Television Commercial #1:
A hippie girl covered in mud dancing in the rain. She's got long, curly hair, and is very dirty.
There's Woodstock-inspired music in the background. Other images of young folks sitting outside
in the rain--on top of cars and vans, in the woods, on blankets--and dancing. Shot of some ladies
and gents skinny-dipping. Everyone looks so free free free. Caption reads "TAMPAX WAS THERE".
Television Commercial #2:
A black and an asian girl are best friends. Lots of close ups of their faces. They talk about
how different they are, but still, they have enough in common to be best friends. They both use
Tampax. It's what brings them together. Tampax makes the world hold hands and go around.
"In keeping with the major pedagogical tenets of cultural pluralism, which aim at (re)educating about the existence of cultures 'other' than the predominant WASP [White Anglo- Saxon Protestant] cultures of the West, an increasing number of representations of what are considered 'minor' identities and ethnicities are found in our mainstream media."--Rey Chow from Ethics After Idealism
Until recently, advertisements for women's hygiene and sanitary products made a point of being very apolitical in the images they used. The body, with all its 'private' parts, was represented in a subtle and discreet manner. There were images of white clouds, blue skies, pink backgrounds and eyedroppers placing translucent blue liquid on white sanitary products in order to show their level of absorbency. There was also suburban style green grass, a fresh breeze, and the pretty blonde lady biking off into the sunset with her tight white pants. In short, there were the emergent Western middle class values of private secrets, cleanliness, and hygiene.
With the emergence of the discourse of multiculturalism, post-colonialism, cultural diversity, sexual liberation, and feminism in the 90's, there has been a shift in media representations of sanitary products. Although it's taken a couple years longer than it probably should have, Tampax has made the move to catch up with the times. There's been a new move to try and politicize mainstream sanitary products in a way that fits in with the newly emerging 'progressive' discourse...And so, Tampax brings us the physically active female athlete, the sexually liberated young woman, and the racialized, yet still all-american subject.
It is interesting and important to note that through the representation of diversity, there is a certain claim that such advertisements are making the way for progressive politics. However, what has always been, and still remains at the background of this landscape of liberalist representations of race and gender, is that these products are supposed to "protect" women-- all sorts of women--from their interior bodily secretions, and maintain their discrete and clean exterior appearance. This line of thinking points back to the taboo of menstruation and the idea that women's bodies are somehow polluted and need to be cleansed, hidden, and protected.
Through the representation of "different" bodies within current media and advertisement campaigns, this well-kept-secret is somehow equated with a liberated body that can wear white pants, run a marathon, and go skinny dipping without anyone noticing its secretions.
It is extremely troubling to think that race, through representations of multiculturalism, and gender, through representations of non-traditional female stereotypes, is often bracketed as the site of this claim to a progressive politics, especially in light of the fact that the traditional stereotypes of hygiene, cleanliness, and purity are all maintained as parts of an all-american value system. As such, the real struggles of cultural indoctrination and categorical and stereotypical limitations are displaced, and issues of gender, class, capitalist consumerism, and colonial domination are negated. This is particularly troubling when one looks back at the imperialist history of corporate companies such as Proctor & Gamble (the makers of Tampax) and the brutalities which they have inflicted on "third world" women.