::splutter::
Apr. 14th, 2004 02:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teiresiasEh... oh... agh... christ...
This commercial is... I can't even deal. On the one hand, it's always nice to see positive portrayals of gender/sex deviance in the media, but on the other, the subliminal racism inherent in the product is just amazing. Granted, European women used to use arsenic to whiten their skin, but the fact that this "whitening vitamin fluid" user is so clearly Asian just hurts me. Unilever needs to be bitch-slapped over this one, and much as I hate to say it because I love them so much, Commercialcloset.org needs a little tough love too for not even mentioning anything about this other issue in their summary. I mean, really now: if the woman in the commercial had been of African descent, the whole thing would not only have been offensive, but also patently ridiculous. Why is it that... oh, I don't even know. I'm perfectly aware that there's a big preoccupation in most Asian countries with having pale skin, and the ad did only air in Asia as far as I can tell, and I guess if that's what they want to do that's fine, but still... does this really bother anybody else, or has all the racism hoo-haa at SLC lately made me hypersensitive?
In other news, I think I pulled a muscle yesterday, since my left calf seems to have a permanent charlie horse. I really, really, really don't want to work out today. I've also stupidly promised Fred a rough draft of my conference paper on Monday, so I have quite the weekend ahead of me... thank god I'm not racing.
This commercial is... I can't even deal. On the one hand, it's always nice to see positive portrayals of gender/sex deviance in the media, but on the other, the subliminal racism inherent in the product is just amazing. Granted, European women used to use arsenic to whiten their skin, but the fact that this "whitening vitamin fluid" user is so clearly Asian just hurts me. Unilever needs to be bitch-slapped over this one, and much as I hate to say it because I love them so much, Commercialcloset.org needs a little tough love too for not even mentioning anything about this other issue in their summary. I mean, really now: if the woman in the commercial had been of African descent, the whole thing would not only have been offensive, but also patently ridiculous. Why is it that... oh, I don't even know. I'm perfectly aware that there's a big preoccupation in most Asian countries with having pale skin, and the ad did only air in Asia as far as I can tell, and I guess if that's what they want to do that's fine, but still... does this really bother anybody else, or has all the racism hoo-haa at SLC lately made me hypersensitive?
In other news, I think I pulled a muscle yesterday, since my left calf seems to have a permanent charlie horse. I really, really, really don't want to work out today. I've also stupidly promised Fred a rough draft of my conference paper on Monday, so I have quite the weekend ahead of me... thank god I'm not racing.
