It's all fun and games until someone is dehumanized

Reader Warning: This post contains extremely misogynist language and images. 

There was quite a stir online this week after popular web comic The Oatmeal compared a computer key, humorously, to a terrified rape victim. I'm not going to go on about that. Facing massive online protest, he removed the offending panel and apologized. Time to move on.

Except that his self-styled "free speech" supporters won't let it go. They accused people who took to the author's social media feeds to tell him why they were so upset about the joke of "censorship". They're probably still at it.

But there is a big difference between criticism and censorship. The former is also part of freedom of speech. The latter is legislative.

I am against censorship, but I will certainly speak out in public when I think something is not okay. For example, racism is not okay. Anyone who spews racism in public deserves the social sanction of people who are not racists. That's a pretty mainstream, accepted, thing now.

But what about misogyny? As the Oatmeal incident shows, it is both embedded in our popular culture and an issue that is becoming increasingly hard to "let go". In the recent United States election, many sexist or even openly-misogynist politicians and pundits were brought down by changing mainstream sensitivity to women's issues. Then again, many still stand.

Which brings me to today's topic: The most asinine tee shirts I have seen this year. 

This collection of shirts is brought to you by an online retailer called Spencer's. It's obnoxious, dehumanizing and dumb, and somebody must be buying the damn things.

But it's just a joke, right? Sure. Racist jokes are just jokes too. The problem with them is that they also serve a social purpose: they both reflect and reinforce a culture of exclusion, where one group is assumed to be superior to another. (The last US election also showed that racism is still very much with us.)

Believe it or not, I have a sense of humour. And I actually make lots of "inappropriate" jokes. But these are made in mixed company, with women who are my friends and my equals. Nobody is calling anyone a fuck puppet.

You might ask yourself whether Spencer's are equal opportunity sexists. There are, in fact, a few women's shirts that have a sexually predatory slogans on them. While this is bad, it's not quite the same problem. Not at this point in history.

Lots of really awkwardly and outrageously sexual things are funny. These tee shirts are not. They simply communicate an attitude that women are things that lack agency or independent sexual desire. They show women as breathing sack-of-meat masturbation devices, for men to enjoy and dispose of.

That's bad, and the people at Spencer's should feel bad.

But I am not trying to censor them. On the contrary, I want as many people as possible to see these shirts and form their own opinion about just what kind of person chooses to design, sell, and wear stuff like this.

Form your very own democratic, free market, free speaking opinion about what these shirts are telling you about what Spencer's thinks their target market likes. A target market of young men who could be strangers or could be among your family, neighbours or friends. Or who could be dating your family or friends. 

And on this day, which here in Canada is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, decide how you want to feel about that.

For more information on rape culture, visit FORCE.

Tip via Buzzfeed

F'd Ad Fridays: Free set of knives with Amanda Knox issue!

In Italy, where open air magazine stands are still on every other corner, the competitive market leads publishers to continually try to top each other with novelty giveaways. Often it's a CD or DVD.

But as AdFreak reports, the issue of gossip mag Oggi with Amanda Knox on the cover features a set of knives (and inexplicably, a pizza cutter):

Knox spent four years in an Italian prison after being convicted of killing her roommate with a black-handled kitchen knife. She was just recently released after much legal wrangling, but The Daily Mail says that Oggi continued to imply she was guilty and that prosecutors had flubbed the case.

Via The Telegraph

One thing is for sure: Oggi is guilty of insulting the memory — and the family and friends — of a young murder victim.

F'd Ad Fridays: How to profit from the murder of a little girl

Regretsy has a collection of these creepily over-sentimental arts and crafts tributes to toddler Caylee Anthony that are for sale now at Etsy:

I love (hate) how the crafter designed the awkward graphics using a Demotivator Generator

Photoshopping her into a creepy Jesus painting is only the beginning.
Fill it with the bad poetry of your choice.

If I saw someone in a meeting with this on their laptop,
I would be required to violate our "no punching people in the face" policy...

Disgusting on every level.

F'd Ad Fridays: Old skool effed

From the '70s, here is one of the most epically effed ads of all time:



O_o

A PETA campaign as tasteless as microwaved pork chops

If you haven't heard the awful story from Dayton, Ohio, of China Arnold killing her month-old baby in the microwave, consider yourself lucky. And I'm sorry to have brought it to your attention.

But then PETA, in yet another show of misplaced priorities, created this ad for veganism:

Nobody media company will place it anywhere, of course.

PETA's comment:

“We understand why our message — that most of the animals killed for human consumption are innocent babies who feel pain and fear just as humans do — might be upsetting,” PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said in a Tuesday email. “We encourage anyone who is troubled by the comparison between a baby human and a baby pig to clear their conscience by adopting a humane, vegan diet.”

This isn't the first time the organization has cashed in on human misery, and unfortunately it probably won't be the last.

But why? While some people still naively believe that "there's no such thing as bad publicity", there really is. Does anyone believe that campaigns like this really make the PETA brand more palatable to "soft" animal rights supporters, vegetarians and vegans?

What I'd really like to see happen is for someone to confront some of the celebrities who are all-too-happy to lend their celebrity to the organization — like Pamela Anderson, Joaquin Phoenix, Anjelica Huston, Iggy Pop or Alicia Silverstone with the question of whether they really believe in these marketing tactics.

"I'm getting naked for exploiting dead babies!"

Because PR cuts both ways, you know...