Last week there was a lot of talk that The Australian Advertising
Standards Bureau (ASB) has received a number of complaints about the recent
Carefree ad for Acti-Fresh underwear liners. The complaints were regarding the
use of the word vagina, as well as the woman being depicted as naked behind a
flower, but my complaints are with the marketing product of the product itself.
Although I don’t have a problem with using the word vagina, I
have to admit that I too was confused by the woman being naked. Why does she
need to be naked? Carefree have said they want to encourage women to feel comfortable talking about their bodies, so possibly they were trying to depict the female body in normalised way.
The message is contradicted by the fact
that woman’s body is hidden behind the flowers. If we’re so comfortable with it why do we need
to hide it?
But it also doesn’t make any sense. You can't wear liners when you're naked. If the ad had shown a woman in her
underwear, it would have put the product
in the context of being part of a woman’s usual routine of getting dressed, an
every day routine. Wearing underpants is not hiding your body. It’s just a
normal part of life – many people wear underpants. I think they just wanted to
be different. But they were already achieving that by simply saying the word
vagina. They didn’t need to do anything else outrageous.
Which brings me to my particular problem with the ad. I’m not
offended by the word vagina. I think it’s good that Carefree used the word and
spoke openly about its healthy functions. What offends me is the implication
that we need to do something about it. If discharge is a healthy thing, what do
we need the liners for?
The ad says the liners have '…an absorbent core to lock away
wetness and odour, helping you feel clean, dry and fresh every day’. To me, this
says that the wetness and the odour is a negative thing; a problem. So although
it’s healthy to have vaginal discharge, it’s not acceptable? Of course, there
may be women who experience large amounts of discharge or have particular
issues that worry them, and they should feel comfortable in dealing with that.
But it should not be presented to us something we all need to do something
about.
It seems Carefree aren’t the only ones preaching this
message. Recently I bought sample pack of U products t came with a free clutch!) Included was a booklet with lots of good information, obviously aimed at girls
going through puberty. It also recommended using liners throughout the month
for discharge. Personally, I find wearing liners for too long can lead to
chafing, which in my opinion is much worse for your feminine hygiene. I won't be taking their advice on that one.
Mamamia recently
published 'Dear Makers of Feminine Vagisil Wash', criticising the makers of Vagisil Feminine Wash for making
women feel like it is not normal for their vaginas to have an odour. Unfortunately Carefree must have missed that one. The writer even
used the word vagina a few times.
I thought that if you were a clean and hygienic person,
the usual monthly discharge, wetness and odour should not be a problem. I
learnt long ago from Dolly Doctor that vaginas have their own cleaning system,
and that you shouldn’t use soap at all in that part of the body.
On an episode of Embarrassing Bodies a young woman was so worried about her odorous discharge that they took a swab and sent it to the
lab, only to find the sample devoid of pretty much any bacteria, even the good
ones that control things like smell. So the final diagnosis was that she was
washing it far too much and the best thing she could do was to leave it alone!
Carefree claim they want to encourage women to talk openly
about their bodies, but how many women and teenage girls out there now think the healthy
functioning of their bodies is actually something dirty and unclean? Carefree
seem to be more concerned with locking our vaginas up than liberating them.
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