Dove foundation seeks to eradicate quality soft-core porn
Last night I received a call from someone who identified herself as a representative from the Dove Foundation. Let me just say that this woman irritated me six ways til Sunday. For starters she opened up the conversation with "May I please speak to the lady of the house?"
Is it just me, or is the term lady of the house now somewhat patronizing and dated if not just plain sexist? The fact that she asked for the lady of the house is presumptuous for a couple of reasons. 1) She doesn't really know whether or not there is a female living in my home, and 2) Even if she did know I was married, how does she know my wife is a lady?
I still use the word "lady" in a limited number of circumstances. Colloquially I'll use the term with people I know to point out a woman who I find disagreeable for one reason or another. I might say the lady with the bad attitude or that blue-haired lady. In addition I might use the term where I deem it appropriate in a job title like lunchroom lady or spritzer lady. A girl can act like a little lady, and as far as more regal titles go, I won't begrudge you yours if you fancy yourself Lady Chatterly or Lady Godiva or even Lady Elaine Fairchild. Was she a lesbian puppet by the way? I'm just asking.
Aside from those examples however, lady is a term best left said in 1950s gangster movies. But this isn't a rant on proper use of the term lady, so I'm just going to move on. Move with me, won't you?
Back to my phone call . . .
When I told the woman from the Dove Foundation that the lady of the house was not available (a small lie) she quickly said that there was no message and that they'd try and call back later. This too is rude in my opinion because it presumes that I would have no interest in the same matters my wife would regarding whatever these people want to discuss. If it's feminine hygiene products I can understand that, but when I then told the woman there was no lady of the house, she proceeded with her spiel and it had nothing to do with feeling more confident.
She wasn't selling anything. Her call would take less than 45 seconds, and oh by the way a recent survey had shown that many Americans feel movie and television ratings have become more lenient while television programming has begun to include more and more gratuitous sex, violence and foul language; and barring closer monitoring of children's tv viewing would I agree that the solution was to tighten restrictions on tv and movie rating systems.
What a loaded and yet evasive question!
It's loaded because the actual wording and tone used by the caller suggested that the underlying question was Don't you love your children enough to want what's best for them? The evasiveness comes because the true and simplest answer to the question is embedded in the question itself with the directive to disregard that as a potential solution.
MONITORING WHAT YOUR CHILDREN WATCH ON TV IS THE SIMPLEST AND BEST SOLUTION FOR KEEPING YOUR CHILDREN FROM WHAT YOU REGARD TO BE TELE-FILTH.
Furthermore, complaining about the quality of tv programming is like complaining about the flavor of garbage. If you don't like it, why would you consume it? I'm not big on television myself, not because I find it overly raunchy or risque (I'm all for gratuitous sex) but because I find most of the programming out there to be simplistic and contrived. Cooking shows are bland. Sitcoms aren't funny and serial type shows just look like the same story rehashed over and over week after week. I mean really folks, how many sexual fetishist undergrounds can Grisham and Sara stumble into before audiences realize these are the same hackneyed stories they've seen before? Drugstore paperbacks are less formulaic.
So anyway, this volunteer from the Dove Foundation -- I think from now on I'll call her the Dove lady -- barely let me get the word no out of my mouth before she abruptly spoke over me saying at lightning speed, "Okay, thank you. Goodbye." How rude! I was going to tell her why I felt the way I did. You'd think if she were truly interested in my opinion she would have heard me out.
Oh no.
I was nothing more than a check mark on her tally sheet, and frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if she only tallies the answers she likes anyway.
I looked up the Dove Foundation on the innerweb to find out what exactly they're all about. You probably guessed already that they're a right-wing fundamentalist group that spends its time finding what they don't like about what's on tv and then trying to reach into your living room and decide what you should and shouldn't watch. If it were up to them television programming would consist of nothing more than animated vegetables telling us we need to accept Pat Robertson as our Lord and Savior.
Ditto for movies. While a blurb on their About Us page mentions they strive not to condemn filmmakers whose movies don't meet their standards but rather promote those who do, there is a section of their site dedicated strictly to reviews of movies currently running. They weren't great fans of Talladega Nights and you can just imagine what they said about Clerks 2. The reviewer even noted that in the newest Kevin Smith flick the f-word was used 116 times. Why do I think she somehow got off on counting these vulgarities? Dove-savvy movie goers will be glad to know however that there are no occult themes in the film.
I won't bombard you with a lecture on freedom of expression and how freedoms come with responsibilties of the self and not finger pointing at others. You probably already have your own views on censorship and hopefully you're secure enough in your beliefs that your opinion can't be swayed by some faceless yahoo and his blog. Just do me this one favor:
If someone from the Dove Foundation calls you up and speaks with you because you're the lady of the house, don't be a lady. Give her the what-for.
