[cross-posted to Shakesville]

Remember that ad? You know the one. It had Pamela Anderson and that gorgeous brunette secretary pouring cream/milk all over each other while dressed in nothing but skimpy gold string bikinis. What were they advertising again? Oh that’s right – domain names. Those two things are totally related to each other.

I remember the night I saw that advertisement for the first time. It was Christmas, I was tired and bored and kicking back with my family, watching some trash TV cause that’s all that was on and we’d watched all our videos. I mentioned it in a livejournal entry.

Yeah, my language was pretty strong, but I had every right to communicate that way. It’s ostensibly a private journal (though nothing is truly secret on the internet) and I wanted to network with my feminist friends, looking for ideas how to legally and effectively protest against that horrendous commercial. I was not going to take this crap in a prone position.

I posted on my LJ. I talked to both Liss (from Shakesville) and Lauredhel. I looked online at various agencies and finally sent an angry letter to the Advertising Standards Bureau here in Australia. I went to what I thought was the YouTube channel of the company that made the ad in the first place and let them know that I was going to do my utmost to get their crappy ad off the air. In the spirit of total honesty, I got very angry and said that I hoped that the company lost money on the ad. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

After writing the letter, my personal life demanded my undivided attention. I’d done what I could about the ad and I figured after an awesome post by CaitieCat at Shakesville and one by Lauredhel, this thing had played out.

Oh, how wrong I was.

About a month later I was told that the ad had been banned. News articles reported on this ban, and I did a little jig. Finally, finally, my letter-writing and shaking of fists had paid off! It was a victory for progressive folk everywhere! The ASB very rarely takes action on things such as this, and so quickly. I was both stunned and heartened.

Then I read an article where Gavin Collins, the head of the Crazy Bromains company, was vocally blaming “feminist bloggers”. He went on morning chat shows to paint them in a most negative light. I chuckled and watered my evil Feminist cactii with his bro-tears, stroking my evil cat and going “Mwa-ha-ha-ha” a lot, while counting FemCo’s huge piles of misandry-generated cash.

Okay, what really happened was that I laughed and then got distracted with life again. Apparently the company was appealing the decision, but this didn’t bother me because they had such a weak case. I thought that was the end, I really did.

Then cue forward to about four days ago. A random LJ user commented on my original post about the advertisement, asking me if I had ever gotten around to actually sending a letter in and complaining. Why yes, I did. Well, it seemed that I had been linked to by Mr. Crazy Bromains himself, Gavin Collins.

I checked out the PDF of the case study. And low and behold, there’s a link to my journal, to the very first entry I did about this whole debacle. Says the company:

We are further instructed by our client that the complaints were launched maliciously by a group of persons with vested interests. We refer the Board to the following link – http://logansrogue.livejournal.com/1327524.html – which will corroborate our client’s allegation that their advertisement has been the subject of discontent for the feminist bloggers on the said site. We are sure the Board will note that the bloggers on this site do not represent the majority of society who are reasonably minded and less sensitive to an advertisement with a tongue in cheek approach.

Yeah, that’s directly copied and pasted. I am, apparently, a group with a vested interest. Little old me. Was I malicious? Yeah, maybe when I was really angry. I tend to get a little She-Hulk when my basic human rights are flouted for advertising cheap domain names. But vested interests? Really? I quote my latest journal entry:

…I’d like to come out and make it totally clear to the ASB (and may I point out that the the thought of them looking at my journal is truly gobsmacking) that I am not a part of any particular interest group. Not a coherent one with a membership drive and aims and all that crap.

I’m merely a feminist, an angry feminist with a blog and a LOT of feminist friends that dislike being objectified as much as I do.

What happened with the Crazy Bromains ad was not an orchestrated attack against the advertisers. It was a bunch of women getting really fucking pissed off and complaining. That’s what happens when you try that 70s shit these days. Well, it’s what SHOULD happen but there’s a backlash going on, don’t you know. So I’m deeply satisfied by the results of this case study.

Yes, Crazy Bromains. I got mad, I wrote letters. People can do that in this country (Australia), that’s why there’s an ASB in the first place. What I was doing was making an effort to defend my rights as a human being. If that upsets you or offends you, I can’t help that. If that means you’re going to make shit up about me, well – go for it. All anyone has to do is talk to me to know that I’m a stone-cold broke unemployed disabled feminist artist with a lot of time on my hands. I have no money piles to look out for. And if there are money piles, I really doubt that half-penny web business like Crazy Bromains is really much of a threat.”

