What is a Woman? Advert. The tide is truly turning...

[Appalonia]

"Florida-based watch manufacturer Egard Watches has created an ad spot in defense of biological women’s rights.

What are the details?
The video opens with footage of accomplished women, including female athletes and others, and shows women through the decades and even centuries fighting for equal rights.

"What is a woman?" the female narrator says. "Is women's history of achievements quickly being erased? Is a woman a feminine force of nature? Is a woman a sister, a daughter, a mother? Is a woman the wonder of childbirth?"

"Is a woman a caregiver?" the narrator continues. "Is a woman a warrior who fought for her place?"

The video continues, "Is that now being taken away, soon to be forgotten? Is that not worth protecting? And how long do we sit idly by and not stand for the sacred value of womanhood as it loses all meaning?"

"Because we believe that womanhood is a birthright," the narrator concludes.

What else?
In a statement provided to Blaze Media, Egard CEO Ilan Srulovicz said, “The overwhelming majority of Americans are appalled by Big Tech, Big Business, and Big Government’s coordinated campaign to erase the hard-fought gains earned by untold millions of amazing women in our society."

"Yet, almost nobody is speaking for them," Srulovicz continued. "We crafted an ad campaign that celebrates our grandmothers, mothers, sisters, aunts, and daughters, and everything they represent to paint a stark contrast to the lies we are all being told."

Srulovicz added, "The push for transgender rights is no longer about equality, it’s now a cleverly-crafted lie that comes at the expense of women. We ask all Americans to join us to speak truth.”

This is a VERY powerful advert

That's the thing really. Companies are about making money. For a few years being pro-gay/anti-racism was good for business. But in the last few years that kind of messaging has tipped into a level of problematic that is starting to lose them customers. Now businesses are realising that there may be more money in supporting women against the new misogyny. If this pro-woman advertising proves profitable while blindly TRA messaging loses money. We will see a sudden cultural shift.

So while I'm not exactly cheering on a company that's smart enough to use my political leanings to make money. I am cheered on by the idea that we are hopefully at the beginning of a shift back to sanity. And nervously hopeful that the shift doesn't lead to increased homophobia and racism.

@Misstache

I have to agree with some here feeling uneasy. The ad is almost exclusively white women with its centrepiece being the questioning of the first black woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court, an important part of black women’s history. The release of this ad seems timed to that and seems directly to be covering the extremely racist attacks on her by Republicans with the gloss of defending (white) womanhood. Her answer was silly but this ad is doing something else here. Note we also don’t see women marching in the labour movements, black women marching for Civil Rights, Latina women organizing against borders…it’s, other than sports (where they choose white gymnasts and swimmers and not black runners, gymnasts, or any black female athletes) all about childbirth, caring for elders, “feminine spirit” or whatever that was…aren’t black women part of this sacred womanhood? Other than the one woman at the end thrown in there this is an ad promoting the sacred role of white women within family to be caregivers and nurturers and uses that to establish a women’s history that ignores black women while attacking a black woman who has been called unqualified, a pedophile, etc. by white Republicans,

I’m sorry, but this ad is signalling a particular kind of white womanhood (all gender confirming, no lesbian couples here) and using it against a black woman. This isn’t women’s solidarity. And given how often the trans movement appropriates black womanhood and uses the argument “black women aren’t considered women either,” it’s horrible to leave black women out.

Brilliant post, it will obviously (continue to) be ignored in here because, you know, black women.

@Artichokeleaves

Hell yes!

And yeah I note the whittling about oh they're not sufficiently pure

Oh you're supporting children down mines being exploited by aliens gosh the shame of you

and celebrating women and empowering them is harmful to trans children and no mother should do it.....

For goodness sake get a bloody grip, this is getting beyond boring. I'll stand you one, free of charge.

It's not tribal or purity-spiralling to admire the advert's bold appeal to GC viewers (which obviously works) and then to read a bit of background, see that the watches are made in China and carry only a 24-month guarantee and think to yourself 'Good on them for spreading the word but no thanks.'

I have seen the advert, I've thought about the offer, I've checked the product and the company out and decided it's not for me. I'm not trying to stop you buying one and if you buy one I'll still talk to you. We're allowed to disagree about where we spend our money.

