I have noticed a few changes in my outlook and attitude the older I get. My friend Cynthia used to say, "I am 50 and I am over it". What I am seeing is along those lines, but with more righteous indignation. haha
As I age, I get more and more feminist. Not "man-hater" feminist, but more of a desire to see things change that need to change. The pay gap goes without saying, so I won't mention that. I am talking about things like "giving the bride away". Why are fathers still giving the bride away? Don't women see that this is the very idea of ownership, and the father is transferring said ownership to a husband? A marriage used to be transactional, sure, but that time has looooong passed. It is tradition, sure, but traditions stop making sense after a while, and instead become restraining, restrictive, and even oppressive. Daylight Savings Time is an awesome example of something that worked in the past, but is no longer relevant.
And why is the woman still taking the man's last name? Again, property passing from one "house" to another. Speaking of which, why do babies automatically have the father's surname? Oh, hell, no! Women do all of the damn work. Babies should, by default, carry the mother's surname. Fathers breeze in and out of their children's lives at will. At least many do (and yes, I speak from experience with my kids' "baby daddy" breezing right on out). As a matter of fact, the way men have kept women subservient in the past was keeping them pregnant. That's the underlying root of anti-contraception and anti-abortion movements championed by men. The key to stopping women from realizing their potential as fully and as quickly as men is to impregnate them. It's history.
But I digress. What caused this tirade was an advertisement I saw for eos shave balm. In the ad, it shows a women shaving her legs, with the tagline "Get ready for the world again." Are you kidding me? How sexist is that? To get ready for the world after a global pandemic, what I need to do is shave my legs? It's a very negative thing that women feel pressured to be almost hairless, now we have this archaic message from a company called "evolution of smooth"? It goes on to claim that, after you are all smoothed out, your obligations will feel like celebrations. Bullshit.
eos may think that the ad is cute and tongue-in-cheek when they show a woman on an exam table singing about how she is excited about her annual "pap test", while another woman "gladly waits in line to get her new birth control" (interestingly, both of the actresses portraying these roles are black). Are we to think that this woman didn't use birth control during quarantine? I guess she didn't have sex? For over a year?
And where are the men? Do they not realize that men use beauty products, as well? Are men not concerned about being silky smooth for their first foray into society after lockdown? The whole thing just pisses me off. Women! Spend money getting ready to be seen again! Women! You need to be soft, smooth, fresh, and clean smelling!
All-in-all, it is very offensive, and I will not give this company one red cent of my hard-earned money, made at my fast-paced-40-hour-per-week-job, while I eschew tired and outdated societal inventions of how its women should look, act, and behave.
Meanwhile, if I shave, it's because I want to shave, and not because I want to physically appeal to a man who, more than likely, could not give one shit how he presents to me. When men start to wear girdles to keep their gut in check, 5 inch heels to make their legs look longer, wax their eyebrows, chests, legs, butt, and balls, wear makeup so that their faces look contoured and flawless, and have their hair perfectly coiffed ... well, I may think about making more of an effort. In the meantime, you can fuck right off, eos. And fire your damn ad agency.
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