Monday, May 10, 2010

Infomercials that suck..

Isn't it interesting what other cultures think about normal human behaviour, things like sex. Here is an advertisement from Tunisia that warns Women about revealing too much "skin", cover up or get raped (by insects?) seems to be the message here. Clearly this is a religiously inspired message, it would work just as well in some backwater Christian areas of the USA as it would in this Islamic country.


I find this imagery to be a fascinating insight into the mentality of the religious authors of it, for example, it suggests to me that women are objects, or perhaps possessions like the candy in this picture. It also implies that they should not be allowed to do what they were so obviously designed (in a Darwinian sense) to do (i.e. attract men) perhaps because they think Women don't "own" their bodies or perhaps as the analogy suggests, they will somehow be "consumed" if nature is allowed to take its course. Some obvious questions are raised in my mind, for example, who has the power here, is it the candy or the flies? do men have the brains of insects and therefore cannot control themselves or are the flies symbolic of the "wrong" kind of men or is it just the numbers that cause a problem, what is the point of the candy if it isn't to be consumed?

All these questions are academic to the creators of such ideas of course, like all proper totalitarian systems the Abrahamic religions aspire to control all the important facets of our lives, Women's reproductive capacity being one of the most important of all. When it comes to mind control there are no flies on religion.

2 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Steve, since when have you been watching so much Tunisian TV? It will warp your mind! :)

Steve Borthwick said...

E, warp further you mean..