Repent! Repent!
It's finally happened. I'm going to write about bras.
But I'm guessing this post won't be what you expect.
A couple of weeks ago I was watching live TV (versus TiVo, of course) with The Wife when a commercial for Playtex bras came on. Not a big deal. The ad (a "commerical") feels a lot like the recent Dove campaigns, focusing on women and "real thoughts" and all that stuff. There's one woman who would be called fat in Hollywood but probably nowhere else. And, you know, the ad was fine. Treated her like any other woman on this ad. Until the end:
Gravity is no longer my enemy. But brownies are.
Everyone: AAAAAAAAAA!
This commercial is just the latest in a long line of portrayals of fat people in the media. You're a good fat person only if you see yourself as a bad person. In that one sentence, that one line, that woman got so much across: she sees some foods as "enemies", thus she probably doesn't have a good relationship with food, thus she might even (gulp) dislike her self and thus, she might be on a diet. Again, you're seen as good only if you want to change (ie, not be fat.)
Fat people don't need to be dieters to be "good". In fact, loving one's body as it is is a much, much more valuable act. It's important for us, collectively, to demonstrate that dieting doesn't give any indication of "taking care" of one's body or being "good"; in fact, it's usually the opposite.
2008 PCA/ ACA Fat Studies Call For Papers: Deadline Nov 9 07 | The Onion Tells the Truth
Posted by paul on September 17, 2007
This one drives me crazy - I saw it last night and had the same reaction. It's a far cry from the Fruit of the Loom ad. Not that I'd buy Playtex, but I certainly ain't buying it now.
I don't like it either. I will say, though, that I kind of understand what the advertisers are doing. I don't think it's supposed to be a jab at big women being "bad" unless they are actively trying to lose weight (although that thought is always there anyway). What it seems like to me is that they're trying for a camaraderie with "all women" because it is assumed every woman, no matter their size, is trying to "watch their weight" and be "good," which is essentially the same thing. I definitely don't like what the commercial is saying, I just think it's directed at more than just big women.
I am SO making some brownies because of that
I have not seen this commercial; so I'm drawing my comments from how others described it. I would disagree with Felt TipPen that this was intended as a universal statement applying to all women. That Playtex chose the fat woman in thecommercial to make the statement is significant. I might agree with you if a thinner woman had been selected to utter that phrase or several women of varying sizes in the commercial made similarstatements.