Over at Broadsheet, Judy Berman takes a look at a pro-bama poster with a theme that goes back approximately forever: boys, vote like the girls want you to, and you’re totally gonna get laid:
As is obvious, the print is an update of a 1960’s Joan Baez anti-war poster, but the theme predates Lysistrata, which is itself 2397 years old.
Berman has a collection of quotes from smarter people than me explaining why this is full of fail (including my favorite, from Kate Harding, who in noting that the poster is anti-woman also notes that, “if they had to do it anyway, ‘Girls say “Yes, we can” to boys who vote Obama’ would have been funnier.”)
The ad’s problematic, because it’s clearly reducing women’s ability to convince men to their facility with what’s between their legs, not what’s between their ears. A reasoned explanation of why Johnny Maverick would be a disaster for women? Men won’t listen to something like that, especially from a girl. But a blow job might get you your way, sweet cheeks. As such, it devalues women. This much is obvious.
But it also devalues men, as these things often do. After all, the ad implies that men would put their views of what’s good for the country second behind the prospect of sex. They won’t be persuaded by discussion or thoughtful consideration of ideas, but they’ll be more than willing to vote for a candidate they disagree with if they can just get a bit of nookie, because really, that’s all men care about anyhow.
Just as the poster reduces women to a form of currency, it reduces men to easily bribed fools. And this is from liberal women. We have a lot of work to do, my friends.
Where’s my “Straight girls say yes to, and sometimes even initiate sex with, boys they find attractive for any number of reasons” T-shirt?
I want one too!
But in regards to the poster: yeah, I hate shit like that no matter where I see it or who came up with the brilliant idea. In addition to everything else that’s been said about it, as much as I do enjoy sex, it has NEVER been so important to me that I base major decisions off of it. Well with the exception of choice of birth control of course.
I have to admit, this poster doesn’t bother me nearly as much as this type of message typically does. And the reason is this: the poster just screams ‘hipster’ to me. Based on the girls in the photo and the kitsch factor alone, I wouldn’t be surprised if this came straight out of the heart of trendy Williamsburg.
The hipster factor lessens the evil for me because it comes out of a very particular mindset. Everything is said with irony and an extreme level of self consciousness. So yes, the poster is slightly offensive and implies that women are sex objects and men only care about sex, but that’s what makes it funny, because obviously we the creators don’t really believe that, and obviously you the viewer can tell. We’re using a very tongue-in-cheek, dated method to get our point across, because we expect you to appreciate its irony and wit.
The problem, of course, is that the hipster mentality is very…insular. It’s meant for people who think the same way, and certainly not meant for people who would take this poster seriously. I think the crime here is putting this out to a larger audience, and forgetting that not everyone will realize you’re joking.
That, and creating a poster that targets the people who are probably already voting for Obama anyway.
I think the design is really weird, too. It’s like all of those girls are sitting there demurely (such crossing of the legs and ankles!) until someone comes over and says “Obama!” at them, and then it’s like they’ve been asked to dance.
And that houseplant will surely get kicked over in the scuffle.
I just posted this on another blog, so sorry for the duplicate, but what I was wondering is if anyone noticed that it’s apparently only white and East Asian girls who will say “yes” if you vote for Obama? Is this because the creator of the poster doesn’t think that the white, hipster boys who seem to be the poster’s target audience aren’t attracted to brown girls?