Yeah, because as we all know, violence is perfectly acceptable once the object of the violence has demonstrated that they deserve it.
YEEAAAHHHH!!!!! Sweet. Scarbo–try, “fantasizing about violence.” Bit of a difference. Hilarious! And brilliantly ironic. I love it.
Scarbo is exactly right — a man who commits an act of violence (like bruising a woman’s buttock as a gesture of “admiration” — becomes liable to a response in kind.
This image is a photograph taken by Jill Posener, and published, along with similar thought-provoking shots of graffiti in her book “Spray It Loud” published in 1982 (ISBN 0-7100-9458-2). She captured brilliant graffiti – mostly around the streets of London. She followed it up with a second book of graffiti photographs: “Louder Than Words” in 1986 (ISBN 0-86358-086-6). No idea what she’s doing these days…
That takes me back about 20 years or so [I guess 23 according to Geoff Coupe].. I first saw this on a card from the brilliant Leeds Postcards, wh ohave their full catalogue at http://www.poptel.org.uk/leedspostcards/. Don’t know if this one is still on their list.
Yep, it created a nostalgia wave in me as well. I think it’s far older than ’82, Geoff. I remember seeing it in the ’70s…
Scarbo is exactly right — a man who commits an act of violence (like bruising a woman’s buttock as a gesture of “admiration” — becomes liable to a response in kind. {mumbles something about “proportional response”} Seriously…funny. Old, but good. At least I think it’s old, I hope for Fiat’s sake that it hasn’t built a car (or used ad copy like that) for a few decades.
Nitpick: the “would run you over if your analogy were applied in reverse” refers to, not a man who’s pinching a lady’s bottom, but to the ad exec who decided to tell the world that bottom-pinching is a legitimate and desireable way to express a compliment. He (I’m sure it was a he) fantasizes—very publicly—about sexual harassment being acceptable and complimentary; a lady who’s sick and tired of such misogynist bullshit (and who, unlike the ad’s creator, knows what it’s like), just as publically fantasizes about running him down in response for, not sexual harassment itself, but for helping make sexual harassment more acceptable to society and to men. Besides which, she manages to make an interesting point: cars, it seems, have it much better than ladies—ladies get pinched; cars don’t, and cars have power to avenge such a thing. Surprise, surprise: men give the power to the one that can’t use it by itself, and victimize the one that has the mental capacity to feel pain at said victimization. “If the car were a lady, it would get its bottom pinched.” No point in harassing a car—it can’t feel it. “If this lady were a car, she’d run you down.” As a lady, not only victimized but unable to avenge said victimization on her own, she is stuck with wishful thinking. To quote Twisty, I blame the Patriarchy.
Kyra: Nicely summarized. Sad that we still have to explain it, tho’, isn’t it? Love-love-LOVE the person who came up with the comeback to that ad!! You can just feel how sick and tired she was of being harassed in that way, or at the very least, of living with the knowledge that it could happen at any time. Nice to see we’ve made a little progress in the past 30 years anyway — I’ve rarely had to deal with that kind of overt harrassment. Then again, I’ve heard of young women who deal with it all the time.
Elayne, I’ve found (via her website – http://www.jillposener.com) that Jill Posener took the photo in 1979… So you’re right, it was taken in the 1970s (just!). Cheers.