Hi XXXXX,Yuck, yuck, yuck. Haven't watched the video as I'm at work, but if any reader wants to explain what's in it please do so after the beep (i.e. in comments).
Happy New Year people and I hope yours was as memorable as mine, which must have been particularly memorable as I can’t remember any of it other then waking up in a tent with a bunch of mates who I hadn’t seen for 9 years.
And let me tell you there is no greater joy than seeing people you haven’t seen in ages and realising that you have aged better than all of them. It was a lovely way to start the year, particularly as I hadn’t made any resolutions involving personal vanity. [J: Wait, what are you selling me again? Wasn't it plane tickets? So why would I care about any of this?]
Grabaseat is kicking off the New Year with a promotion for cougars. It’s my boss Duane’s idea and he’s given me a special blurb about it to send out. He wrote it himself. It’s quite good. [No, it's a sexist piece of crap, but please don't let that stop you sending it out and spreading your misogyny around]
JOIN THE GRABASEAT COUGAR PRIDE AT THE SEVENS
Cougars are women 35 and over who prefer their meat rare. [Actually cougars are a member of the cat family, and thus only distantly related to Homo sapiens, although you are no doubt correct about the rare meat, seeing as how cooking facilities are difficult when you lack opposable thumbs.] Their prey are at least 10 years their junior. [Really? Is there a rule book or something?] Grabaseat is looking for 60 of these exquisite creatures to join them at the sold out NZI Sevens in Wellington as our pride of cougar cheerleaders. [Oh joy, so this is about getting free cheerleaders then?]
All you have to do is register and upload a photo of your hunting pack (no more than 4 cougars) to be in to win tickets to the NZI Sevens. You and your pack will need to make your own way to Wellington [irony much?] and if you plan on sleeping you will need to find your own den. [Oh this hilarious lion metaphor is a source of boundless puntastic fun. Not.]
Grabaseat will be giving the winners cougar costumes [Any guesses what they will look like? I'm guessing they will feature leopard skin and not much of it] and the equipment to make enough noise to attract the attention of young males [To be the "prey", I suppose]. And to make sure the pride doesn’t go hungry, 10 brave young men recruited by ZM will be thrown in as fresh meat to the winners in Wellington. [Now that's just awful.]
So if you’re more roar than meow, check out our video about the mating habits of cougars and sign up here.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Vileness, and a bit of irony, from Air NZ
Thanks to a reader who sent this through, here's the text of an email Air NZ has been sending out to promote Grabaseat:
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14 comments:
The video has been around for a while now on Utube. Its quite funny and quite accurately describes a couple of women I work with.
Fun With Fixin':
"Lions are men 35 and over who prefer their meat rare. Their prey are at least 10 years their junior.
*snip*
And to make sure the pride doesn’t go hungry, 10 brave young women recruited by ZM will be thrown in as fresh meat to the winners ..."
Trying reversing things and see how much "fun" it is.
But that's ok, you keep letting your privelidge inform your anecdata.
Good point about the reversin' ANM.
A reader has described the video to me thus:
it is a "wildlife" commentary with the cougar as desperate for a young man (who is terrified of her). she is shown as mostly drunk, falling over etc and they ridcule her appearence , eating habits , music likes and her occupation (HR etc) " too old to be your girldfriend, too young to be your mother". There are also P fiends that apparently cougars waste money on. I guess the implication is cougars take meth? but that was a little obscure
I think the only demeaning thing would be to sign up to this.
Free choice and all.
Can I hijack this thread somewhat by complaining about the Fruju Fruit Whip ad - "Whipped for the Girls". I just want to throw up every time I see it.
Women as nags. Controlling biarches. Poor, poor men having their freedom removed by their terrible girlfriends. Clearly, if you actually do anything helpful around the house (laundry, make the bed) then you must be "whipped." And oh my goodness, he actually folds her bras!!! How emasculated must he be by her to fold her underwear for her?
Gag, gag, gag.
Who is Tip Top actually trying to market this product to?
I could go on, but I'm afraid this comment has already turned into a rant.
Another Ad that my partner and I have been talking about- is the one for the Winter Olympics where the girl talks about how it's a good sport for men to watch because the women athlete's wear tight clothes and shoot things.
*Yawn*
If you don't like it switch it off/delete it/ignore it/don't enter
People in this country are becoming too bloody PC.
I sure there are women out there who strongly associate with the "cougar" stereotype, and are proud of it, just as you are quite proud of your current lifestyle.
In other words, Anon at 5.33am, just shut up?
You do realise that if you don't like the sentiments on this blog you can just not read it ;-)
*To be read in the tone of a post-feminist ;-)*
Yes, Julie, *don't you know* just shush. The feminist revolution's been and gone, women don't *need* to moan about sexism in the media anymore, because they have *already* been emancipated! Silly you! The job's already done!
Sure, with those sorts of sentiments in wide-spread media, if you don't read it, then it won't harm you, other self-identified women, and in fact the health of society in general, at all.
All this PC rubbish is sending the country to the dogs. I only wish we can one day go back to the dark ages where we can make sweeping generalisations about people based on ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and class again! It's just so much *quicker* and, gosh, oppression of the 'other' really does make for great humour! Just chill out already.
This would be a sexist piece of crap if the genders were reversed. The way it is, it's still a sexist piece of crap. Ads like this make Mad Men look positively civilised.
Anon is correct (5:33pm). NZ is a little too small to "get" the cougar joke - as this expression is popular and widespread all over the English speaking parts of the world - and not "vile" as one suggests. Calm down and have a cup of tea Julie.
Actually I get the cougar thing - I'm pretty sure I posted a link to a Sarah haskins video about it over a year ago. I would hesitate to refer to it as a joke though, seems more like the usual fear-ridden crap about women's sexuality to me.
Let me get this straight Anon. You come to a feminist blog and expect us to not be writing about pop culture stuff that dehumanizes women and makes them objects of ridicule?
Sheesh, it can get real tiresome replying to the Bingo about these things.
Anon - as with anyone who doesn't want their easy privelidge challenged, you use "PC" as an insult. I actually like to think that we behave towards each other in a "Humanly Correct" way. Please read "The Greatest Cliché: The Unexamined Propaganda of "Political Correctness"":
http://www.kaichang.net/2006/11/the_sloppy_prop.html
Yes, we're free to ignore or engage as we like, but ignoring a problem does not make it go away. Not challenging an offensive message/idea sends the message to society that it is ok to continue mocking/putting down women's sexuality, power, looks, brains etc
AnneE: Absolutely. If the roles were reversed there would be hell to pay for depicting male on female rape. As it is, Rape Prevention NZ are pretty upset. Julie has it right - it's part and parcel of a society that fears female sexuality and sexual power.
I see that AirNZ have responded with the usual vile "it's supposed to be light hearted". Ohhh right, *marks bingo card* don't have a sense of humour, gotcha. Sigh - they've got their attention, damn them.
Time to send an e-mail to the shareholding Minister in New Zealand's flag carrier and ask if the Government of New Zealand shares Air New Zealand's sense of humour?
Certainly don't think this is the kind of assoication we really want formed between New Zealand's national airline and a major, high profile sporting event.
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