I subscribe to the American Family Association’s “Action Alerts.” Why? I ask myself that question every time I one hits my email inbox stinking of fallacious arguments and oozing with Fundamentalist idiocy.
In the spirit of “know thine enemy” I open these epistles of evangelicalism and bask in their unapologetic polemics.
I got this one today, and I have to make this disclaimer before I go any farther. I work in advertising. I do lots of freelance design for a local adult novelty and video store chain. I’ve experience first hand the great effort on the part of designers, business owners and sign companies to take into account the standards of the community, while still providing a necessary service to these businesses.
Dear Timothy,
If you drive on some of America’s highways, you most likely have been visually assaulted by billboards advertising adult businesses, or “gentlemen’s clubs” as their owners prefer to refer to them. You may have had a curious child ask what they are. No parent should have to talk about these places to their innocent child.
Billboard advertising giant, Lamar Outdoor Advertising, is one of the companies providing ads for these “adult” businesses. Lamar once had a family-friendly policy that prohibited sexually suggestive graphics and language — but not now.
Sign our petition to encourage Lamar to again adopt its family-friendly policy that protects communities and highways from billboards that advertise for businesses that have the potential to increase crime rates, reduce property values, encourage infidelity and break up marriages and families.
AFA believes that when outdoor advertising is used to exploit women as sex objects, concerned Christians should take a stand to protect women, men and children against indecent and irresponsible attacks on our families and community standards through advertising.
This doesn’t surprise me. Organizations like the AFA have been trying to shut down adult oriented businesses for as long as these businesses have been operating legally in the United States. They’ve been regulated and taxed and zoned into a no-man’s-land where they could not be expected to make a profit, if not for the fact that communities want these businesses to thrive, and they say so with their hard-earned money. As one of my clients who owns and manages an adult video store says, the same names you’ll see on petitions like these are the very same names he’ll see when they sign their credit card receipts. They are like Augustine of Hippo, who prayed, “Make me chaste, but not yet Oh Lord, not yet!” They know that they’ll visit and support these businesses, and signing a petition against them offers them a balance for the “sin” of their lust.
So after failing to put adult novelty stores, adult theaters, strip clubs and other similar establishments out of business in the courts and by wielding the power of the government, entities such as the AFA now turn their eyes to the only means of advertising, besides alternative newspapers, for local adult businesses: billboards.
It’s genius! If you can’t force a company out of business by making their trade illegal, you attempt to shut down their ability to advertise.
If you drive on some of America’s highways, you most likely have been visually assaulted by billboards advertising adult businesses, or “gentlemen’s clubs” as their owners prefer to refer to them.
I love the use of the phrase “visually assaulted” in the first line. Talk about hyperbole. These billboards are often quite tame, compared to your average lingerie ad in the newspaper. When they are risqué, they normally feature a beautiful woman showing more than a little cleavage. I know, I know. This causes an otherwise good man to get all lathered up and turn into a raving sex lunatic. At least, that’s what Christian Fundamentalists want you to believe. They like to project an image of men as weak-minded beasts, just barely held in check by their faith. Strangely, they are the same people who deny any link between mankind and animals through evolution, but that’s an entirely different issue.
You may have had a curious child ask what they are. No parent should have to talk about these places to their innocent child.
What a terrible thing it must be to have to talk to your children about sex, especially when you’re a ravenous sex fiend, barely able to contain your primal urges. How about “That billboard advertises a place where people pay to look at beautiful women, for no reason other than their physical beauty. What do you think about that?” Talk about a conversation starter? If people weren’t afraid to talk to their children, imagine all the interesting places a question like that could go.
Billboard advertising giant, Lamar Outdoor Advertising, is one of the companies providing ads for these “adult” businesses. Lamar once had a family-friendly policy that prohibited sexually suggestive graphics and language — but not now.
Gee, I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that we’re in an economic recession, and people spend more on indulging themselves in small pleasures when money is tight? For the same reason that cosmetics, perfumes and spa treatments tend to sell better in a recession, buying an adult DVD or putting $20 in one dollar bills in a stripper’s G-string become welcome respites from the day to day worries of the economic doldrums.
Sign our petition to encourage Lamar to again adopt its family-friendly policy that protects communities and highways from billboards that advertise for businesses that have the potential to increase crime rates, reduce property values, encourage infidelity and break up marriages and families.
I’m glad someone is looking out for our communities (who support these businesses by voting with their wallets) and our highways (which have never complained about the billboards on their margins). Especially when these businesses “have the potential” to create so much misery. Doesn’t any business have the same “potential” to reduce property values? A grocery store or gas station can depress property values, if it’s put on the corner next to an exclusive housing development. Moreover, in the areas that adult businesses have been relegated to by law and harsh zoning practices, they are often the most affluent establishments, and also the most secure. I’ve left my car parked in more than a few strip club parking lots, in neighborhoods where I wouldn’t normally slow down, much less park. I’ve never been accosted, or had any of my property stolen or damaged. As for encouraging infidelity and breaking up marriages, this only happens when men are too afraid to share their appreciation for such entertainment with their spouses, mainly due to religious dogma. I’ve never been to a strip club that my loving wife wasn’t right there by my side. No, “have the potential” is just a phrase used to introduce your slippery-slope argument. That’s all it is.
AFA believes that when outdoor advertising is used to exploit women as sex objects, concerned Christians should take a stand to protect women, men and children against indecent and irresponsible attacks on our families and community standards through advertising.
All I can say to this is that the AFA and its members should read their Bibles. I can’t imagine a book that has been the source of more misogyny than the Bible and its ilk. There are more ways than sexual to objectify women. They can be literally objectified by treating them like possessions, or livestock. The can be objectified by stereotyping them as baby-making factories with no place in civilization other than keeping the home and raising the children. It can objectify them by making ridiculous distinctions such as the difference between the guilt of a rape victim, based on whether they were raped in the country or in a city. (Deuteronomy 22:23-29) AFA, remove the beam from your own eye, and then we’ll start talking about how a strip club or porn shop objectifies women.
“Think about the children!” That’s the cry we hear from organizations like the AFA who support firefighters allowing a house to burn because its owner failed to pay a fee, and then turn around and protest a billboard with a scantily-clad woman on it.
I guess one has to have priorities.
