000

Using humor in political settings actually requires the ability to understand nuances of language. To actually be able to communicate with others effectively. You, Hannah, have neither attribute.

I hear award you a class A “Missing the point” medal.

By: Chally

Chally — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 11:54:06 +0000

Right, through some unforeseen circumstances this is the first time I’ve had Internet access in over 24 hours, I am very sorry for the delay and thank Jill and Cara for getting here. Hannah, that’s not on at all.

By: Jill

Jill — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 11:16:05 +0000

Uh, what? Wow, you’re really not getting it, huh?

By: Hannah Ballou

Hannah Ballou — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 10:14:49 +0000

So humour is appropriate when it’s victim is someone you don’t agree with, and inappropriate when it’s someone for whom you have sympathy? Got it. Thanks.

By: La BellaDonna

La BellaDonna — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:48:29 +0000

I’d like to take a moment here and say that when someone says, “CLEARLY, you are ENTIRELY lacking in a sense of humour!” what they mean is the listener/objector doesn’t have the SAME sense of humour as the speaker/writer. This statement is usually pulled out when someone has said something bigoted, generally obnoxious, or otherwise purposefully hurtful, to which someone else has objected.

I’m glad to say that you’re right, I DON’T have that same sense of humour. And proud of it.