So you may or may not have seen this “public service” video illustrating a standard abstinence-only device…
Jessica Valenti of Feministing has a perfectly reasonable reaction:
Okay, I’m well aware that this “PSA” was probably made for some class project, but I really think it shows how frigging bizarre (and dangerous) abstinence-only classes are. I mean, fucking duct tape? I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that of the many places the slutty piece of tape gets stuck, a garbage can is shown multiple times. (Just in case you didn’t get the sex-is-dirty message clearly enough.) After all, there’s nothing worse than trashy, whorey, adhesives.
I’d like to share her objection and add my own.
See, my New Year’s blogging resolution has been to point out just how much conservatives, “traditionalists,” and all-round anti-feminists despise men! So what better place to point out that if they’re proposing duct tape as a metaphor for virginal women then WTF does the filthy, disgusting, slimy, disease-laden, virginity-sullying garbage can in the video represent?
Even with our eyes closed we can tell they don’t like women. What’s bizarre is that once we do open our eyes we see how much they detest men.
The miracle is that they get so many of us, so many men, to believe feminists are the problem! Weird huh?
Submitted by 1857 (not verified) on Sat, 2008-01-05 09:32.
From what I can see, they were trying to indicate the duct tape represented both genders. They say "imagine it's your body" in the beginning--a gender-neutral stance, and even moreso, in the middle of the video they say, "Imagine if two clean pieces stuck together...they might stick together forever!" That appears to be a pitch for heterosexual marriage, and the importance of both partners (of both genders) coming to that union as virgins (if you're both "clean," you'll have a stronger union). So that would mean the duct tape can be male or female.
Doesn't dilute the disgust they obviously feel towards both sexually active men and women, but I'm just sayin', I think they were indicating virginity was important for both genders.
Submitted by 1857 (not verified) on Fri, 2008-01-11 16:34.
although, Miss Syl, the majority of the people depicted in the video, and everyone who was sticking their duct tape anywhere, were women. words gender-neutral, sure, but images & deeds not so much.
the part of this (in additional to, oh, the whole thing) that's just eye-rollingly moronic is that once you've gone and stuck your duct tape on something, well, damn if it isn't all dirty, so why bother continuing to try to keep it clean? basically, this advert is saying if you screw up once, you're beyond redemption.