>> But I also agree with your detractors that it is perpetuative of >> sexism and offensive in at least a few ways. > If ads went non-offensive to everybody, [...]
True enough. It's actually not _that_ it's offensive but _how_ it's offensive - or perhaps to how many it's offensive, or some such. So, merely remarking that it's offensive to me is actually pretty pointless. I need to go into a little more detail. The grounds on which I find it offensive: - It's perpetuative of sexism (as I mentioned), in that it's predicated on the assumption that women are what car buyers find sexy, and, worse, that surface gloss is what makes a woman sexy. - It's perpetuative of various other twisted notions Western (FWVO "Western") society have about sex, such as the idea that sexual inexperience is desirable (it's even so important that it has a special word dedicated to it, at least in English). - It is selling something (to the extent that it does sell it, that is) based on an emotional response rather than on the merits of the "something". Yes, Paul, advertising often depends on emotional responses, but, done right, they are the hook, the attention-getter, not the pitch; for them to be the entire ad is basically telling me-the-target that the merits of the thing don't matter, that I can be led around by my emotional responses. Even - perhaps _especially_ - to the extent that that's true, it's insulting. Unless you think that it actually is a fair analogy to draw parallels between used cars and experience in a sex partner? - I like looking at women's bodies too, as it happens. But what they make me want to do is not go out and buy a car[%]. As such, this feels like bait-and-switch, bordering on fraud, to me: apparently offering sex but actually offering something drastically different. (Maybe I'm an outlier in that I don't get off on cars. I doubt it.) [%] Though given used-car dealers' stereotypical reputation, there may not be all that much difference, in that both constitute getting screwed. /~\ The ASCII Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mo...@rodents-montreal.org / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B _______________________________________________ Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts. https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.