So – a woman speaks out and is summarily attacked and had her character maligned by a bunch of douchewads jealously protecting their hip-pockets. Yay Kyriarchy!!

For bonus LOLs, load up the PDF and read some of the grand intellectualising and mansplaining of exactly why the commercial wasn’t sexist. My favourite bit:

Adam the male member at the meeting in the advertisement is depicted as male colleague fantasising about his two female colleague’s and in order to portray his fantasy, the scenes of Pamela Anderson and the other female colleague are depicted performing pseudo-sexual movements and having milk or a whitish liquid poured over them, to show Adam’s mind drifting while the rest of the members of the meeting are trying hard to come up with a name for the new services provided by the company.

Yet when Adam is asked about what would an ideal name be for the provision of the services, Adam replies “crazy domains dot com dot au” which actually shows that even Adam knows that his fantasies about his female colleagues is outrageous and over the top, and as such “crazy” in the literal sense of the word. In our opinion members of the community would regard the storyline, style and tone of the advertisement to be light-hearted and pure fantasy. The intended message is that Crazy Domains are providing premium domain name services for fraction of the costs charged by other similar providers, which one would colloquially refer to as “First class services at a crazy price”.

So, you know, they admit it’s pseudo-sexual. Thank for doing the hard work for me, Asshole Advertising Agency!
Similar Posts:

• Alternative Youth Music Station Thinks There’s No Alternative to Being a Bloke by Guest Hoyden
• So, is a certain athletic shoe company just trolling the feminist blogs? by tigtog
• Was the Hottest 100 Of All Time sexist? asks Triple J’s Hack by Lauredhel
• Um, stunned by tigtog
• From the archives: Kate Harding on cyberbullying as a feminist issue by Lauredhel

Negative stereotypes about feminists abound in the media. And in response several times a year another article written by a feminist comes out worrying about the damage done by the deliberate misrepresentation of feminism. I worry too. Women won’t want to be feminists, let alone understand the cause, if the name is too scary for them.

But this refreshingly optimistic article from Raina Kelley in Newsweek reminds me that while feminists need to be prepared to stand up and fight for the identity of feminism, the true war lies in winning feminist outcomes. Don’t forget why we are here.

“This is a revolution, not a public relations movement”. Wise words from Gloria Steinem in Kelley’s piece, who points out that roughly the same number of women identify with the term ‘feminist’ as identify with the term ‘Republican’. You can double that number of women when a dictionary definition of ‘feminist’ is provided in the poll. In fact, with a definition tacked on to the term ‘feminist’ more than 60 per cent of women and more than 50 per cent of men will identify as feminist in American polls. Not bad for a term continually misrepresented as baby hating and bra burning. And really, what counts is the number of people who support feminist causes and in that area the polls regularly have the majority in our favour – “the proof is in legislation like the Fair Pay Act”.

Cross-posted at blue milk.Similar Posts:

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• Does it really take a divisive stereotype to catch a divisive stereotype? by Guest Hoyden
• Pinch me by tigtog
• Yet another comparison of lactation to the Reich by Lauredhel
• A US Vet Asks: “When do I get to be one of the American people?” by Guest Hoyden

For those wondering how on earth aid to a disaster area can exist without huge-scale donations of infanf formula from the United States, or wondering how to explain this to others, this press release from ILCA, and the links therein may extend understanding.

[notes: I prefer the terms "cross-nursing" or "shared breastfeeding", which don't so much recall the monetary implications and classist/racist history of "wet-nursing". Emphases and some links are added by me. You are welcome to reproduce this anywhere, with a backlink.]

Summary:

- Donate money, not stuff.
- Formula kills in an emergency, even when properly prepared.
- Even in the context of HIV, exclusive breastfeeding (including cross-nursing) is safer than artificial feeding.
- There is not a shortage of breastmilk in Haiti; 99% of young infants were breastfed before the emergency.
- Feed mothers and keep them safe; promote and support expression (when separated) and re-lactation.

Press Release by ILCA, February 1, 2010

FOR HAITI ORPHANS WET NURSING CAN SAVE LIVES

A new statement issued jointly by UNICEF, the World Health Organisation, and Pan American Health Organization, reminds relief workers, healthcare professionals, and the public that in an emergency such as the Haiti earthquake, the key to survival of all infants, including orphans, is breastfeeding. When a child is motherless or separated from his or her mother, wet nursing, that is, direct breastfeeding from another lactating mother, is the safest feeding option. Since the breastfeeding rate in Haiti is very high[99% of 0-5 mo are breastfed], there is a good likelihood of being able to find wet nurses for large numbers of motherless infants.