@Misstache

I have to agree with some here feeling uneasy. The ad is almost exclusively white women with its centrepiece being the questioning of the first black woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court, an important part of black women’s history. The release of this ad seems timed to that and seems directly to be covering the extremely racist attacks on her by Republicans with the gloss of defending (white) womanhood. Her answer was silly but this ad is doing something else here. Note we also don’t see women marching in the labour movements, black women marching for Civil Rights, Latina women organizing against borders…it’s, other than sports (where they choose white gymnasts and swimmers and not black runners, gymnasts, or any black female athletes) all about childbirth, caring for elders, “feminine spirit” or whatever that was…aren’t black women part of this sacred womanhood? Other than the one woman at the end thrown in there this is an ad promoting the sacred role of white women within family to be caregivers and nurturers and uses that to establish a women’s history that ignores black women while attacking a black woman who has been called unqualified, a pedophile, etc. by white Republicans,

I’m sorry, but this ad is signalling a particular kind of white womanhood (all gender confirming, no lesbian couples here) and using it against a black woman. This isn’t women’s solidarity. And given how often the trans movement appropriates black womanhood and uses the argument “black women aren’t considered women either,” it’s horrible to leave black women out.

It's a short ad, which doesn't set out to represent all of womankind. It shows women on their own, as individuals - you say that there are no lesbian women, but there are no obviously heterosexual women either. And in a short ad showing a few women, one of them is black (aside from the judge, and her refusal to define woman was big news internationally, and considering the job she was applying for is a big concern). As for showing swimmers - that's due to the Lia Thomas story being in the news. I get what you're saying, but I think they've done a reasonable job in the context of who their customers are.

What's wrong with sacred?

Misstache makes a good point.

I am sure the last thing they are trying to do is appeal to feminists. They are trying to sell jewellery.

@CervixSampler

What's wrong with sacred?

Here's the definition of sacred from Collins dictionary:

1. exclusively devoted to a deity or to some religious ceremony or use; holy; consecrated

I'm a) and atheist and b) reject anything that hints of religion, cultish beliefs or general spiritual/ mystic woo. I'm particularly wary of anything like 'sacred womanhood', which comes with all kinds of historical and cultural overtones. The moment I heard the phrase in the Egard advert I googled and discovered that this company has its roots in conservative and Christian culture in the US. So it's not for me, but that's not say it's not for you.

Yes!!! Yesyesyes. All the yesses

I'm American and this advert raises so many red flags for me, I can't support it. The fact it's from Florida, the cradle of Trumpism in the US, is a huge concern, as is the wording - it all screams Handmaid's Tale to me, I'm afraid. And there is a racial element to it too; I can't quite put it into words, but it's sinister.

Am very frightened that gender critical views are being co-opted by the American far right. It does the GC movement no favours at all.

@AngelicaElizaAndPeggy

I'm American and this advert raises so many red flags for me, I can't support it. The fact it's from Florida, the cradle of Trumpism in the US, is a huge concern, as is the wording - it all screams Handmaid's Tale to me, I'm afraid. And there is a racial element to it too; I can't quite put it into words, but it's sinister.

Am very frightened that gender critical views are being co-opted by the American far right. It does the GC movement no favours at all.

Dismissing people you don't like or don't agree with as 'far right' is problematic for me. Likewise mentioning Trump.

Most sensible people will have gender critical views. There is nothing to be co-opted.

I think that is a problem that will need solving by Americans for Americans, within the sociopolitical landscape there. That’s a fight that can’t be fought from here, unfortunately.

The gender critical ‘movement’ is only the face of a hell of a lot more people, women and men, stating fact and not compromising on it. It’s representative of material reality as known by all of humanity throughout millennia upon millennia, and understood perfectly well by all of humanity right now, today, regardless of what politics/lack thereof/faith/lack thereof/class/race/sex/sexuality/and so forth one might otherwise fall into.

We do not all need to agree on everything - not even some very big and important things - in order to speak the absolute truth that sex is immutable and together to fight against this particularly damaging ideology which affects us all, female and male, down to the very last individual.

I'm not sure any company or group can ever be 100% what people want them to be. So much of life and people is problematic. Life is complex and any slogan can be found to have fault but I like this one. It makes me think of all the girls in countries where deaths in infancy are common, where girls don't get to go to school. I like that they are saying womanhood is a birthright as to me it says all girls have the right to adulthood. I like it. I'm not right wing, or pro-trump. I am loosely Roman Catholic and Mary is sacred to us so it rings nicely to me but I understand why others might have issues with it. The $30 shipping is 😱

@doublemonkey, perhaps so. All I'm saying is that it's important to check sources on things because messages can appear very differently depending on what lenses you view then through.
I interpret this in a different way to you because I may well be from a different place. It's problematic for me.

Don't get me wrong, I want as much sunlight shone on the threat to women's rights as possible. But I'm concerned in case this cause becomes hijacked by groups of people who don't have our rights and interests truly at heart.

