Letters to the Editor
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Bravo!
While I understand (and concur with) the sentiments behind the ad, women are more than just walking reproductive organs. Every human (barring certain genetic abnormalities) has 46 chromosomes, arranged in 23 pairs. Changing-out a single one differentiates between male and female; the vaunted Y (sequenced back in 1996/1997 because it was short, and published in "Science" that year or the next) is a truncated version of the X, with a few minor modifications for male genitalia and depth of tooth roots. It's long past time women came to be valued for the OTHER 45 chromosomes in their bodies.
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Using sex to sell anything? Silly, demeaning & lamentably effective.
There are few cases when sex (as a trigger to passion & desire) is the true selling point of any product or issue, but it seems to work more often than not. Especially with men... but not exclusively. I'm not defending it, just acknowledging it's pervasiveness. I figure that effectiveness is why it's still so prevalent as a motivational tool. Was it HL Mencken who said no one ever lost money underestimating the American public? If we want these condescending campaigns to go away, we (all or most of us) simply have to stop responding to them.
Of course if the point was to get people talking about the campaign and the underlying issue, well ...I guess it worked :)
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re: If women aren't voting, it is a huge, sad problem. But perhaps part of why they're not voting is because no one bothers to speak to them seriously about politics. Perhaps if advocates and advertisers treated them like people with brains
Why do women needed to be "spoken to" about politics? Which part of elective government don't they get? Which part of voting eldues them? Why do "advocates" like Rebecca insist on treating "women" as so childish, they need ANYONE to tell them why it's important to vote? And why don't men need the same convincing? Or do they?
I know I don't...
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Vagina Warriors
Women's vaginas speak for themselves.
"I am my vagina" - those pivotal words made Vagina Warriors out of every woman.
Yes, women are their vaginas, and no, they should not be ashamed of it.
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...Not the point
Nobody is actually trying to make voting seem like sex.
The ad is in jest. It is strictly intended to get your attention and remind women of the importance of voting. You're not literally intended to think that voting will give you shiny hair or that it will feel like sex. I can't imagine anyone truly thinks that the purpose of that ad is to make people think, "Hmm, I wasn't going to vote, but if it's going to feel like sex, then... okay!"
As the post says, there are other ads in the series that are sober and straightforward, and there is this one, which is more cheeky and silly. Part of my overall respect for women is that we're perfectly capable of processing both serious things and things that are delivered with humor. The ad is funny and smart, and the women in it are faboo. Good enough for me.
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Doesn't Traister know
that a greater percentage of women votes than men? Given that, how can she claim that if women were more inclined to vote, we'd have an entirely different "political landscape?" Traister repeatedly refers to women in politics as "we," which has a certain literal truth, but also suggests that women's politics and political interests are all the same and of course all like hers. They're not, which is why the political landscape is the way it is, even with all those women voting.
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Right on, Linda!
Women are funny and witty and smart and won't be "fooled" into thinking voting will help them lose 10 pounds in one week or give them their best orgasms ever.
See, this is why so many people think feminists are humorless.
I'm a feminist, I like the ad spot and consider it just one of many ways to encourage women to vote.
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This has not been my problem
I was itching to vote when I was 13 already. I wrote many letters to politicians urging the voting age be lowered to 18.
I used my first time to vote for Jimmy Carter.
I cannot fathom what is going on in young women who don't use their right.
But if it's so HARD for them to decide between good and evil, maybe we're better off if they stay out of the process.
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By the way, a reminder for Tyne Daly
The summer of love was 1965. If Kennedy was running for anything that year it would have been President of Arlington Cemetery.
The year of 1968 was marked by riots and shutdowns of college campuses over the Vietnam War. The most prominent symbol of youth culture at the time was the black-on-red silhouette of Che Guevara.
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It's all male sex, all the time
I was in a class that was getting a tour of our college library. The librarian was showing us all the sections, which included the Women's Studies section. Some asshat in the back of the group harrumphed, "So where is the MEN'S studies section?" I knew this asshat from other classes, so I held my arms out to the whole building of stacks and said "The whole REST of it is men's studies!" (asshat)
This pertains thusly to the matter up for discussion: everything is male sex. Let's find a way in for women! So there's a series of wink-wink nudge-nudge PSAs that try to get women to vote. So what? Have some fun! Butterfly ballots! Hanging chads! Sex Sex Sex!
I'm a feminist. And this article is one of the reasons feminists get accused of sucking the fun out of everything.
We still use butterfly ballots where I live. And an Nov 7, I'm going to deflower me some punchcards!
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Never let numbers get in the way
As was the case with the post and its subsequent comments about murdering women and hate crimes, this post also ignores demographic trends that, if they don't deflate the argument, certainly reshape it.
For the 2004 elections, 64% of the 103.8 million eligible male voters registered, and 56.3% of those registered voted. 67.6% of the 111.9 million eligible female voters registered, and 60.1% of those registered voted.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/voting.html
We've read a lot here about the myth of the "boy crisis," and we've been encouraged to guide our beliefs about such matters with legitimate studies rather than visceral reactions at the perceived slights of the male sex. I see no reason to apply a different standard on this matter.
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Not woman-specific
If women aren't voting, it's because people in general aren't voting. Male and female turnout in elections is nearly equal.