UNICEF, WHO and PAHO have recommended wet nursing, also called “cross nursing” or “shared breastfeeding,” for infants without mothers to “ensure their survival in an emergency situation.” There are a very small number of pathogens that may be transmitted via breastfeeding, including HIV. However, the risk of transmission of HIV via breastfeeding is low. The alternative to wet nursing for motherless infants is use of infant formula. The situation is Haiti is such that formula feeding presents a greater risk than the possibility of HIV infection via wet nursing.

Formula feeding in an emergency is extremely difficult and dangerous. Even when properly prepared, infant formula actively and passively harms the immune system of young babies, placing them at risk of life-threatening diarrhea and respiratory illness. [The Emergency Nutrition Network provides information on how formula can cause deaths due to diarrhea in an emergency.]

Formula feeding also requires extensive investment from the supporting aid agency. This includes a constant supply of infant formula; a stable supply of clean water; a stove and fuel to boil water; a pot, kettle, and feeding cups. Bottles and teats (artificial nipples) should never be used in emergency conditions because they are too difficult to adequately clean. Caregivers also need a clean storage environment, education on minimizing the risks of formula feeding, and medical supervision. This support should be provided not just in the immediate emergency, but until the infant is 12 months old [note Article 6.7 of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes .

According to the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA), wet nursing is not new, and has been practiced since the beginning of time not just in emergencies, but for convenience of mothers. The practice was made more visible with reports of actress Salma Hayek, who breastfed a suffering child in Sierra Leone last year, and Chinese police officer Jiang Xiaojuan, who was reported to have breastfed five additional infants besides her own after the May 2008 earthquake in China.

ILCA provides additional recommendations on supporting breastfeeding mothers consistent with directives from international relief organizations, including:

* Feed the mother so she can, in turn, feed her infant.
* Provide a safe environment for breastfeeding if needed, including providing a private area or a way to breastfeed discreetly, if the mother desires it.
* Assist mothers who are separated from their infants with regular milk removal to avoid engorgement and maintain their milk production for when they are reunited with their baby.
* Assist mothers with re-establishing their milk production if they have already weaned their baby.

ILCA also strongly encourages the general public to avoid the temptation to donate infant formula to Haiti and, instead, to donate funds to relief organizations for use in meeting highest priority needs. Aid agencies supporting infants in Haiti that cannot be breastfed have procured the supplies that they need. Donations of infant formula only complicate the secure and sanitary provision of aid by workers on the ground. The organizations providing aid to breastfed and formula-fed infants in Haiti include: UNICEF, Save the Children, Action Against Hunger and World Vision.

ILCA has several free downloadable resources for families, health care providers, and relief workers in English, Spanish, and French. The website also has a user-friendly “Find a Lactation Consultant Directory” of available International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs) worldwide who can assist new mothers or relief workers with lactation.

CONTACT
Jim Smith, Executive Director International Lactation Consultant Association 919-861-5577 jim@ilca.org
Weekend/Evening Requests:Cathy Carothers, cathycarothers@ilca.org
ILCA Press Room

Similar Posts:

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• Haiti In Pictures: “You Can’t Show THAT” by Lauredhel
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I find these kinds of stories fascinating. People choosing to ‘live poor’ (though of course with the capacity to leave when they want to, and also while equipped with the education, networks and self-esteem that a life of opportunity has bestowed upon them) – in order to liberate themselves from debt, be less wasteful and more environmentally ethical, to challenge materialism and test their fortitude.

From Ken Ilgunas in Salon about his efforts to gain a private university education without going into debt:

Living in a van was my grand social experiment. I wanted to see if I could — in an age of rampant consumerism and fiscal irresponsibility — afford the unaffordable: an education.

I pledged that I wouldn’t take out loans. Nor would I accept money from anybody, especially my mother, who, appalled by my experiment, offered to rent me an apartment each time I called home. My heat would be a sleeping bag; my air conditioning, an open window. I’d shower at the gym, eat the bare minimum and find a job to pay tuition. And — for fear of being caught — I wouldn’t tell anybody.

Living on the cheap wasn’t merely a way to save money and stave off debt; I wanted to live adventurously. I wanted to test my limits. I wanted to find the line between my wants and my needs.

