Sunday, February 12, 2006
Estremera: I don't get it
By Stella A. Estremera
Spider's web
* Stupid? Yes. Degrading? Definitely, it's as if the be-all, end-all existence of a woman all boils down to her hair -- make that long, silky, black, computer-generated hair.
OVER lunch with my ideas and adventure buddy... topic: commercials, make that terrible, degrading, simply stupid shampoo and hair conditioner commercials.
Okay... I was a commercial freak. I used to love commercials, I still do, the good ones. But of late, with the deluge of shampoo and conditioner commercials, I now consider them a curse.
It all started with those stupid-looking, computer-enhanced long black hair that sway from one side to another, all at the same time without one single hair getting out of line and... using just the hand to keep them in place -- as in, "Kinamay lang?" Galing noh?
Like, it's not as if you don't know the viewer can distinguish real hair from something that has been tweaked by a computer... or do you?
Then there was this stupid, hair-gaga lady who was running away from... split-ends.
Duh... Nobody runs away from split-ends, it's stupid to run away from split-ends, it's simply unconceivable to run away from split-ends! I'd understand if you scream because you find out you have lice (way past your elementary years). But, split-ends are the least of our worries. Just get those ends snipped and you're good for one more month. That's how it was done before, and in those times when split-ends were something that was snipped and not ran away from,
Philippines had two Misses Universe.
But then, that's what ad-makers are for, to create a need: the need to either run away from split-ends or put an end to these using more than just the good old hardy pair of scissors. And they will play this over and over again until all the young ones start believing that split-ends are scary, and run as fast to the neighborhood sari-sari store to buy their sachet of the latest glob for the hair, and forget to use their heads.
I thought that was the worst, until I saw these newest gagging ads the past week... the one that says, "Girls get it..."
Stupid? Yes. Degrading? Definitely, it's as if the be-all, end-all existence of a woman all boils down to her hair -- make that long, silky, black, computer-generated hair.
The message is so shallow, it's degrading. As my debate buddy -- a male -- said, these present crop of television ads are more degrading than those that show girls in bikini; the same ads the "feminists" (ugh!) have marched and rallied against.
His reason? Because while indeed the bikini shows off the girl's body, the real message really is emasculation of the man. Like, a man doing anything for this skimpily dressed girl. That's all about power, the power of the woman to wrap a man around her teeny-weeny fingers.
These present-day shampoo and conditioner ads, first, debases the viewer's intelligence. Second, it debases women's and rounds up their existence to nothing but vanities. The message that's sent out loud and clear -- the hair is not just the crowning glory, it is the very essence of a woman. (Like those two girls who thought the trainee was the manager because her hair was "walang tikwas-tikwas?") I really don't get it...
I should be okay with the thought that it's because I look at those commercials with a critical eye. But no...
Nowhere in my four decades of life have I seen so many young women toss their hair here and there inside jeepneys, crowded malls, wherever, where the unlucky person behind her (I've been unlucky several times, thank you) would get a mouthful of those straight black hair, and not one girl has even apologized so far.
Why? Because tossing one's hair to the discomfort of others is projected as a-okay by those advertisements. In fact, all those women in those television ads are tossing their hair at anybody. And this is why I simply couldn't get it.
Gone are the days when women with long hair hold this tightly to their breast while walking or riding public transport because their parents taught them it's impolite to bother anyone with your hair. These days? They sashay, they catwalk, they toss their head around so that their hair will flow with their movements.
That's okay, really... if you keep a wide distance from all other people. The bad part here is that a lot of girls with those long hair who appear to have been conditioned to think that they exist all because of their hair, even have the nerve to glare at you because you spat out their hair that got entangled in your mouth. Just wondering, is GMRC still taught in grade three..?
But then, that's what those girls in television are doing, so why shouldn't these brainless copycats do otherwise? And believe me, there are a lot of brainless copycats around, I should know, I've had a taste of their hair (pweh!)... I wonder where those "feminists" are hiding...
saestremera@yahoo.com
(February 12, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
