Mayim Bialik on sex in advertising

(Mayim Bialik is in Big Bang Theory.) This is encouraging to read:

There is one for Ariana Grande, and I will go ahead and admit I have no idea who she is or what she does. Based on the billboard, she sells lingerie. Or stiletto heels. Or plastic surgery because every woman over 22 wishes she has that body, I’m sure. Why is she in her underwear on this billboard though? And if she has a talent (is she a singer?), then why does she have to sell herself in lingerie? I mean, I know that society is patriarchal and women are expected to be sexy and sexually available no matter what we do in society, but I guess now I need to explain that to my sons?

The mega-huge ads of (mostly) women in suggestive poses all around us all the time is as anti-woman a trend I know. It’s also anti-men, given that men and women work together, and where men gain a skewed vision of women, they then suffer the loss of what and who women really are. Normal people, is the secret answer there, who aren’t “sexy” all the time. Which is why I like the way she concludes her post:

Am I a crotchety old lady? I guess so. But I just don’t understand why this is what ads need to look like. What good does it do for humanity or society? Why do I have to be OK with young women literally in lingerie on gigantic billboards? If I want to see women in lingerie, I can walk through any mall with a Victoria’s Secret.

Which, by the way, is a misnomer because there is nothing secret about what’s being sold at Victoria’s Secret.

You know what I think the secret is? The secret is that when there is no camera around, Victoria probably likes a cozy robe, a cup of tea, and Jean-Paul Sartre’s autobiography.

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