Image via Flickr. Ignore the random dude.These advertisements are all over Chicago. Specifically, all over the CTA. I am posting it here because I think that it is the perfect marriage (excuse the pun) of patriarchy, heterosexism and capitalism. This ad plays off of insecure masculinity. How do you make wedding rings macho? Why, you equate them with testicles of course.
This ad campaign assumes that all women want engagement rings, that only men can (should?) purchase engagement rings, and that only real men get engaged.
The CTA is FULL of sexist advertisements. The first one I saw was for the movie Captivity. There have been several more since then but I couldn't find them online. I am sure there will be more to come.
5 comments:
It's also probably significant that this happens all around the CTA... I mean, think about the kinds of people that use the CTA.
This is why I miss you so much Erika. I did not even think of the potential race/class implications. I mean, Chicago is not at all like Milwaukee in that most people here use public transit at some point not just students and bums... But certainly these ads are directed at the rush hour business type people with the disposable income. What does that mean for people who cannot afford an enormous ring (or do not want to buy into the horrible diamond industry... another point altogether)? Obviously this company wants all people to believe that diamonds = masculinity so then are people who cannot afford them less masculine? Who cannot afford them? Who are the 'real' men?
To be fair, the advertisement isn't that heterosexist: "do you have the stones to propose" could just as easily be directed at a gay man as a straight man. The rest is dead on, though. Why on Earth would you enter a committed relationship if not to prove your masculinity to yourself and the world?? Oh. Right.
I guess I am no expert on gay male relationships, but I have never known a gay man to wear a giant diamond engagement ring (or to be legally married for that matter).
Thanks for reading!
Debeers is a ruthless monopoly that revels in paying people in some of the poorest countries in the world slave wages, bribing corupt officials, and having shady deals with violent militias. Heard about the rape crisis in Congo? The government troops are funded by diamond sales.
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