No Comment: “Use Your Natural Charm”

In three new ads featuring model Gisele Bündchen, Brazilian lingerie company Hope urges women to take off their clothes before breaking “bad” news to their male partners.

The ads rely on the old saw that sex sells, but we’re willing to let that slide–after all, it’s lingerie. But these ads don’t sell lingerie with the promise of intimacy or pleasure or love; they sell it as a way of getting away with being “bad.” Specifically, with maxing out your boyfriend’s credit card or crashing his car.

There are so many things wrong with that. First, the dual sexist stereotypes that women are frivolous overspenders and bad drivers. Second, the implication that women are dependent on their male sex partners (it’s his car and his credit card). Third, the idea that sex is a bargaining chip–that women should trade on their looks to get out of financial mishaps.

As Copyranter noted, “Gisele Bündchen kills feminism dead [with these] ads.”

What do you think?

The other two ads can be viewed here and here.

TOP: Screenshots of Hope lingerie advertisement.

About

Sarah is a visual journalism student at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash. She has a near obsession with ending injustice and is a sucker for a good cause.