I just saw a television commercial for a female masturbation device, sold by a company with a Homeric name. This ad embarrassed me. Me, the original Mr. Scratches-His-Balls-In-Public. Jeez, nothing used to embarrass me. In the days before Photoshop, I made a living airbrushing away the pimples marring the scenic beauty of the rears of performers in such epics as Hershey Highway (a film I cannot recommend as I have not seen it). And yet even my once-unflushable cheeks now imitate the stoplight.
Am I getting too old, or did society just invent a new way to be loutish?
12 comments:
I'm curious about why you might be embarrassed by the ad. Is it because the discreet vibrator it advertises is manufactured by a "mainstream" condom company? Similar fingertip-applied massagers have been sold on infomercials for years. So, does the marginal, fringe nature of the prior advertising source mitigate the blush factor? Or, was it the older woman's admission to the younger ones that she enjoyed the product too, that made you uncomfortable? I don't know, but in an era where "can you get it up?" "do you have trouble peeing?" "I'm a living booger" "and "bears dumping in the woods" ads are common place, ladies discussing masturbation over lunch doesn't bother me at all.
Hmm. How about an ad focusing on the non-gustatory uses for the noble honeydew? THAT would evince a massive national cry of "EEEWWWWWW!"
But people react differently to the idea of female masturbation. For some reason, this nation likes to picture our ladies as spending most of their waking hours cooing and writhing on the verge of orgasm.
By the way, I'm old enough to recall the shocked response to something Orson Welles once said on the old Merv Griffen show. "There's an old Arab proverb: For procreation, God gave us women. For pleasure, God gave us boys. But for ecstasy and bliss, God gave us the melon."
You can't say stuff like that on TV now. You couldn't say it then, unless you were Orson Welles.
When I was a kid they advertised vibrators in mail order catalogs along with all kinds of handy gadgets for the home. Back then reading the new catalog each month was about as much excitement as we ever had.
I remember they sold vibrators as a "beauty aid" and the ad had a drawing of a woman using a vibrator on her face to "tone the skin."
I can imagine some kid saving up his allowance and buying one for his mom thinking it would be a cool gift.
Hm. Back in the 1970s, I can recall seeing a selection of fancy and expensive "face toners" prominently displayed behind a glass counter in the front of a drug store within the Century Plaza hotel, which is one of the ritziest hotels in L.A. (I would wander over there to grab a candy bar between Filmex shows.)
The Reagans stayed at that hotel all the time. Do you think Nancy used a "face toner" while dreaming about Frank Sinatra...?
But your cartoon of Obama masturbating didn't embarrass you?
Very innaresting...
Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com
Heheheh, my husband actually purchased a vibrator for his aunt for Christmas when he was too young to know what they were for. He's a mechanical nut, and was taken in by that ad of the woman holding the vibrator to her cheek. Wish I could have seen her response!!!
cat lady
"I won't worry, and I won't fret--
Ain't no law against it yet."
--Cyndi Lauper
CK, looks like I AM getting old.
Or maybe all's fair in politics...?
Besides, that cartoon was poetic.
The subject is OK, but the ad has the ick factor. First, you have two adult females discussing the subject in a restaurant. Really?Next comes an easedropping senior woman butting in to tell them what she uses to masterbate and where to get it. Ick.
Kelly -
About a decade ago I was seeing a Czech girl (Note: the Czech Republic is 47% Roman Catholic). Once she was emailing me from one of the rows of computers in out local campus library, near the front door and reference stacks. She wrote how a young unmarried couple next to her were discussing where and when they were going to next have sex. In the email, she remarked: "They're being fairly open about it...for Americans."
Sergei Rostov
>>that cartoon was poetic.
Oh, indeed it was. I loved it. I just find it interesting that a device for the ladies embarrasses you.
Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com
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