Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching. And, if you have watched any amount of T.V. over the past few weeks, chances are you’ve seen those commercials: “pajama-grams,” “giant teddy bears,” etc. Yes, I know, they’ve been on T.V. for the past few years every Valentine’s Day season. But as I’ve seen them this year, something has occurred to me. Roll your eyes, call me a prude, and say I’m over-reacting, but I really have come to abhor those commercials. I think they reflect something very insidious and perverted in our culture.
Let’s consider the commercials in question. The “Valentine’s Day pajama-gram” commercial I’ve seen shows a variety of hot and sexy women in what can be called nothing other than an adult version of the full-body sleeper that parents put their young children in. The main difference, of course, is that the “adult pajamas” come in a variety of styles: “midnight fantasy baby doll,” “sexy leopard,” sexy and sweet,” “hot pink lacey chemise,” “red seduction,” “hot lover,” as well as many others. In the commercial we find grown women writhing around in bed, hugging pillows, and then welcoming their “significant other” to the bed. And, all throughout the commercial, the announcer uses words like “fun, flirty, sexy, like when she was a little girl.” WHAT? Think about what the announcer has just said…
Similarly, there is the “giant teddy bear” commercial. Who has dolls and teddy bears? Children. And why is the man giving his wife/girlfriend a teddy bear? Two reasons—to make her feel like a little girl again…and to get some “hot Valentine’s Day lovin’” later that night! And yes…of course…this is all in the name of “love.”
Are you beginning to see my concern? Not only do such commercials reflect what has become already blindingly obvious in our current American culture—the substitution and mischaracterization of “true love” for “romance and sex”—but more shockingly, “romance and sex” is becoming more and more associated with children. Look at magazines like Rolling Stone and Cosmo: for years they have put 17-18 year old girls on their covers in half-naked, provocative poses. For years, models have been getting younger and younger, thinner and thinner, and more and more resembling children, not adult women.
And now, blatantly put forth in this silly and stupid Valentine’s Day commercials, hot sexy women are displayed in terms of getting turned on when their men dress them up in children’s pajamas and give them teddy bears. These women, in turn, can’t wait to get out of those PJ’s so they can get to some all-night Valentine sex.
I am the only person this bothers? As far as I can tell, there’s a “double whammy” going on here. First, there is the misrepresentation of “love” being nothing more than “romance and sex.” And second, that “romance and sex” is being more and more associated with childhood. We condemn pedophiles, and rightly so, for having sex with children; but then we encourage adults to engage in and act out sexual fantasies involving childhood themes and props. That is incredibly disturbing, but most of us don’t see it, because…gee, those women on those commercials look so hot!
Saint Valentine was actually a third century Christian martyr who became associated in the Middle Ages with the tradition of courtly love. Courtly love was a concept in which the man honored a maiden, extolling her virtues, and using his love for her to become a better and more virtuous man.
How did we get to a point in our modern society where we’ve used St. Valentine’s day as an excuse for…pajamagrams and teddy bears?
