Mar

18

What are they selling?

Filed Under Uncategorized | By Tim Love | 1 Comment

I drove by a restaurant the other day and read this statement on the sign, “Lunch with a view.” Immediately, a sick feeling took hold of my stomach. I’ll tell you why in a minute, but I’d like to build up to it, to take you through my stream of consciousness, if you’ll indulge me.

Working in the sexual violence field and spending a lot of my professional time examining the messages we receive about sex and violence, I started examining my reaction to this statement by asking, “What are they selling?” Imagine seeing this as an advertisement before you knew the type of restaurant the advertisement was for. What kind of restaurant might you expect this to be an ad for? If you dissect the statement, “Lunch with a view,” it seems like the emphasis for the restaurant is on the view. If the emphasis was on the food, then the food would likely be highlighted with more descriptive terms than “lunch,” such as “great food.”

So now that we’ve established that this restaurant is marketing its view to draw customers, what type of restaurant are you picturing? Maybe a little café perched on the quiet flowing river that meanders through downtown. Or how about one of the restaurants that spins slowly on the top of some tall building, giving you a 360 degree view of the city lights at night. Perhaps you’re picturing a restaurant with a big deck that overlooks the lake. Take a minute to think about that favorite restaurant from your life – that restaurant whose food or drinks you can barely remember, but whose view is breathtaking. The wind blows gently as you sit on the porch with friends or a loved one. You didn’t mind paying a little extra for the environment, paying for the view, did you?

Now, let’s get back to reality. The restaurant that is using the statement “Lunch with a view” to attract customers in the town I live in is a sports bar featuring waitresses serving food in bikinis. So now, I ask again, “What are they selling?” As my own mind races, one word pops into my head in response to this question, “Women.” They are selling women, or at least a view of women or their body parts. Sure, there are tons of televisions lining the walls featuring every sport imaginable, but the waitresses are not wearing t-shirts and jeans, they are wearing bikini tops. Read more

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Mar

11

Ellen’s Call to Action – Political or Personal, Enough is Enough

Filed Under Prevention, Uncategorized | By Morgan J Curtis | 1 Comment

In a surprising yet poignant move, talk show host Ellen Degeneres spoke out against the murder of 15 year old Lawrence King. King was murdered because of his sexual orientation (he identified as gay) and gender expression (he wore makeup and/or jewelry to school). He had apparently asked the 14-year old who would become his murderer to be his valentine.

Of particular note is the way Ellen addresses this tragedy – she points to the pivotal role of our culture and the messages sent to young children that suggest being gay is a crime worthy of death.

In Ellen’s words:

And, somewhere along the line the killer, Brandon, got the message that it’s so threatening, so awful and so horrific that Larry would want to be his Valentine — that killing Larry seemed to be the right thing to do. And when the message out there is so horrible that to be gay, you can get killed for it, we need to change the message. Larry was not a second-class citizen. I am not a second-class citizen. It’s ok if you’re gay. Read more

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