Sociological Images

Unlike men, who are supposed to reject all things feminine, women are encouraged to balance masculine and feminine characteristics. In this commercial for a birth control pill on which you have only four periods a year, a woman’s masculine and feminine side are personified by her “logical” and her “emotional” self respectively. After the video are two commentaries: one by me and one by Gwen.

Lisa says: The gender symbolism in this ad is out-of-control. Of course emotion and logic are, themselves, gendered concepts. We think of women as the emotional sex and men as the logical sex. But there is so much more! The emotional side of the woman is surrounded by turquoise, with a long necklace, and a belted top that is almost frilly. Her logical side is wearing a brown shirt with angular argyle shapes, surrounded by sleek white and, instead of a necklace, has a crisp angular men’s shirt collar. While her “emotional” self dances around, kicks the ball playfully, and lounges in a round chair, her “logical” self does research on the internet, stops the ball’s frivolous rolling, and sits up straight in a square (again angular) chair. The advertisers are working very hard to get across that this woman has two “opposite” sides that correspond to our stereotypes about “opposite” sexes.

I’d also like to point out, for the record, that emotion and logic are not opposites. The opposite of emotional would be unemotional and the opposite of logical, illogical. It is not impossible to think straight about things that we care about. We only think that they’re opposites because they are attached to femininity and masculinity and we think those are opposites. In fact, we are so committed to their opposite-ness that it affects how we think about ideas that become related. Amazing.

Gwen says: As Lisa pointed out, the ad posits emotion and logic as opposites–emotion is fun and carefree, logic is stodgy. But when it comes to birth control, we’re supposed to make our decisions using emotion, not logic. WTF? It’s the emotional side convincing the logical side to take Seasonique. In fact, rather than worry about it ourselves, we learn that we can just ask someone else who is, of course, logical: a doctor. I’m sure activists who have encouraged women to take more control over their reproductive health will be thrilled.

And by the end logic is satisfied and the two halves merge…but not into a person who has both logic and emotion. No, logic disappears altogether; only emotion is left. Because that’s how women are: we pull out our logic now and again when we really need it (or, in this case, think we need it), but the rest of the time we rely entirely on emotion.

Honestly, I am so confused by this marketing technique. If they were going to separate logic and emotion, I would have expected it to be a woman “illogically” (that is, emotionally) fearing something “unnatural” or new that she perceives as risky, and the logical side using the internet and having her emotional side talk to a doctor to reassure her pretty little head that there’s nothing to be afraid of. Telling women to let emotion guide logic when it comes to taking medications or making health decisions is an, um, interesting tactic I never would have thought of.

All that is aside from the fact that, in addition to the four periods a year, apparently you can also have bleeding at unexpected times the rest of the year. In fact, some of that bleeding might be as heavy as a period. But it’s not! Even if it’s as heavy as a period, it is not a period! It’s just irregular bleeding! Which sounds WAY BETTER. I suppose I could provide some commentary on why birth control pills that purport to save women from having their periods are such a big thing and how this plays into our ideas of menstruation as a “curse.” But it’s 7:03 a.m. and I don’t feel like it.