This recently launched advert by Birds Eye is what finally made me snap: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktz6RZWCAx0&w=480]
The world, it would seem, still very much has the power to leave me reeling and searching for explanations to things that are apparently without cause. I have written previously about the powerful punch popular culture socked me with as it portrayed a regressive slide away from gender equality; this week I got another black eye.
The above advert actually caused me to stop, my fork poised half way between plate and mouth, and freeze in horror. From the young age of what appears to be 9 or 10, young girls and boys are being told a myriad of old-fashioned untruths:
- The only way to a man's heart is through his stomach
- Women need to manipulate men to be acknowledged
- 'No' means keep trying until you find a way to coerce me into saying yes
- Mum's make tea
- (And for some reason, polar bears are very very creepy)
There is also something decidedly odd about the fact the boy has no lines in the advert. Even when the girl decides to invite him round for tea in front of the entire P.E. class, and he is dangling from a rope, vulnerable and presumably mortified, we see and hear nothing from his point of view. There is no equality for anyone. It is baffling.
Popular culture is inextricably tied to reality; we are in a constant loop of influence and absorption.
I am going to present the following three pieces of reality, selected based purely on the fact they hit me most recently, with relatively little commentary. I hope they do not need it. I hope you will see why they hurt. I hope you will see why it always matters and why you should always say something, even if i you think it's only an advert for chicken fillets.
- The sites and apps to avoid on Ada Lovelace Day.
- Ada Lovelace day is explained here: it aims to "raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths by encouraging people around the world to talk about the women whose work they admire."
- Raped, pregnant and ordeal not over.
- There is, it would seem, always something more to learn and question.
- The saddest graph you'll see today.
- America.