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mamajoanAnd in less facetious news, my post on spam reminded me that I wanted to post about this too.
The other day I was in the grocery store and noticed a headline on Cosmo that read something like, "Rape Tip: The One Place You Feel Safe But Aren't."
I don't know, maybe it's just me, but that really made my blood boil. Let me count the ways.
1. Rape is a serious issue. The whole "putting a teaser on the front cover so that I have to pick up the magazine and look inside to find out the deal" thing, is a frivolous marketing technique. It works just fine for things like "eight new ways to please your man" or "the two things your mom won't tell you about tampons" or whatever. For RAPE? Not so much. Lumping rape in with workout tips and what lipstick to wear and how to tweeze your eyebrows trivializes rape, and that is just not okay.
2. The ONE "place you feel safe but aren't"?? Is this stuff actually written by actual women? Because I am an actual woman and let me tell you, I'm sure there are LOTS of places I feel safe but amn't, necessarily. Rape can occur anywhere: in your home, in your car, at your workplace. I can think of a lot of places where I generally feel reasonably safe from rape, but at the same time, since I'm not a moron, I realize that even those places are never 100% safe. That's pragmatism. You can't spend your entire life seeing imaginary rapists everywhere, but OTOH, you can't go around all tra-la-la either. "Safe" is in the eye of the beholder. And I *really* don't like the implication that a particularly clueless woman could just read this magazine, find out "the one place" to avoid, and then avoid it and be "safe" the rest of her life. Let's say the "one place" is the swimming pool -- fine, so Jane Clueless will never swim again. And next thing you know she goes to Starbucks late at night and gets accosted by the barista. "Oh noes!" cries Jane in dismay, "Cosmo, thou hast failed me again!" Seriously, I think that a "be careful wherever you go, but don't be too paranoid" approach would make MUCH more sense than a "just watch out for THIS ONE PLACE and you'll be fine" attitude.
3. Heaven forbid we women should have any moments of feeling safe in our lives. If you don't buy this magazine, then from now on wherever you go, you won't feel "safe from rape"! It'll always be at the back of your mind: "what if THIS is the place Cosmo was talking about? Augh! Why didn't I buy the magazine when I had the chance? Woe!" So the headline is just another attempt to impress upon us what a nasty, dangerous world it is. Think you might be safe anywhere on the planet? THINK AGAIN! MWAHAHAHAHA!
Eh, I could go on, but I'm pissed enough already, so I'll stop now. To sum up, though, my opinion of Cosmo -- which was already pretty damn low -- has sunk another several notches. Oh yeah, we've come a long way, baby. No thanks to you!
The other day I was in the grocery store and noticed a headline on Cosmo that read something like, "Rape Tip: The One Place You Feel Safe But Aren't."
I don't know, maybe it's just me, but that really made my blood boil. Let me count the ways.
1. Rape is a serious issue. The whole "putting a teaser on the front cover so that I have to pick up the magazine and look inside to find out the deal" thing, is a frivolous marketing technique. It works just fine for things like "eight new ways to please your man" or "the two things your mom won't tell you about tampons" or whatever. For RAPE? Not so much. Lumping rape in with workout tips and what lipstick to wear and how to tweeze your eyebrows trivializes rape, and that is just not okay.
2. The ONE "place you feel safe but aren't"?? Is this stuff actually written by actual women? Because I am an actual woman and let me tell you, I'm sure there are LOTS of places I feel safe but amn't, necessarily. Rape can occur anywhere: in your home, in your car, at your workplace. I can think of a lot of places where I generally feel reasonably safe from rape, but at the same time, since I'm not a moron, I realize that even those places are never 100% safe. That's pragmatism. You can't spend your entire life seeing imaginary rapists everywhere, but OTOH, you can't go around all tra-la-la either. "Safe" is in the eye of the beholder. And I *really* don't like the implication that a particularly clueless woman could just read this magazine, find out "the one place" to avoid, and then avoid it and be "safe" the rest of her life. Let's say the "one place" is the swimming pool -- fine, so Jane Clueless will never swim again. And next thing you know she goes to Starbucks late at night and gets accosted by the barista. "Oh noes!" cries Jane in dismay, "Cosmo, thou hast failed me again!" Seriously, I think that a "be careful wherever you go, but don't be too paranoid" approach would make MUCH more sense than a "just watch out for THIS ONE PLACE and you'll be fine" attitude.
3. Heaven forbid we women should have any moments of feeling safe in our lives. If you don't buy this magazine, then from now on wherever you go, you won't feel "safe from rape"! It'll always be at the back of your mind: "what if THIS is the place Cosmo was talking about? Augh! Why didn't I buy the magazine when I had the chance? Woe!" So the headline is just another attempt to impress upon us what a nasty, dangerous world it is. Think you might be safe anywhere on the planet? THINK AGAIN! MWAHAHAHAHA!
Eh, I could go on, but I'm pissed enough already, so I'll stop now. To sum up, though, my opinion of Cosmo -- which was already pretty damn low -- has sunk another several notches. Oh yeah, we've come a long way, baby. No thanks to you!
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no subject
Date: 2005-04-20 07:32 pm (UTC)so I'm curious
Date: 2005-04-20 09:50 pm (UTC)I heard a great quote from the Ending Violence Against Women training I attended in Feb -- when stating that his beat was Longmont, Colorado (a fairly wealthy town between Denver and Boulder) someone told an officer "there must not be a lot of crime there." The officer replied "it depends on who you live with."
Re: so I'm curious
Date: 2005-04-21 12:31 am (UTC)Re: so I'm curious
Date: 2005-04-21 02:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-20 10:51 pm (UTC)ad
Date: 2005-04-20 11:34 pm (UTC)Ah thanks. In my country statistically speaking I've got a better chance of being assaulted as a young man between 18-25 then as a woman, yet they don't seem to be campaigning to make men more aware.
It's such a culture of fear, I know the risks, they are there, but they aren't as high as the media likes to make out.
OT-
Date: 2005-04-21 02:14 am (UTC)If this is a problem I shall scram with no hard feelings. :)