OPINION PAGES - part 1 - everything is not hunky dory in Dublin

issues of the day. I have decided to open a new opinions and topical conversation part of the blog. get involved and facebook and twitter along with us. leave comments. but never loose sight of the fact that this is infact opinion written by someone. please be nice....

Well, this really is the issue at the mo is it not? People everywhere are getting their agent provocateurs in a twist over the raunchy images that are the new Hunky Dory crisp ads. I'm getting a bit fed up of it all. Simply the adverts worked. They worked because people are getting upset and talking. and when people talk the image has worked. it worked because you remember the brand involved. it's like when Yorkie did the whole, 'not for girls' thing. remember that? remember how mad people got?

There is sexism in a lot of adverts. think about the diet coke ads where that disgusting man came to fix the elevator which the girls in the office broke just to see him with no shirt on.

People are in a twist about the level of sexism involved.

I feel bad for children. (for once) having to grow up in a world where people think this sort of crap is ok. That's it ok to sell your body for a product, that its ok that your famous for getting your tits out, what have we come to?

in the 1960's, the beatles had a song banned by the BBC for containing the word knickers. Now Ann Summers has ads on the windows saying - fancy a threesome?
I'm not suggestion we go back to the world of the stiff (ahem) british lip and renounce our sexy ways, but surely, in this day and age....enough is enough? These images I took myself from Georges street in Dublin. Someone vandalised the ad days after it was posted. I have to say, I agree.
there has to be a happy medium. seriously. Women do tend to get the raw end of the deal a lot more then men do. there are twice as many adverts with sexy half dressed women in them, then men. why? because, it's easier. If you revert back to the age old fight that men are more visual creatures (apparently the reasoning behind why men love playstation so much, i dunno) and women are more turned on by, well, ideas. (complete bollocks) it still does not explain how things have gotten so bad.

ok think about it. Anyone who has read the book, 'Female Chauvinist pigs by Ariel Levy will understand. We fought so long to get rights, we haven't even had the vote for a hundred years (1927) yet. and yet so many women got down off the pole in the 70's only to get back up in the 00's. only this time, it's progression because it's women in control of their bodies??????

wake up!

it's all about control.

this comes in the wake of me watching the new Christina Ague- i still can't spell that woman's name but you get the idea. Her new video 'Not myself tonight' struck the terrors in me. While I watched it with this, oh my god this is actually porn feeling, another part of me was wishing i had the money to avail of the amazing fetish rubber outfits on display (and wishing i had a partner to show them off to - but another story for another day) that scared me. if i, as a 25 year old intelligent (somewhat) person is watching this and slightly thinking, this looks good but am feminist enough to realise what is going on here. then how are a 15 or 16 year old handling this?

I'm also going to make the point before I get killed by Tina fans, I know full well that Madonna did it before her, and then lady Gaga and beyonce are still doing it.

But can we please go back to the days where fashion and fun were enough in your videos, not licking milk from a saucer while chained up and wearing fetish rubbers????

and besides, don't a lot of children like her music?

oh and to finish my rant. we have got to learn to own feminism and claim it back. being a feminist does not make you 'uncool' or 'pathetic'. it means your well able to stand up and shout

ENOUGH IS FUCKING ENOUGH.

when the situation demands it. you wont stand for being fired because your pregnant, you wont stand for getting paid less then a man, and you sure as hell wont stand for someone using your body to sell a product which has nothing to do with boobs!

here here.