Hobags unite!
10 April 2010
Here’s what they hand out to students at my campus:
I can’t believe I’m complaining about a condom, but it’s the most perverse birth control message ever: don’t make any more hobags like you. Does the damn logo have to show a porno woman on her back? Moreover, if you go to Hobag.com (but really, please don’t), you find women’s t-shirts and “booty shorts” (sigh) that proclaim its wearer as a HOBAG in big letters. Or SKANK. There’s a couple of guys’ t-shirts too; to be precise, 11 products are for women, and 4 for men. But half of the men’s t-shirts look like this:
There’s a larger conversation to be had about the use of irony and self-reflexivity in advertising (Bitch has a smart post about the Kotex ads that make fun of “feminine protection” ads) but this isn’t ironic anymore. This is just misogyny. Die, Hobag.com, lest I send Lisbeth Salander after you.
10 April 2010 at 9:37 pm
This is awful. You should volunteer to join them and then covertly cover the sexist stickers with stickers that say, “I love sex!” “I love my/your vagina/penis” and “More gloves, more love!” And other pro-sex/pro-protection messages.
Thanks for sharing.
11 April 2010 at 8:14 am
No kidding. I realize that Hobag.com is probably using these free condoms as easy advertising to undergrads, but if only we could launch a movement against them.
11 April 2010 at 8:57 am
I’m going to email them.
11 April 2010 at 1:06 pm
Fantastic! And thank you. Be sure to report if they respond to your email — I’m dying to know what they say.
11 April 2010 at 2:25 pm
Wow. Had I known. They gave me two, and I actually did give one to a student. Gulp.
11 April 2010 at 2:49 pm
Sometimes I can’t help doing close readings of the mundane. One can’t be faulted for seeing this simply as a condom.
18 May 2010 at 11:22 am
And note that the message is for women (I’m guessing only women can be “hobags” — a term that was new to me). No message for men.
So it’s women alone who are responsible for contraception?
Yeah, I realize they’re not thinking about such messages; they’re only trying to be funny. But honestly.
18 May 2010 at 11:31 am
Yes. Funny. Ha. Ha.
I suppose in theory a hobag could be a man (that website did have a couple of t-shirts for men), but perhaps only in the way that very occasionally we call a man a bitch. Which gets directly to your point, JE: when the fuck are men going to be responsible for birth control? And does women’s control over contraception have to come with this viciously misogynistic message about their sexuality? Argh.