And lest you think it is a boys’ own adventure, this from Katherine Hibbert in The Guardian about her year of living without an income:

I had set out to live for free for 12 months, but when my time was up I had no desire to stop. The flat I lived in was comfortable, and my flatmates and I had been in it for months with no threat of eviction. Finding food was no hassle. I slept as much as I liked, read as much as I liked and went out, walking in the park or visiting galleries. My parents had stopped worrying about me.

These simple living arrangements are genuinely adventurous undertakings, and read as such. They are thought-provoking and inspiring, and maybe also… a little fashionable. Living green is the new black. But for those of us who have lived in actual honest to goodness poverty they can also be somewhat bemusing. Being raised on a single parent benefit didn’t so much give me the piety of poverty as an early introduction to the exhausting fear that comes with financial insecurity. If you want to really know what it is like to ‘drop in on’ poverty then these simple living articles aren’t really your guide – much more compelling doses of empathy can be found in Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed and Jack London’s classic People of the Abyss. In a way, the simple living articles are less intended to teach you about poverty than to teach you about being affluent and how you could live better and more soundly with your affluence.

I often find myself wondering what the same living experiments would be like with children along for the ride. So I was pleased to be shown an article with exactly that angle, from Susie Arnett at Kindred about her family’s choice to move into a trailer in order to survive on the income of one artist :

But at 320 square feet, the Mallard is small.  When Kim brushes his teeth, the entire trailer shakes.

After the kids finally go to sleep in their new bunk beds, we realize how really small it is.  There’s a cupboard right over the bed that we need to duck under to lay down. The built-in closet sits against the foot of the bed, which means Kim cannot straighten his 6 foot 2 inch frame. A thin, cotton curtain separates us from our children who are sleeping 25 feet away.  If Ely woke up and stuck his head out from behind the curtain, he could see our feet and calves.  Any hopes of loud, raucous sex are dashed.  Besides, wouldn’t the neighbors see the trailer moving up and down?  We move slowly and quietly, the way you do when you’re visiting your parent’s house during college with your boyfriend.

Going from 1500 square feet to 320 square feet means we have to get rid of things.  We begin by paring down our enormous collection of plastic toys. Ely and Everly’s primary “toys” now are the things they find outside – like sticks, rocks and dirt.  (Fortunately, we live in a place where the things you find outdoors are relatively harmless).  Ely has grown very attached to a certain stick.  He carries it around constantly.  Sometimes, it’s a sword he uses to chase the rabbits at dusk.  Other days, it’s a fishing pole for catching sharks.

Because of our limited space, we spend the entire day outside.  The yard is now our living room and dining room.

(Cross-posted at blue milk).Similar Posts:

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Trust Women

It’s still the 22nd of January in the US as I write this, which makes it the 37th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, and thus the 5th annual Blog for Choice Day.

Choice here is not just about having the choice to terminate an unwanted or unsafe pregnancy. It is also about having the choice to continue a pregnancy when others would rather that you did not (a situation that many disabled women in particular find themselves in). It is also about having the choice to raise or relinquish the child once it has been born.

Nobody else should make that choice on behalf of a pregnant woman. Only she knows her whole life situation intimately enough to decide whether she has the internal and external resources to (a) go through gestation, (b) give birth and (c) mother the child. This isn’t to say that nobody else has any right to express their opinion on the matter – of course they do (particularly the man who provided half the genetic material). But in the end, all anybody else can do is advise and seek to persuade. Only the woman with the pregnant body can decide what she is going to do.

I trust women to make informed, responsible choices about the size of their families and the spacing of their pregnancies. Do you?

Addendum: Jill at Feministe adds the (in retrospect) obvious rider here – trusting women to make their own choice does not mean assuming that every choice about a pregnancy is necessarily going to be a perfect, beyond criticism, choice.

For me, though, “Trust Women” rings a little bit differently — because, quite frankly, I don’t trust women to always make the right decision or the best decision any more than I trust men to. At the end of the day, human beings do foolish things all the time — we make bad choices, we lie, we cheat, we mess up, we hurt other people, we make mistakes. We do things we regret. We regret not doing things. It’s part of being human.

So, no, I don’t trust women to always make the right choice or the best choice. And one consequence of that is that I sure as hell don’t trust any other woman (or man) to make the best decision for me about my body.

