One of the many sights that entertains me while driving through Stockton is passing this ridiculous billboard on my way to St. Joseph's Hospital. The first noticeable image from the billboard is a ginormous picture of Pamela Anderson with her large, bulbous breasts mounding over the top of her tank top. The next noticeable feature is her perfectly golden, piled-high, up-do crowning her head and a very posed, performed-sultry smile. This whole picture is juxtaposed underneath the next attention getter, the title: "Boycott KFC!"
The first time I saw this billboard I was passing too quickly to get the full import of the message. All I thought was, "Pamela Anderson is the poster child for boycotting KFC?" What the hell!
A few weeks later I passed the billboard again and was able to prepare myself to investigate further. The rest of the message, in finer print, next to Pamela's breasts, reads: "scalding live chickens, painful beak removal (isn't 'painful' subjective to the chicken?), and over-crowded chicken coops, or something to that effect.
While I have no doubt that KFC mishandles the care and slaughtering of their chickens, I think the larger message here is a societal one: "boycott the unfair treatment of using women as sex objects." What part of this glaring faux sexiness makes one feel empathy for a chicken? One might wonder, however, whether one would like breasts or thighs with that value meal.
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2 comments:
Isn't it possible that Pamela Anderson, having rather deftly chosen to exploit her appearance for personal gain (successfully, and for years), is now CHOOSING to exploit the shallow sexuality of men in a nobler cause?
The real problem is with the negative injunction. Most people will not get either message (especially not the more subtle, early feminist exploitation angle). Your average guy driving by will see only the obvious, and say:
"Hot Babe + KFC = man, I want me some chicken tonight!"
Yes, and sadly, our young women will drive by and think, if I want anyone to care about chickens, I have to look like Barbie (having been asaulted by images of the "ideal" woman on a daily basis) . . . unless they love the sarcasm. Then they'll think, I want some chicken tonight.
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