I think the tide is turning. Saw Caroline Hardman ( Prof Stock's literary agent) post this a couple of weeks ago twitter.com/littlehardman/status/1506223863771840516?s=21&t=5gJCt_uT8MlACRIUAnuH5w

I was gung ho rushing to buy this. The post about the 'white feminism' issue has made me pause. I can ignore the conservative right, ideal womanhood connotations but not any implicit racism.

However. I adore the necklace. I'm pleased they think that their 'sacred woman' theme is a profitable/winning one right now.

I'll look at it a bit longer before deciding.

All it needs is a Dino charm, a wand and a suffragette flag to make it perfect 🤣

@SelfPortraitWithPterodactyl

Christ, I am so tired of the posters who pop up on every bloody thread to point out that just because someone (politician, company, whatever) has said something true and sensible they are not automatically paragons of virtue or allies in every other way. For fuck's sake, WE KNOW. We are not - unlike some people, apparently - naive enough to assume that someone who says one right thing is a Good Person Who Can Do No Wrong. Seriously, if you see an advert that you approve of and automatically think that business must be worth supporting for every other reason that says a lot more about you and your approach to the world - and indeed, to my mind, suggests the sort of unsophisticated black-and-white thinking that is exacerbating the culture wars. We are recognising here that merely speaking the truth on this topic is unusual, and that we want to encourage it. Does that mean said truth-speaking is necessarily altruistically motivated? Obviously not. Is speaking a self-evident truth an exceptionally low fucking bar? Yes. Does it mean the speaker is a Good Person? Again, obviously not. 🙄 What we are rewarding is the action, the much-needed, refreshing and significant action - while also deploring the need for it and regretting that people who claim to be more charitably motivated can't go one better. We're not idiots, and we're not awarding a fucking sainthood.

Absolutely true. Every bloody word.

Ok people, we know we are dining with the devil, but at least the devil is stating truth, plus it's a choice to buy stuff. Cant get worked up about women spending their own money.

@MoonbeamSprinkles

Well I don’t think this company does agree with me on this issue.

I think that they believe that humans can’t change sex and I believe that too but that is where the similarities end.

I don’t believe in gender as an innate thing. I don’t believe in a ‘sacred womanhood’, I think that that idea is reductive and unhelpful.

I think gender is a prison whether it’s being pushed by the Christian Right or the TRA’s.

And I’m not going to applaud an advert that is celebrating narrow gender ideals simply because it also says you can’t change sex.

I didn't read it as talking about woman as anything other than biological sex. Did they mention gender or have you just projected that onto what they're saying?

I'm no expert on USA politics and tensions. The company is happily showing many people (mainly male) of many ethnicities to plug the product. www.egardwatches.com/pages/whos-wearing-egard

Here's the definition of sacred from Collins dictionary

1. exclusively devoted to a deity or to some religious ceremony or
use; holy; consecrated

It has other meanings though ;-regarded as too valuable to be interfered with;sacrosanct.

Have you seen some of the other posts on their Twitter feed defending police shootings.

So the company's CEO is also a professional actor in films, a director, a professional painter and a martial arts expert.
He's clearly a conservative, and has been featured on Fox News. Here he is talking about cancel culture:
"The foundation of any country that's getting any society that's going to progress is going to be built on the notion of freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of thought. We've been having a decay of that for quite some time. I mean, it's not a new concept. Like I said, it is Orwellian. I mean, people have written about this for many decades and have warned against it. The notion that people are now saying we have to reprogram people to think the way we want them to think is scary. I don't care which side of the aisle you're on. It should be something we can come out and say, ‘Hey, this is wrong.’ We should be able to have dialog. We should be able to have debate when that's out of the equation."
It looks as though it isn't just a marketing ploy?
www.foxnews.com/entertainment/walking-dead-ilan-srulovicz-cancel-culture-media-censorship

@Misstache

I mean, for an ad in the US you choose a medal ceremony of Soviet gymnasts in like 1972 to talk about women’s success in sports and not Simone Biles or Serena who are by far the most recognizable athletes? I guess they don’t have that feminine spirit and grace. This is an ad locating itself in a nostalgic white past where white women won gymnastics and white women did the caregiving (which is in fact done largely by immigrant non- white women like Filipinas, Latinas, Black women, etc.) where women weren’t CEOs (other than the questioning of Justice Brown no professional women here) and white women stayed nicely home and gave birth. This is really quite bad under the “we support women” surface.

I thought they were looking for some historic events rather than modern recognizable famous people.

If they'd chosen to show someone like Biles, for example, they'd have needed her permission, and I doubt it would have been forthcoming.