It looks like Heineken have released a virtue-signalling advertisement. I can’t be bothered to check. Supposedly, it is better than the recent, notorious Pepsi ad. It could hardly be worse.
Not long ago, Heineken was releasing ads to please men:
The last one is weird. But their ads have generally been designed to amuse men, as their main customers presumably. But of course letting men have any enjoyment is now old-fashioned. Although I notice that some of the Asian brands haven’t succumbed to political correctness yet. (And it was Asian fans who got a recent video game “uncensored”.)
“Here’s my theory: Women identify with baked goods. (Before laughing too hard, consider the fact that women obviously identify with flowers. Why not with food?) How so? Well, baked goods… There’s often a sponginess there. There’s often sweetness, juiciness and chewiness: nurturance. There’s the skin or crust, and let’s not forget the yeast. Brooding, gestating, fluffing up and settling down, keeping the flesh and the mood plump, fresh and appealing: Baked goods as metaphor and mirror for women’s flesh and their emotional nature — which, let’s face it, are very different than male flesh and male moods.”
I suppose. I also feel that women can be identified with confectionery, the sweet things. That is with lollies as we say here in Australia (or candy or sweets.) “Sweets for the sweet”.
And women seem to like to wrap themselves up in bows like bonbons:
I remember this advertisement very well. I think it appeared in a British women’s magazine in about 1970. I recall seeing it in a magazine called Nova, and I remember being rather stirred by it as a 15 year old boy.
Someone has dug it out to complain about it. As I would have predicted, the complaints focus on supposed disrespect for Islamic culture. But back in 1970, English people hardly thought about Muslims, except as the exotics portrayed above. They didn’t have to.
The above picture is fantasy and fairly harmless.
However this purports to be real and contemporary. It allegedly shows a Yazidi woman being sold as a sex slave:
It is probably not as common a trope as it once was, but one of the ways in which photographers like to present women is as gentle parodies of men. For example, a woman will be depicted dressed or acting in a masculine way, but with just enough femininity to make the effect soft and amusing. The above photo is a good example. On top we see a woman reading a serious newspaper, but below the image dissolves into bare, feminine feet. The contrast is startling and effective.
Women’s clothing often has aspects of parody of the male too. A good example is seen in this French burlesque act. The female costumes at the beginning are sexualised parodies of masculine uniforms (NSFW):
Woman, mythologically, is a derived being. Here is Australian poet AD Hope on that theme (see especially the lines marked in bold below, from the first few stanzas of his poem, Imperial Adam.)
Imperial Adam, naked in the dew, Felt his brown flanks and found the rib was gone. Puzzled he turned and saw where, two and two, The mighty spoor of Yahweh marked the lawn.
Then he remembered through mysterious sleep The surgeon fingers probing at the bone, The voice so far away, so rich and deep: “It is not good for him to live alone.”
Turning once more he found Man’s counterpart In tender parody breathing at his side. He knew her at first sight, he knew by heart Her allegory of sense unsatisfied.
The pawpaw drooped its golden breasts above Less generous than the honey of her flesh; The innocent sunlight showed the place of love; The dew on its dark hairs winked crisp and fresh.
This plump gourd severed from his virile root, She promised on the turf of Paradise Delicious pulp of the forbidden fruit; Sly as the snake she loosed her sinuous thighs …
I would argue that the fundamental mistake feminism makes is to consider women independently of men. Women are not meant to be independent of men. That is surely the message of Genesis, whether one wishes to take it literally or figuratively.
Another example of a sexy female parody of the male:
And also somewhat parodic of the masculine are marching girls (Definitely NSFW):
On a similar theme is this amusing song presented by Steeleye Span:
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