Category Archives: sexuality

Why This Year’s Super Bowl Ads Were Less Sexist

08 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by in gender, justice, sexuality

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super bowl ads photo

My article “Why This Year’s Super Bowl Ads Were Less Sexist” was published by Red Letter Christians today. Here it is:

If you’re a regular Super Bowl watcher, you probably noticed that this year’s commercials were different from those of past years—they were notably less sexist. While a few ads still sank to Mad Men lows, overall, fewer ads contained hyper-sexualized, objectifying depictions of women. And some ads were distinctively empowering.

What caused this departure in Super Bowl advertising? Why did some of last year’s worst offenders like web hosting company Go Daddy take a decidedly different approach this year?

3% ConferenceKat Gordon, advertising veteran and founder of The 3% Conference, believes that much of the credit goes to groups like The Representation Project and Miss Representation whose #NotBuyingIt and #MediaWeLike campaigns have empowerd people to call-out sexist misrepresentations of women and girls in the media and to praise advertisers when they get it right.

“I believe [The Representation Project and Miss Representation] are absolutely a force that has gotten on the radar of brands,” Gordon said in a live Google chat Wednesday about this year’s Super Bowl ads. Speaking to a member of The Representation Project, Gordon said, “I really love what you have mobilized and [that you’ve] given people a way to talk back; giving brands a way to listen in and respond. I really credit you for being the force that has changed the flavor and temperature of the ads this year.”

“More than 80% of all purchases are made by women,” Gordon says on the conference website. “Yet most women say they don’t like the way they’re marketed to.” Gordon gave The 3% Conference its name because women make up only three percent of the Creative Directors in advertising agencies.

As followers of Jesus, we’re called to align our passions with God’s passions and “to promote justice” (Micah 6:8 NET). We live in a culture that habitually devalues women, subtly and overtly. Much has changed since Jesus walked the earth two thousands years ago, yet women and girls continue to be objectified and marginalized.

miss representationThe movement sparked by the Miss Representation documentary and The Representation Project reminds me of Jesus’ knack for speaking truth to power (think Pharisees and Sadducees). Will the church take the opportunity to live into her prophetic tradition and live out Jesus’s values by participating in these types of movements? Is it time for some streams of the church to put the protest back in Protestant, as author and activist Shane Claiborne has said? Catholics, Protestants, Contemplatives, and Calvinists, our voices make a difference.

“Advertising is broken due to a failure of imagination” Gordon said in a recent TEDxTalk. The next time you see an ad that undermines the value of women, seize the moment and employ your prophetic imagination; wield your phone and tell the power brokers of Madison Avenue and Corporate America what you think. Why? Because changing the messages we live by, changes the world.

Exhibitionist Mom

27 Sunday Jan 2013

Posted by in body image, sexuality

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Woman-Bathing-in-a-Shallow-Tub-1886-large-1201235283There’s a running joke on my mom’s side of the family that everyone has seen my mom naked. Or nearly naked.

When I was a kid my family spent part of a summer in a Colorado cabin with my aunt (my mom’s sister), uncle, and four boy cousins.

One afternoon, while my aunt was feeding all of us kids lunch in the kitchen, my mom walked out of the bathroom and faced us. She had just showered and was holding a towel in front of her, covering just the front of her body. She engaged in a little small talk with us and then asked, “Where’s Uncle Gail?” (Her sister’s husband.)

With a smirk on her face, my aunt pointed to the living room behind my mom as laughter erupted around the kitchen table. Sitting on the couch, my uncle calmly held up his open newspaper, pretending that he hadn’t just seen my mom in all her glory.

Woman_in_a_Tub

When Andy I were newlyweds we vacationed with my parents in Victoria, British Columbia and stayed in adjoining hotel rooms. One morning Andy knocked on the door to my parents’ room and mom said, “Come in,” thinking it was me. When Andy entered she was standing with her back to him in her underwear only.

Having heard the family stories, Andy thought, this is awkward, but I guess I’ll just try to act normal, ask my question, and get out of here. Later they both expressed their shock to me: Andy, at mom saying “come in” when she was practically naked; and mom, at Andy’s lack of decency in standing there and engaging her in conversation.

tahitian women bathingGrowing up, I saw mom walking around the house in her bra and underwear. Sometimes I’d see her naked as she got out of the shower or into her swimsuit.

I remember tracing the stretch marks on her tummy with my fingers when I was little. I liked their softness and the thought that I had lived in there for nine months.

Seeing my mom’s body in the context of everyday life was a gift. It gave me a sense of comfort and ease about my own body and bodies in general. Bodies weren’t something to be ashamed or embarrassed of, even if they didn’t look like the ones in the magazines.

Mom had a birthday this week and I’d like to offer up a virtual toast to her.

Mom, here’s to you. To your exhibitionist tendencies. To your healthy embrace of the the human body. To being comfortable in your own skin and helping me be comfortable in mine. You’re beautiful and I love you!