Tim Tebow is the Best Thing to Happen to Young Women?
The so-called controversial anti-abortion message. From all the coverage, I was expecting a ferocious lion. A very lame commercial came on instead.
Interesting read.
It was written prior to the Superbowl and the unveiling of the controversial Tebow/Focus on the Family ad, but I think Jenkins makes some brilliant points. Her most resonating words are those that critique NOW and its narrow focus on feminism, women's rights, and reproductive freedom...
Pam Tebow and her son feel good enough about that choice to want to tell people about it. Only, NOW says they shouldn't be allowed to. Apparently NOW feels this commercial is an inappropriate message for America to see for 30 seconds, but women in bikinis selling beer is the right one.
Personally, I was up to my eyeballs with annoyance over the anxious and hyped up worry from particular feminist groups who, once again, gave reproductive justice and gender rights movements a bad name with their outcry of this ad being "anti abortion," while others featuring scantily clad women holding beer bottles and footballs have been deemed acceptable for Superbowl Sunday.
Never mind all the sexist-driven ads which young women watch that bombard them with anti-health messages concerning their bodies, choice, worth, and potential. At least Focus on the Family isn't hypocritical (with this particular commercial) - they want to celebrate life and families and they do just that with the Tebow clan. While NOW exercises their outrage over this particular ad, a million other commercials which blatantly demoralize and sexualize women go without complaint. Wouldn't it be something revolutionary if NOW had protested the Go Daddy ads or pointed out how women are often used as a sex appeal accessory in alcohol and beer commercials?
As much as I may disagree with its stance, as much as I could argue with its points, Focus on the Family is, well, focused. Ask feminist and pro-choice leadership groups what they focus on and you'll find a mess of disagreement and hypocrisy.
This ad was incredibly disappointing--based on the let-down. I too, was expecting some over the top ridiculous ad, because of the protests by fellow feminists.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. WHY this ad? Why not protest the ads that are ridiculously sexist and oppressive? I kind of feel like people have given up, and now just chuckle to themselves at the sexist message--which is so scary.
Jenkins doesn't make any brilliant points--she's tilting at windmills. I don't know what your sources are, but the feminist outrage I saw was based entirely on the fact that "advocacy" ads are supposedly refused--not to mention the ad for a gay mens' dating site--yet this one made it through. It's the hypocrisy that angers us. NOW's representative on Democracy Now made that clear, and Jenkins completely ignores the key point.
ReplyDeleteAnd who has been deeming the various sexist ads "acceptable" for Superbowl Sunday? Not feminists. As they so often have to point out, feminists are capable of multitasking. They can object to more than one thing at a time.
I'm also not sure why Focus on the Family's ability to focus is inherently good. Left-wing movements in general schism easily because left-wingers are more open to ideas, and the disagreement in the feminist movement reflects that. Right-wingers are better at sticking to a line without questioning it.
"While NOW exercises their outrage over this particular ad, a million other commercials which blatantly demoralize and sexualize women go without complaint."
ReplyDeleteWhat a thing to say. You'd quickly find otherwise if you actually checked the annals of NOW's public statements. Here, for example:
http://www.now.org/issues/media/hall-of-shame/index.php
NOW is not perfect, but falsely criticizing them does no good.