Is it just me, or is the term lady of the house now somewhat patronizing and dated if not just plain sexist? The fact that she asked for the lady of the house is presumptuous for a couple of reasons. 1) She doesn't really know whether or not there is a female living in my home, and 2) Even if she did know I was married, how does she know my wife is a lady?
I still use the word "lady" in a limited number of circumstances. Colloquially I'll use the term with people I know to point out a woman who I find disagreeable for one reason or another. I might say the lady with the bad attitude or that blue-haired lady. In addition I might use the term where I deem it appropriate in a job title like lunchroom lady or spritzer lady. A girl can act like a little lady, and as far as more regal titles go, I won't begrudge you yours if you fancy yourself Lady Chatterly or Lady Godiva or even Lady Elaine Fairchild. Was she a lesbian puppet by the way? I'm just asking.Aside from those examples however, lady is a term best left said in 1950s gangster movies. But this isn't a rant on proper use of the term lady, so I'm just going to move on. Move with me, won't you?
Back to my phone call . . .
When I told the woman from the Dove Foundation that the lady of the house was not available (a small lie) she quickly said that there was no message and that they'd try and call back later. This too is rude in my opinion because it presumes that I would have no interest in the same matters my wife would regarding whatever these people want to discuss. If it's feminine hygiene products I can understand that, but when I then told the woman there was no lady of the house, she proceeded with her spiel and it had nothing to do with feeling more confident.
She wasn't selling anything. Her call would take less than 45 seconds, and oh by the way a recent survey had shown that many Americans feel movie and television ratings have become more lenient while television programming has begun to include more and more gratuitous sex, violence and foul language; and barring closer monitoring of children's tv viewing would I agree that the solution was to tighten restrictions on tv and movie rating systems.
What a loaded and yet evasive question!
It's loaded because the actual wording and tone used by the caller suggested that the underlying question was Don't you love your children enough to want what's best for them? The evasiveness comes because the true and simplest answer to the question is embedded in the question itself with the directive to disregard that as a potential solution.
MONITORING WHAT YOUR CHILDREN WATCH ON TV IS THE SIMPLEST AND BEST SOLUTION FOR KEEPING YOUR CHILDREN FROM WHAT YOU REGARD TO BE TELE-FILTH.
Furthermore, complaining about the quality of tv programming is like complaining about the flavor of garbage. If you don't like it, why would you consume it? I'm not big on television myself, not because I find it overly raunchy or risque (I'm all for gratuitous sex) but because I find most of the programming out there to be simplistic and contrived. Cooking shows are bland. Sitcoms aren't funny and serial type shows just look like the same story rehashed over and over week after week. I mean really folks, how many sexual fetishist undergrounds can Grisham and Sara stumble into before audiences realize these are the same hackneyed stories they've seen before? Drugstore paperbacks are less formulaic.
So anyway, this volunteer from the Dove Foundation -- I think from now on I'll call her the Dove lady -- barely let me get the word no out of my mouth before she abruptly spoke over me saying at lightning speed, "Okay, thank you. Goodbye." How rude! I was going to tell her why I felt the way I did. You'd think if she were truly interested in my opinion she would have heard me out.
Oh no.
I was nothing more than a check mark on her tally sheet, and frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if she only tallies the answers she likes anyway.
I looked up the Dove Foundation on the innerweb to find out what exactly they're all about. You probably guessed already that they're a right-wing fundamentalist group that spends its time finding what they don't like about what's on tv and then trying to reach into your living room and decide what you should and shouldn't watch. If it were up to them television programming would consist of nothing more than animated vegetables telling us we need to accept Pat Robertson as our Lord and Savior.
Ditto for movies. While a blurb on their About Us page mentions they strive not to condemn filmmakers whose movies don't meet their standards but rather promote those who do, there is a section of their site dedicated strictly to reviews of movies currently running. They weren't great fans of Talladega Nights and you can just imagine what they said about Clerks 2. The reviewer even noted that in the newest Kevin Smith flick the f-word was used 116 times. Why do I think she somehow got off on counting these vulgarities? Dove-savvy movie goers will be glad to know however that there are no occult themes in the film.
I won't bombard you with a lecture on freedom of expression and how freedoms come with responsibilties of the self and not finger pointing at others. You probably already have your own views on censorship and hopefully you're secure enough in your beliefs that your opinion can't be swayed by some faceless yahoo and his blog. Just do me this one favor:
If someone from the Dove Foundation calls you up and speaks with you because you're the lady of the house, don't be a lady. Give her the what-for.
posted by kevin black at
12:21 PM
18 Comments:
And how did she know you have just one wife? The caller is gonna have some real problems with calls to folks in Utah.
I tend to complain about the decline of Western Civilization as illustrated by the raunchy, stupefying crap that is on television these days. But, like you, I would rather exercise my right not to watch, than have my choices mandated by fundamentalists or politicians.
Kevin Smith is a satirical genius. Dogma? Poetry. Yeah, I wish he'd use the f word a little more judiciously, but I can get past it because he's so fuh...darn hilarious.
