I’ll admit that this is is extemely sad and pathetic, downright sexist, patriarchal and just plain f’ed up all around; but, this is the funniest shit I’ve received in the mail in years!
I mean the fact that I got this is simply too ironic for words.
Make sure you click through to my flickr stream to see all of the photos of this trifold beauty. And if you really must, go to www.orderoftheserpentine.com. They have a secret handshake and all. Of course, if there’s a video on the website teaching you how to do it I’m having a hard time getting the ‘secret’ part.
Maybe some of you more in tune with pop culture are aware of this offensive shit, but it was certainly news to me.
Remember boys and men, these are the facts that you need to know:
- It’s tough to say no to tube tops.
- Tight sweaters are hypnotizing.
- Women in vinyl pants are persuasive.
- Dark nightclubs are disorienting.
- Male hormones have a mind of their own.
- The Order of the Serpentine can help.
You too are only a ‘Daily Scrubbing Ritual’ away from achieving ‘a shame-free state.’ Because we both know that you were ‘well-intentioned’ when you had that ‘questionable hook-up.’
God. I think I’m about to puke! Some days I’m glad to be old.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Christina Pikas // Apr 30, 2006 at 9:58 am
Ok, I think it’s pretty funny. I think their ads are pretty clever, too.
2 Mark // Apr 30, 2006 at 10:32 am
On one hand, I think it’s fairly funny myself. I’ll admit, I was laughing when I was first looking over the ad and sample I got in the mail yesterday. Then I was laughing at the irony of me getting something like that.
But rather quickly, another side of me, the side that I like to think of as the better side, saw it as something different. Sure, it was funny and entertaining and will fit well with campus culture and the “the walk of shame.”
But, it also seems to me to highly perpetuate the patriarchal, sexist division of society that says it’s OK for men to have loose sex. I mean we now have a product that will simply wash away our “shame.” While at the same time, we are encouraged to view women as the enticers (“It’s tough to say no to tube-tops.”) and ourselves as powerless (“Male hormones have a mind of their own.”).
The women in these ‘transactions’ are “shameful,” “the carnival’s tattooed lady,” “your dormitory’s cleaning woman,” or “a retired exotic dancer.”
Funny, entertaining, geared to campus culture, or simply ironic these ideas are wrong, hurtful, and damaging. Maybe those boys on Duke’s lacrosse team could be their spokemen.
I am not judging others here. We all have different lifestyles, and while the possibility of my having a “shameful hookup” or of my even ever using “hookup” except in discussing this product is practically nil, many people do. But personally, I do not find it funny or an encouraging thing that a product that can simply wash away one’s “shame” is marketed.
And no, this is not a moralistic argument on my behalf, because there is a part of me that would love to lead a completely different lifestyle than I do. Equally as much as I do not ever want to be doing the “walk of shame,” I most certainly would, too.
So I guess we can count me as ambivalent to this product and its marketing, except for the fact that I consider the message it is propagating to be dangerous. Certainly an old and venerated message in many societies, but dangerous and unhealthy nonetheless.
I prefer my women liberated AND equal; not just some shame that I can scrub away in the shower.
3 Liz // Apr 30, 2006 at 11:51 am
This reminds me of the belief that women are ‘unclean’ at certain times or that some women are always unclean. It’s either misogynist or classist. Then again, I think of some of the men I dated and my later thoughts of ‘what was I thinking’ and I can appreciate the joke a little tiny bit.