When I sit down to read a magazine, the last thing I do is look at the advertisements. A photo of a celebrity with luscious hair advertising Pantene, an extreme close up of a woman’s face, focused in on the fuchsia lip color she has on; I see them but don’t truly look. These ads are the usual; you don’t expect much else from a woman’s fashion magazine. Somewhere towards the centerfold, they throw in some birth control ads. Last week when I was reading, I paid attention to those very pages.
I laughed out loud. “My music is my baby right now.” As a birth control advertisement, it’s just stupid; absolutely irrelevant.
Here is a random girl. She’s looking into the distance, grinning, thinking about how she doesn’t want to get pregnant and screw up her three-year plan. Very likely.
Alright men, if you’re reading this, there is some dumb advertisements in your manly magazines too. Just look at Kenny. Why is he so happy to go through premature hair loss?
Sorry for your hair loss, Kenny. But most ads that had to do with contraceptives or anything related to sex in men’s magazines showcased just that, some sort of sex icon. That is, if they even had contraceptive ads. Most men’s magazines had one or sometimes zero condom advertisements, where there are at least two contraceptive ads in woman’s magazines. It’s a two-way street, it should be advertised that way, to start.
In a way, I feel that these vague and honestly ridiculous ads are instilling the ideal that women can’t be sexual beings. Men can have and showcase their sexual drive, but when it comes to women and their sexuality, its purpose is simply to have children and even that isn’t shown. This mindset stems back to forever ago and starts showing up, primarily, in your teenage years. Teen boys are seen as superior for having sex and carrying that condom in their wallet. Young women, on the other hand, start off hiding the fact that they’re on birth control, even their period, and are almost always in the wrong for having sex. Sexism at it’s finest.
I don’t think I can even find the time when this mindset came about, it goes back that far. Almost in the 1920's there was this thing called the "sexual revolution" where women lived the ideals they wanted women to have for the rest of time; divorce, premarital sex, dating, and contraception all being okay and accepted. That doesn’t seem so wild, but it led to the hoped acceptance of homosexuality, legalization of abortion and public nudity. 100 years later, and these are still being highly debated. It took about two days for man buns to be accepted, why aren’t we accepting of things innately geared towards women and their bodies? I get it, man buns don’t require you to question your morals and beliefs while these things might. It’s also 2016.
I’m pretty sure a three-year-old could walk into a Walgreens and buy condoms, but it’s an hour long, at least yearly, uncomfortable examination, and an expensive venture for a woman to take control of her birth control. Obviously, this is needed, the wrong dosage could majorly mess up your body and well-being, even your probability of having children if that is even something she desires, but I don’t think it should be as big of a hassle. If simply avoiding conceiving a child is the main thing here, like the ads showed, that process should simpler. Watch this.
Notable: "Ask yourself why you insist on having sex for fun?" and the little kid getting a gun by simply asking. It's laughable, but also frighteningly real.
Let’s think back, here. “Music is my baby right now,” are we serious, America? We should be advertising different options for contraceptives, yes, but we should do that realistically. I’m not saying, “Hey guys, lets put naked photos in magazines and tell people to get on the pill.” But let’s reconsider. Let’s allow women to be sexual. Let’s accept girls wearing tank tops to school. Let’s stop making this something that it’s really, truly, not.
Maybe we can end that wage gap while we’re at it.
(I approve of this advertisement)
