So it came, this time of the year that I absolutely dread. Valentine's Day. The minutes we are freed from Santa Clauses, snowmen and Christmas treas, we are flooded with hearts, chocolate boxes and roses. There is never any rest for us. There is always yet another reason to buy something and to make a fuss about it.
It's not as if I don't like getting flowers or something. Indeed, I got a little present and some chocolates and this was really nice.
What I really dislike about Valentine's Day is that it creates unnecessary and unpleasant pressure to go out with someone on that day. Like with New Year's Eve when everyone is like 'oh my word! It's New Year's Eve! I better find a party to go to, get terribly drunk and have fun.' How about no?
Well, but being grumpy about this day does not take me too far and thus I've started digging around the topic and in this way I've arrived at pornography and women's image in the media in general.
As a preparation for a women's group meeting that I'm running, I have searched for some Valentine's Day ads and I was not impressed. I'm not sure what I'd expected, but honestly, marketing people should pull themselves together and start thinking about what they are doing.Take this ad by Natan (on the left). Like what do you want to say by this? That women can be bought by a shining piece of jewelry? Hold on, as far as I remember my body is worth more than this. Much more.
Or the ad by Teleflora (to the right). I think we are long past the times when sex was treated as a generally acceptable currency. Are we back to the times of barter exchange with some very weir exchange rate? Again, it looks as if I have to somehow pay back for whatever I get from a man (i.e. go to bed with him). But I don't, for my goodness! As far as I remember I am a free person and when you decide to give me something it does not automatically mean that I have to give something to you. No no no.
It all touches the problem of the general perception of sexuality. Sex in itself became the highest value, there seems to be little more that you can give than your body. And this is partially true, I would like to think that my body is so precious that when I give it to somebody it will be treated as a treasure. But on the other hand there is so much more than a man can offer a woman and a woman can offer a man. It doesn't need to involve sex. We are more than animals, unlike some pessimists think, and we should remember about this.
Another thing that really bothers me is that the people that come up with such disgusting ideas for advertisements were raised by women. They have mothers. They might have sisters. Or even their own wives and daughters. I mean, do they treat all of these wonderful women in their lives like objects? What went wrong on their way from being a child completely in love with its mother to a person who seeks to present women purely as bodies created to satisfy men's sexual desires?
Something went wrong with the society. Women can vote, work, earn money and wear trousers, but still we're not treated seriously. We're still more often sexual objects than sexual partners. It should not be so. We should not be coming back to the dark times.
Sexual freedom, then, means the abolition of prostitution both in and out of marriage, means the emancipation of woman and her coming into control of her own body, means the end of her pecuniary dependence upon man. - Victoria Woodhull
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