We all make mistakes. Sometimes pregnant women will make a mistake and come to regret the choice that they made. But it’s guaranteed that giving the decision making power about pregnancy to anybody else but the pregnant woman is a violation of personal sovereignty that will wound her far more deeply than hypothetical future regrets.Similar Posts:

• Why am I pro-choice? by tigtog
• Blogging for choice by tigtog
• Yesterday was Blog for Choice Day by tigtog
• Fundiewatch: a Catholic prenatal diagnosis “counselling service” by Lauredhel
• Melbourne Anglican Diocese supports the decriminalisation of abortion by Lauredhel

In the news:

Image one source.

Image two source.

Description: Two media images of babies being fed in Haiti. The first is being breastfed. The entire breast is pixellated out. The second baby is being bottle-fed by a gloved hand. The bottle logo is very prominent. The bottle company, Avent, is one with long-standing global violations of the World Health Organisation Code (WHO Code) for the Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes.

I’ll leave you with a slide from the UNICEF presentation, Infant and young child feeding in emergencies in the media [PDF]

“We distributed children’s clothes and about 40 mothers showed up with their babies, we…taught them how to use the milk powder we had received in big quantities.” Source: Real Medicine Foundation News. Sri Lanka, Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004/5

ETA: No, wait, there’s one more thing I want to say. Many of these resources focus on babies and the immediate effect of (mostly) well-intentioned but misplaced infant formula “aid. There is much less focus on the effect on women. For many women, the only method of child spacing available to them is exclusive breastfeeding. With a lot of women’s breastmilk supplies disrupted by inappropriate milk replacements, where are you six months down the track? If the babies survive the artificial feeding in the first place – and, contrary to the ideas of some ignorant Westerners, diarrhea is not a mere nuisance in a disaster – you have a cohort of women who are not only scratching to spend a large proportion of household income on a continued supply of breastmilk substitutes, but are also pregnant again. Irresponsible “aid” doesn’t only affect babies, it contributes to poverty and illness for mothers.

Further reading:

The World Health Organisation, UNICEF, and World Food Programme “Call for support for appropriate infant and young child feeding in Haiti”

Infant feeding in the post Indian Ocean tsunami context: reports, theory and action [.doc format; also available in PDF here]

ICDC Focus: The Code and infant feeding in emergencies

Media Guide on Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies

IFE Core Group resources

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• Call to activism: oppose infant formula promotion in Qld Indigenous communities by Lauredhel
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mr tog and I will be donating money to these two orgs today:

* Médecins Sans Frontières Australia
* Australian Red Cross Haiti Appeal

Obviously, there are many other relief orgs doing good work in Haiti in the wake of the earthquake disaster. Please mention any that you know of and recommend in comments.

NB Felix Salmon points out that money per se is not the biggest problem in Haiti at the moment, and that orgs such as the Red Cross, MSF/DWB and UNICEF are probably going to get so much money earmarked to Haiti that they won’t be able to spend it in 10 years. Consider making your donation to relief orgs unrestricted rather than earmarked for Haiti so that it can be in their general fund to be used for ongoing projects as well as smaller disasters elsewhere that don’t get the same media storm.Similar Posts:

• For Haiti Orphans, Cross Nursing Can Save Lives: ILCA, UNICEF, WHO, PAHO by Lauredhel
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• Women of Myanmar (Burma) and China by tigtog

I don’t read Kos much any more, but when a whole heap of others start linking to a particular post, I’m gonna check it out.

Feminism Fail

No, not that kind of feminism. Not the theory of women’s equality or the history of suffrage or the First Wave or the Third Wave or 18 million tiny cracks in the glass ceiling.

I’m talking about Feminism^TM, as in the largest feminist advocacy organizations in the country raising millions of dollars to fight on behalf of women.

And I’m wondering if Feminism^TM is really such a good investment.

You know those emails? The ones from NOW and NARAL and Emily’s List that declare, with great urgency and lots of ALL CAPS and exclamation marks, that you must give money right now? Stop this bill! Block this nominee! Protect Roe! Save the Supreme Court! And give, give, give!!!

And since you often agree — why yes, I do want to stop this bill; why no, I do not want that nominee confirmed — you click and give. It won’t stop this bill or block that nominee, but you will get another email at the next crisis.

And it’s always a crisis. Even under a Democratic president, with a Democratic supermajority in Congress, the nation’s biggest feminist organizations are in crisis mode, raising money but unable to deliver results. They’re just as effective as they were under Bush. Which is to say, Not. At. All.

Go read. There’s some good arguments in there. There’s already 600+ comments on it. But more importantly, how do we get around the inertia of these big orgs and do more effective advocacy and activism?

