You can barely make out the tagline of the hoarding, but I'll read it out, "Ambitious girls always lose their virginity".
The first time I saw it, I was alone in the car, and was pretty sure I had misread it. Surely nobody could make a statement like that, and get away with it. Even if people did feel that way, would they dare proclaim it in bold letters? In a country where mobs disrupted the screening of 'Fire', a sensitively made movie about a lesbian relationship, and forced the movie to be withdrawn from theaters, would anybody risk making a proclamation like that in public?
And what a stupid, sexist statement! What did the ambitions or lack of it of any girl have to do with her virginity. Even if the brilliant brain that came up with the idea meant to imply that ambitious girls slept their way to the top, what was the connection between that and virginity? Isn't virginity something that you can lose only once?
In fact, I could perhaps argue the reverse. An unambitious girl is more likely to get married before an ambitious one, and assuming sex follows marriage may well lose her virginity before her ambitious sister.
Whichever way I look at it, the tagline just doesn't make sense. And what makes even less sense is the fact that nobody else seems to have found it as offensive as I do.
12 comments:
I find this statement highly offensive and insulting. The thing is a lot of people take up cudgels for movies with even a slightly bold theme but no will bother to protest about such idiotic statements or ads that proclaim that the way to a mans heart is only through a fairness cream !
What a disgusting and stupid statement. Sheesh.
There is an unseemly bent towards the misogynistic in American cinema: teen "comedies" and graphic horror films and so on.
It's depressing to see this trend bleeding into other cultures. Shame on the marketing men!
It doesn't even make sense to me. Bizarre!
Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder
*scratches head*
It is definitely a confusing statement. I mean the reality of it is, nearly EVERYONE loses their virginity eventually. I had a college teacher who put it this way: If your parents had sex, chances are, you will too.
But to equate it with ambition seems like they are either trying to discourage female ambition, or suggest women sleep their way to the top. Seems likely to increase sexual harassment because men will assume ambitious girls are easy... Problematic on many levels.
Well let me just vomit! What an idiot to make such a statement!
I'm confused. What does one have to do with the other? And surely, losing one's virginity would be an ambition for some?
Elspeth
I'm with the others, it doesn't make sense to me.
Wrong on so many levels. I don't know what to say except Tami is right almost everybody loses their virginity. AND who the heck thought it would be okay to put something like that on a billboard? I mean it's as offensive as those statues of Mexicans sleeping away on an afternoon with their sombrero pulled down over their eyes.
Thanks, everybody.
I thought I was overreacting, because nobody else seemed to find the line offensive (this particular hoarding is in a place where at least 3 million people would see it everyday), they didn't even get my point after I pointed it out to them.
Not only do I have company, we seem to be unanimous about this.
It is offensive - and downright wrong as it puts even more pressure on young girls.
@ fiona - it does, doesn't it? Stupid advert.
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