Dolce and Gabanna update.

Dolce and Gabanna have pulled their rather oily 'art' advert due to the hostile reactions it garnered. Dolce says the ad was meant to "recall an erotic dream, a sexual game."
But last month when the Spanish government demanded that D&G's 'fantasy' rape ads be withdrawn, he wasn't quite so coy. The country was coping with a wave of crimes against women at the time and public outrage was high. The designers complied, but said that Spain was "behind the times." That claim got harder to maintain on Friday when 13 Italian senators also demanded that the photo be taken out of circulation. On Tuesday, Stefano Gabbana said that they did not mean to "cause controversy," and were pulling the ads.
They didn't mean to cause controversy? Bwaaahaahah, sure, good luck with that.
Huzzah. Sell your clothes but leave the oil/rape/ porn to the pornographers.

Cancer, everyone can get it,

even strippers! Gasp.
Who knew that strippers were real women too? I thought they ranked up there with prostitutes and blow up dolls and 'sex workers' as some species of sub-person.
I was going to write about releasing the cats today, and possibly how fucking rude some people are on Valentine's night, but then this piece of crap caught my eye and my dander-thusly raised- forced me to abandon my mild mannered screed and steer the outraged car across the road to a subject that bothers the ever living shit out of me.

I hate the trite sexualisation of women.

I despise that in order to make a point some woman somewhere generally has to strip off and either stand around looking uncomfortably naked or stimulate a sexual act.
I hate that fucking pole dancing, as well as becoming a 'cool and perfectly normal' way of life, is now used to advertise and showcase just about everything.

Want to lose some weight? Slid down a fucking pole in a suggestive manner at a gym somewhere. Tee hee. It's fun.

Want to spend a good night out? Go to a strip club, it's ironic dontcha know? Look at Dita von Teese.

Want to release a rap video, get a shit load of strippers to dance around making their asses 'clap'.

Want to release an indie video? Get Kate Moss to slide up and down, only do it in black and white, cooler that way, more arty.

It's not just pole dancing.
Want to say fur is bad? Get two girls to strip off their clothes and stand freezing their goose-pimpled arses off while a large group of men stand around them leering and taking photos with their camera phones. Or get them to do a faux 'State of the Union' speech while stripping naked.
Yeah! Isn't this all just fun? Right on! How liberating. Come on, show more cleavage, it's for a good cause.
And now! Drum roll please...want to show that cancer effects us all?
Bring on the stripper.
Well I'm fucking sick of it.
If this was a campaign for testicular cancer would we expect to see a male stripper dancing about on stage, oiled up, wearing a dicky bow and slapping his winkle about sans a ball or two?
Of course not, that would appear to be making light of his illness. No, if it was a testicular cancer, we would probably see a family man-possibly with kids playing in the background, telling his wife the bad news. There might even be sad background music.
Why? Because cancer is a disease that can show no mercy. Cancer can invite itself in and destroy a whole family. It can effect the young and the old, men and women and children alike.
It's not really very sexy now is it?
This campaign reeks to the high heavens.
We don't need to sexualise cancer, or glorify stripping to make a point. We don't need to objectify women at every turn to send a message.
Cancer, everyone can get it, but only women need to strip off and get jiggy with it to make you understand. Right?
There is nothing sexy about breast cancer, there is nothing sexy about lung cancer, there is nothing sexy about cancer period. And fuck anyone that might triviaize it and 'sex it up'.
That is all.