Sexism on Mother's Day??

Ah Mother’s Day.

What a fun yet stressful time. This year I was really trying to get creative with my presents, but I was fresh out of ideas. I asked my mother what she wanted, her response was a picture frame. A picture frame for the woman who went through 9 months of carrying me in her uterus, went through hours of labor to birth me, then spent years making sure I stayed alive (22 years and 11 months to be exact because I definitely still do not know how to navigate through life without her). A picture frame.

Anyways, the situation got me thinking, what the heck is Mother’s Day all about? Like where did it come from? Why is Mother’s Day all about giving Mom a day off, while Father’s Day is advertised as the day Dad actually hangs out with his family? I have questions and I need answers!

Well instead of answers, I found myself mind boggled. I Googled “Mother’s Day” and immediately saw “People are angry at Spotify over this tweet,” what have you done Spotify I asked myself, and clicked away to find this. A sexiest and ageist message. Maybe the people over at Spotify have been hanging out with the Bud Light advertisement crew? (Seriously, how do these people come up with this stuff and not get stopped??)

I started to think about it, and I’ve realized that I have been seeing subliminally sexist messages all along. Like this one from Mother’s Day last year:

As if all a woman wants for Mother's Day is a gift for the kitchen.

Companies are doing a surprisingly good job at playing into gender stereotypes in a discreet way. Why do we always see commercials of the stereotypical woman, at home in the kitchen or living room, taking care of the children while cleaning the house, with dad nowhere to be found? Why can’t we see more Mother’s Day ads that show the hardworking moms who do more than clean the house and cook dinner? My mom is the breadwinner in my household, if her priorities were like the mom’s portrayed in these advertisements, just holding a baby in the air all day or using a Clorox wipe to clean the table, I probably wouldn’t exist. My family would consist of my parents and my older brother. They would not be able to afford an Alley.

Also, did you know that the US ranked 30^th on the “State of the World’s Mothers” report in 2013? The report takes into account the well-being of women and their children in over 180 countries. The US fell behind most of the developed world, which is extremely alarming. John Oliver did a funny skit to touch on the topic of how we treat our women here in the US:

As for my mom, she did not get her picture frame. Mainly because I felt she deserved something more and partially because I couldn't find the one she was looking for (I'm helpless). However, she did have a good day and she cried happy tears over the presents she did get, as opposed to the pissed off tears she would have had if I bought her a small kitchen appliance. 

No... I am definitely not "Up For Whatever"

I’ll be honest, being a full time college student, while working full time at a hospital, while trying to maintain my sanity is a little hard sometimes. With that being said, I occasionally end up having a few drinks on the weekend (not the healthiest stress reliever I know, I know).

My drink of choice, unfortunately is Bud Light. I recently told myself I was going to boycott them, because they seemed to have lost their mind over in the advertising department. I was willing to forgive them for all the sexist things they’ve done in the past, because as they say “forgive and forget” (or something like that), but their recent mistake of promoting rape culture-seriously, in 2015? - was a little too much.

I don’t know how or why I was surprised to hear of a beer company making an offensive advertisement, but I was. What’s even more ironic is that April is sexual assault awareness month, so when I read the slogan “The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night #UpForWhatever” all I could do was shake my head and face palm.

In case anyone needs a review of what consent is, here we go:

-Sexual activity requires consent, which is defined as voluntary, positive agreement between the participants to engage in specific sexual activity.

-Consent to sexual activity can be communicated in a variety of ways, but one should presume that consent has not been given in the absence of clear, positive agreement.

-Consent must be clear and unambiguous for each participant at every stage of a sexual encounter. The absence of "no" should not be understood to mean there is consent.

-The use of alcohol or drugs may seriously interfere with the participants' judgment about whether consent has been sought and given.

The people over at Bud Light may need to read those last two a couple times.

I personally brought this up when I was with my friends this weekend and my guy friends didn’t really see a problem with it (they’re morons), but my girl friends agreed with me when I said I thought it was pretty rapey. I don’t know if rapey is really a word, but it is in my world. The thing that I find craziest about this whole ordeal, is the way Bud Light handled it. They simply removed the one slogan, and are continuing to keep the “Up For Whatever” campaign. This is not the first time they have promoted “rapey” material with this campaign. For St. Patrick’s Day they promoted sexual assault by saying “You can pinch people who aren’t #UpForWhatever.” They deleted the tweet and apologized, but I don’t understand how this is still happening. Maybe you should just get rid of the idea all together, Bud Light??

All I know is that I’m going to attempt to boycott Bud Light until they get their s*!t together. I’ve been making my own wine anyways, maybe I’ll just stick with drinking that, because I certainly would never advertise rape-culture.

My slogan would be something along the lines of #UpForDrinkingWineWhileWatchingNetflixAndEatingTooMuchAndVentingWithYourGirlFriends