Archive for February, 2009
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009I mentioned a couple of days ago that I’ve been getting email from the American Family Association loony bin. The most recent of these asks me to boycott Pepsico because, “Pepsi has produced another TV ad not only promoting Pepsi but also promoting the gay lifestyle.”
I found this somewhat hard to believe, so I followed the link to the YouTubes, where I found this awesomeness:
It’s probably lame to think this is great. Pepsi is just sucking up to me to sell soft drinks. But it’s kind of cool that someone at Pepsi decided that (in Canada, anyway) the people who would be amused by this ad outnumber (or at least out-purchase) the people who would boycott them for it.
But this ad isn’t the worst of Pepsi’s sins. Full list, along with what you can do about it, after the jump.
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Here’s a transcript of a nice speech on “the hook up culture” by Jessica at Feministing. I wanted to pull out a representative passage, but the whole thing is uniformly good. So I’ll just ruin the end, and hope that makes you want to see how we get there:
Let’s be clear, this was an FDA official holding up a safe contraceptive because of the fear of teen sex cults.
So really, all of this writing and talking about hooking up is about a lot more than just wanting young people to have less sex, or to date more. This is about a return to traditional gender roles – a world where women go to college not to get an education, but to find a husband; a world where women don’t really like sex but just do it to have babies. A world where women have no reproductive choices.
[...]
For a young woman living in poverty, spring break isn’t even an option, let alone a concern. For a young woman who has no health insurance, the “moral” debate over STDs won’t do anything for her the next time she needs to see a doctor. And for a young single mother, hearing about herself as an unfortunate statistic isn’t going to make her life any better or easier.
I’d only like to add that I feel discriminated against. Why haven’t any conservative organziations produced shady statistics saying that young men who participate in the hook up culture are all depressed and warty? Men have feelings too, you know.
(Edit to add: I got this from Cosmic Variance.)
(Edit again to add: Ta-Nehisi is also on this, and adds:
I deeply suspect that at the bottom of it all lay the sexual insecurities of people who wish they’d been a little more carefree in college. I strongly suspect that they don’t resent hook-up culture–they resent that they didn’t get hooked-up. Wouldn’t be the first time. Hell if I knew in college, what I know about the opposite sex now, I’d have been Denzeling fools. Alright probably not. Wait, what was I saying?
)
Sometime in January I found this website called Sex in Christ, which describes how to get freaky without making Jesus sad. It’s full of great advice, such as
Are you saving yourself for your wedding night? The Devil wants you to fail, that’s why he puts stumbling blocks in your way. But God wants you to succeed, and that’s why he has given us an alternative to intercourse before marriage: anal sex. Through anal sex, you can satisfy your body’s needs, while you avoid the risk of unwanted pregnancy and still keep yourself pure for marriage.
and
His sin was pulling out (coitus interruptus) and ejaculating on the ground rather than into the woman. He did so in order to avoid impregnating her. However, he could have easily avoided God’s wrath (and the penalty of death), by simply having the woman fellate him and then swallow his semen.
I never posted this because I couldn’t decide whether or not it was a parody. How could anyone seriously say, “Given the powerful symbolism of the fist, it is no surprise that couples who have partaken in the practice of fisting have described it as being a profoundly spiritual experience.” Surely they’re just making fun of the saddlebackers, right?
But then I got an email from the American Family Association trying to sell me a DVD, and I lost all faith in my ability to decide questions like “How could anyone seriously say X?” So I figured I may as well bring it to you, and let you decide what’s serious and what isn’t.
The DVD is called It’s Not Gay, and it is described thusly (emphasis added):
It’s Not Gay presents a story that few have heard, allowing former homosexuals the opportunity to tell their own story in their own words. Along with medical and mental health experts, these individuals express a clear warning that the sanitized version of homosexuality being presented to students is not the whole truth.
Uncompromising, yet compassionate, It’s Not Gay is a fair and balanced approach to this challenging subject.
This video has been shown in thousands of churches. Only 28 minutes in length, it makes a perfect fit to use in a Sunday School class, women’s or men’s group or youth group, etc.
Really? Fair and balanced? That’s what you’re going to go with? And you’re not, like, trying to win a contest for least-self-aware advertisement ever? My mind is blown.
