![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adrian_turtleFor most of the past year, my research group has been working with 2 labs. At first, the idea was just to have one for dry materials and one for fluids. Now that the group has two radios, we usually have different kinds of music playing in the different labs. The dry lab has the worst kind of hip hop -- tuneless and earwormy, filled with malicious sexism, with a very short playlist and lots of breathless advertising that sounds like people reading spam out loud. I don't spend any more time in the dry lab than I absolutely have to. The wet lab is where the grownups work, more or less. (For those of you who use "grownup" to mean "good," I'll point out that Susan Pevensie turning into a grownup was something of a loss. But if I have to share lab space, I prefer to share it with a bunch of compulsive handwashers, having nothing to do with character judgements.) The wet lab plays a radio station that claims, on their station break, "we play anything," but "anything" mostly means rock from the '70s and '80s, mixed in with the kind of country, funk, or alternative music that can cross at least partway over to light rock. Sometimes the music is good, sometimes it's inoffensive, sometimes it pushes strong nostalgic buttons...I suppose that's the point.
But that's the music. Radio stations make their money on advertising. Some of these ads seem to come from Readers' Digest political consultants, and they're disturbing 3 or 4 layers deep. Every hour or so, there's a frantic-sounding woman telling a story about how frightened she was when Something Terrible almost happened to her daughter. Her daughter always phones her at work when she gets home from school, but That Day she didn't. [Am I delusional to think they're trying to push buttons about the intrinsic scariness of the mother being at work?] So the mother went to the website of the advertised device, found her daughter was in the woods near the school, and called the police. The daughter [are we supposed to imagine a girl of 6, or 16?] was helping a neighbor look for a lost dog, a neighbor who turned out to be a convicted child molestor! Lucky the mother had the advertised device! The ad doesn't have background music, and it's not quite as loud as most ads. If you're not paying attention, it sounds almost like a news story, especially with the replays that make it seem like a news story that gets updated over and over and over.
One ad was oddly encouraging about gender equity, in a sick way. "Ladies! Love your man, but hate that disgusting body hair? Give him a gift certificate for a waxing or laser hair removal!" Generations of women have hated their bodies, our salon is working hard to bring that experience to men, along with light rock music. Even if it's got a good beat and you can dance to it, I don't want to be in that revolution. (Besides, I like human mammals. Not to mention lions.)
The salon's work for gender equity, however disturbing, is not even deliberate. I figured that out about 10 minutes later. They have another ad, exhorting men to buy laser hair removal certificates for the women in their lives. So far, not unreasonable. Large numbers of women do shave their legs (or somesuch), and many find it a nuisance. "She'll save time, and YOU'LL save money!" Of course. As far as they're concerned, the man owns her body and controls her time, and her comfort isn't worth considering. A lifetime supply of razors, or laser hair removal? She'll save time and he'll save money. (ETA: Upon further consideration, it occurs to me that it might not be quite so offensive as I first thought. Maybe they just mean it's cheaper to buy a gift certificate for laser hair removal now than it would be if one wanted to give it as a birthday gift in November or January, so "you'll save money" that way. But the other interpretation seemed obvious to me the first 4 times I heard the ad, and that's kind of creepy.)
But that's the music. Radio stations make their money on advertising. Some of these ads seem to come from Readers' Digest political consultants, and they're disturbing 3 or 4 layers deep. Every hour or so, there's a frantic-sounding woman telling a story about how frightened she was when Something Terrible almost happened to her daughter. Her daughter always phones her at work when she gets home from school, but That Day she didn't. [Am I delusional to think they're trying to push buttons about the intrinsic scariness of the mother being at work?] So the mother went to the website of the advertised device, found her daughter was in the woods near the school, and called the police. The daughter [are we supposed to imagine a girl of 6, or 16?] was helping a neighbor look for a lost dog, a neighbor who turned out to be a convicted child molestor! Lucky the mother had the advertised device! The ad doesn't have background music, and it's not quite as loud as most ads. If you're not paying attention, it sounds almost like a news story, especially with the replays that make it seem like a news story that gets updated over and over and over.
One ad was oddly encouraging about gender equity, in a sick way. "Ladies! Love your man, but hate that disgusting body hair? Give him a gift certificate for a waxing or laser hair removal!" Generations of women have hated their bodies, our salon is working hard to bring that experience to men, along with light rock music. Even if it's got a good beat and you can dance to it, I don't want to be in that revolution. (Besides, I like human mammals. Not to mention lions.)
The salon's work for gender equity, however disturbing, is not even deliberate. I figured that out about 10 minutes later. They have another ad, exhorting men to buy laser hair removal certificates for the women in their lives. So far, not unreasonable. Large numbers of women do shave their legs (or somesuch), and many find it a nuisance. "She'll save time, and YOU'LL save money!" Of course. As far as they're concerned, the man owns her body and controls her time, and her comfort isn't worth considering. A lifetime supply of razors, or laser hair removal? She'll save time and he'll save money. (ETA: Upon further consideration, it occurs to me that it might not be quite so offensive as I first thought. Maybe they just mean it's cheaper to buy a gift certificate for laser hair removal now than it would be if one wanted to give it as a birthday gift in November or January, so "you'll save money" that way. But the other interpretation seemed obvious to me the first 4 times I heard the ad, and that's kind of creepy.)