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I (along with probably quite a few other feminist bloggers) received an email from the Associate Editor of this new site. I like the goals.

Who are we?
www.independentgirls.org is all about giving girls ages 9-15 a safe place online where you can learn, think, ask questions, and meet other girls dealing with the same issues you’re dealing with. We want to give you the tools to be self-confident, independent, and successful.

The site (which has not yet been officially launched) seems well planned, although the bright colours are a bit much for me (also it would be nice to see at least one of the silhouette figures reading a book rather than dancing or jumping, or maybe a wheelchair dancer?). They’ve got forums and a private community area, a role-model of the week (so far are all very interesting women but the bias is heavily academia/business – I hope there’s some more diversity planned for these role models beyond the professional classes (although at least the women are ethnically diverse) and it’s very US-centric so far too) and a Her Story feature series, and integrated polls. But in order to engage the readers they want to reach, they need writers.

Independent Girls is seeking writers to generate original content for the website and weekly newsletters. Writers will identify, research, and write about topics and trends salient to and in a style that appeals to and engages 9-15 year old girls; this includes (but is in no way limited to) self-image, puberty, healthy relationships, bullying/cyberbullying, feminism, nutrition, exercise, stress management, goal setting, leadership, community involvement and organizing, cliques and popularity, frenemies, peer pressure, financial independence, popular culture critique, media literacy, and internet safety. (There are *many* other topics that can and should be explored; original ideas are encouraged.) Articles should answer questions girls have (or perhaps questions girls didn’t even know that they had) and an additional emphasis should be placed on developing the critical thinking skills.

Articles should be between 250-500 words long, and some topics may need to be covered in a series of articles or in ongoing editorial columns. (Creative ideas are encouraged too, like a serialized comic.)

If you are interested in this opportunity, send me an email at mandyvandeven [AT] gmail.com letting me know what ideas you may have for contributing. Compensation is determined per article and will be based on both the length of the article and how ready for publication it is upon receipt by Independent Girls.

I particularly like that they want an emphasis placed on critical thinking skills. More sites for young people should do this (more media for all people should do this!).

So if you, or someone you know, wants to write for the upcoming generation of independent women (and help their tribe increase), here’s a site that you could maybe be a founding voice on. If you’ve always wanted to be a paid writer, this could be a foot in the door.Similar Posts:

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I thought the BoobyWall was objectifying and tacky. I thought “Save the Ta-Tas” was dehumanising, and missed the point badly. I thought the “every mouthful” nipple-water-bottles were eyeroll-worthy. I thought that instructing us that if only cismen had boobs, they’d look after them better was disparaging and rude. I thought “Save Second Base” was creepy, and Bringing Breast Awareness Back Into the Workplace was creepier.

It gets worse. A lot worse. A Sociological Images commenter spotted this twelve-dollar “Breast Cancer Awareness” T-shirt being sold on campus (here’s the flyer)

The logo has a series of colloquial names for breasts in the shape of a ribbon – “breast boobs ta-tas fun bags honkers melons jugs dirty pillows rack headlights chi-chis the girls cans zonkers knockers”. The caption reads:

No matter what you call them, check them … or I will!

Seriously. The wearer of this shirt is quite willing to walk around proclaiming that he will sexually assault you if you don’t “check” your breasts.

I poked around for other examples and found this:

A black T-shirt says in hot pink text on the front

“I {heart} BOOBS”.

The heart has a ribbon shape superimposed on it. The back of the T-shirt reads:

“You Check Them OR I WILL! Breast Cancer Awareness”

with more pink ribbons.

But wait- there’s more. “Funny Cancer Shirts” brings us this:

A white hoodie has a line drawing of a creepy-looking bloke’s head, and a raised open hand. A pink ribbon lies in the background of the text, saying:

Mr McFeely says…

Check Them, or I Will!

Do you feel safer yet? Oh, but this is hilarious, right? Because no-one ever ACTUALLY touches breasts against their owner’s will! See? It’s SATIRICAL. Don’t you get it? The threat is just a JOKE! Lighten up, chicks! God, you’re so SERIOUS.

Douchebags, stay the fuck out of my health, my activism, my breasts. Really. Go get a new cause, and while you’re at it, just stay the fuck away from women altogether. Similar Posts:

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• Mount Franklin Breast Cancer ads. Let’s start a Brown Colon Cancer Awareness campaign. by Lauredhel
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• Faves: Bodies, Breasts ‘n’ Birth edition by Lauredhel