It's not the character, or even the actress herself - she's a big girl she can make her own decisions, that I'm concerned with it's the attitude BEHIND the ad. As I said before it's the same attitude that means strange men feel entitled to make sexual comments to women on the street or grope them in bars, the attitude that their pleasure/wants are worth more then the woman's right to her body.
I have absolutley no problem with the news story, I don't think that showing the naked female body is inherently degrading and I don't think anyone, anywhere should infantilize women by suggesting that they are not responsible enough to decide if they want to take their clothes off for money or fun.
And I specifically gave an example of what I thought was a pointless and not very funny ad involving a MAN (and a white male at that) being humiliated. I happen to think that such ads are lazy and appeal to the lowest common denominator.
And do you really think that no one makes racist or sexist jokes anymore? If that was the case then that commercial would certainly have never been made. There's a difference between being funny and that ad, as cellophanedeity said it was like softcore rape.
You say that it's a time of better equality and it is but let me put this in perspective for you, last month Amnesty International released the results of a poll regarding attitudes in Britain to rape victims.
Quote:
For instance, more than a quarter (26%) of those asked said that they thought a women was partially or totally responsible for being raped if she was wearing sexy or revealing clothing, and more than one in five (22%) held the same view if a woman had had many sexual partners.
Around one in 12 people (8%) believed that a woman was totally responsible for being raped if she’d had many sexual partners.
Similarly, more than a quarter of people (30%) said that a woman was partially or totally responsible for being raped if she was drunk, and more than a third (37%) held the same view if the woman had failed to clearly say “no” to the man.
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This is people (yes, not just men) second guessing rape victims. This is all part of the same worrying attitude displayed in the advert. Not only does it degrade women but it infantilizes men by effectively saying that they don't have any control over their sexual desires.
So it maybe a time of "better" equality but it's not total equality, women are still primarily seen as sexual objects. This in and of itself is not a bad thing if it is in the correct context, if I've dressed up to go to a club then I know that I'm going to be viewed as a sexual object by strangers, that's ok - I do it too (this still doesn't mean it's alright to grope me). If I'm at a lecture then I don't appreciate comments or leering by my classmates - time and place.