Check out this clip. It's long, but, worth it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgYhLIThTvk
I'll tell them that The Lady Flabina likes to say F*ck.
The Dove Foundation would so not fucking like my fucking blog at fucking all.
Does the Dove Foundation have links to the Hanso Foundation? Somehow I suspect it does.
I did telemarketing when I was a teenager. Some guy wanted me to send him my shoe. Weirdo.
That was me.
You're right, Gary, it does have Dharma Initiative written all over it.
At first I thought this was like the org started by Dove beauty, to further self-esteem in women and I was wondering why you were so pissed but now... I am pissed right along with you! I hate those people who try to impose values on me because of some sort of hypocritical biblical notion of right and wrong, good and bad. Grrr...don't even get me started.
Here's the thing: if people stop watching crappy shows, there will be no advertisers for those shows. No advertisers, no shows. The fact that the shows still exists just proves that this foundation simply exists to preach to the choir. Pun intended.
I also got a call tonight from the dove foundation. at first I thought it was a computer calling, she had such a controlled voice. she asked to speak to me by name, not the lady of the house -- maybe they're monitoring your blog?????
However, because of your blog i was able to knowledgeably blow them off! i said i had seen their website and i didn't support their goals. i told them i normally don't like movies that are family friendly. she seemed shocked that as a concerned parent i didn't want to talk to a representative who was going to call me back to discuss other stuff (why would i agree to someone calling me again?) thanks for the heads-up on them!
I, too, thought you meant the Dove company, the one that's promoting curvy women on billboards everywhere (yay!). But as I read your post, I remembered -- oh yeah, *that* Dove Foundation. I got this very call from them a while back. My answer to "is this the lady of the house?", as it always is when somebody asks, was "there is no lady of the house." The woman went into her spiel anyway, I answered "No" to her question about regulating television, I got the "okthankyougoodbye," and that was that. I wonder what happens when someone says "Yes" and "Yes"?
I got a call from them as well. The woman just slammed me with questions about that all began with the words, "Don't you agree that...blah, blah, blah?" I said that turning off the tv or all of those blocking devices for cable were fine and that it was the parents' duty to say "yea" or "nay". The woman persisted. I said I wasn't for censorship either. The woman persisted. Like your caller, she didn't let me get a word in. I wonder if she works part time for FOX NEWS.
Finally, she hung up as she was unable to convert me. I think I know why they ask to speak with women. Maybe it's because they assume men are more likely to condone pornography and that women are pushovers in an argument and can be duped into giving money when a cause pretends to be all about saving kids.
I also got this phone call from Dove Foundation.
May I spek to the lady of th house?
I thought somebody is trying to reach white house.
Any way that woman was so rude, she doesn't want to tell me the purpose of the call.
So far she has called twice, both the times my wife was out. If that lady is going to call again I will scream and yell.
I've gotten a couple of these Doves, too. I think parents have to decide what their children watch and read, not leave it up to some government organization. I'm not bashing these people for their religion, I probably agree with them on many points, but they like the Left Behind series, which is a bunch of anti-Catholic malarkey, dislike Harry Potter, which I enjoy, etc. My main disagreement is that I don't think the federal government (either party) is a good agent for censoring the television, movie, and book industry. Pretty soon an agenda will creep in that defines wholesome in ways that will get into political speech - kind of like McCain Feingold. The Dove Fdn isn't qualified as a charity and spends nearly 30% of its budget on fundraising and administrative overhead, not a good use of my donation dollars.
I got that phone call today, googled, "Dove Foundation lie," and got this page! She didn't ask for the lady of the house, I guess she assumed I am, but I told her I don't believe in censorship in any form and I don't buy into the family values myth that the religious right uses to manipulate and control the masses, and she said, "OKthankyoubye." I'm thinking they won't call back.
This little encounter inspired me to go to their web site and take the opinion poll. Then I went to the results page. If you view the source for that page, the statistics are hard-coded in with plain text. Therefore, they're completely fabricated. The site, however, doesn't prevent you from taking the poll as often as you want. :-)
I was disgusted that in this day and age, we still promote censoring! Anyone with a brain can chose what he/she wants to watch and has the ability to channel what their children watch. If they don't, where are they?
I hope to never hear from the dove foundation again!
She's still making these calls on 3/27/07 to SoCal.
OMG! I just received this call and went online to find out who these Dove agents are. After she wrapped up her speech and said that "most respnnsible adults feel this way -- do you agree with this?' I replied "Absolutely not!" She paused long and injured before continuing, "Perhaps I should elaborate on our views . . ."
Like anyone else who believes in freedom of choice, I interrupted her and said "No thanks," put down the receiver, and went back to watch WWE Raw.
I was particularly annoyed by the comment "Most parents are frustrated that their only option is to limit their kids' TV watching." That's not a good enough option? Are the rest of us to be subjected to their restrictions to make their lives more comfortable? I think not!
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