Did you know that people in France aren’t sure what breasts look like?
I didn’t either.
While perusing the headlines reporting that RU-486 might prevent breast cancer (which leads me to imagine a future where yearly abortions are encouraged along with Pap smears and mammograms), I was amused to note that the French news site Actualites-News-Environnement found it necessary to illustrate the story with a photograph of a topless woman. Actually not the whole woman; just her breasts, looking quite healthy and perky. It would seem that French readers are hazy on the concept and need to be reminded of which bodily organs are threatened by breast cancer. Oui! Je me rappelle maintenant! Les lolos!
18 Responses to “Did you know that people in France aren’t sure what breasts look like?”
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Paul Tergeist says:
Les Lolos?!?
I dunno….maybe we should have a gratuitous perkiness contest. I would…..if asked….be happy to….er…be a judge.
December 4th, 2006 at 1:33 am EST -
richard cherry says:
the french have always struck me as being partial to the sight of a breast or two - whether it’s just french men or advertising execs i don’t know…
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will says:
A gratuitous breast shot in France?!? I am SHOCKED!
If it was allowed here, it would happen all the time.
“Winter is coming. Better get new tires to protect these [bare breasts].”
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ehj2 says:
To borrow a metaphor from poker, I think you may have palmed a card. You were joking with us while you did so, but you palmed a card.
While I’m not shocked, shocked I say, that you are encouraging your readers to conflate (a) ads that sell tires by drawing one’s attention with a photo of breasts, with (b) ads that give away breast (and life) saving information (please forgive that bizarre circumlocution) by drawing one’s attention with a photo of the actual breasts that might be saved, I think you’re hoping that we’ll all fold quickly, allow you to take our money piled up in the middle of the table, and move on smartly to the next hand.
But no. Now boldly mixing metaphors, let’s take a closer look at that busted flush.
If there is a legitimate place for such a photo to draw a reader’s attention, this is it. It’s hard enough to get people to pay attention to any of the news at all. A stunning (okay, a depressing and truly schocking and bone-numbing) number of Americans (a country with something like two television sets per person and 1200 gazillion channels) still conflates 9/11 with Iraq and seems prepared to now believe that Iran is actually the Master Puppeteer behind the Evil Crescent of the otherwise United Universes. This, you’ll note, is just a different version of the 1940’s disease, the belief by some that the Jews were behind all evil.
I suspect that you are irritated that the average (probably male) news producer believes this will actually work to increase interest and readership, or, and perhaps this is more likely, you are irritated because you know it works and loathe the mechanisms by which it works. And while you might like to have a dozen Catherine Deneuve’s filmed in the nude proclaiming hard truths to the American people saturing the airwaves, you can’t make yourself embrace a strategy that demonstrably could work because of its mechanisms.
Until we change the underlying mechanisms, it may make sense to use them to save lives. It is difficult for me to believe that a bad thing necessarily and always has no good purpose.
Just to be clear here, put me down as one who would be willing to demean himself quite a bit to save just your life.
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henderson says:
Those wacky Frenchies and boobies. Let them roam free! My girls are all cooped up.
I love the early paintings of the French court from the 17 and 18 hundreds.
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will says:
“Just to be clear here, put me down as one who would be willing to demean himself quite a bit to save just your life.”
I can hear the carnival caller now: “See some boobies; Save some boobies!”
It is breast cancer awareness month at your local strip club!
An interesting thought, but there have to be better ways to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer prevention than to show bare breasts. Not that there is anything wrong with bare breasts…. I actually prefer the French’s approach to nudity than our messed up American hide-them-bind-them-slobber-over-them-be-ashamed-of-them approach.
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Infidel says:
Having a baby sucking on them….I’m sorry I lost my thought…
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Jeff says:
I’m shocked….and impressed!! You’re definitely correct, they are perky as all get out. I may return later to comment more fully after the shock has worn off.
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maupassant says:
How very American. If it had been an article on carpal tunnel syndrome and illustrated with a photo of a hand and wrist, would you have been so contemptuous? Or even have noticed?
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Violet says:
If it had been an article on carpal tunnel syndrome and illustrated with a photo of a hand and wrist, would you have been so contemptuous? Or even have noticed?
Actually, yes. I’ve long been amused by gratuitous illustrations. It used to be (or so it seemed to me) the special province of magazines like Cosmo and such that everything had to have a picture. An utterly pointless picture. A two-line blurb about washing your face, for instance, might be illustrated with an enormous full-page photograph of a woman splashing water on her face. Why? This is hilarious to me.
One of my daily joys is perusing the Google news headlines, where the illustrations chosen for certain news stories can usually be relied on for a chuckle or two. Yes, a photograph of a wrist (as opposed to a medical illustration) accompanying an article on carpal tunnel syndrome would make me laugh out loud. Not quite as funny as the stock photos of birds next to every single bird flu article, but still humorous.
Of course you could argue that people don’t always understand that carpal tunnel syndrome affects wrists, so it’s necessary to show a photo. However, I don’t think you can argue that people don’t always understand that breast cancer affects breasts. The photo I linked to is purely gratuitious, just an excuse to show a topless woman. How very French to pretend otherwise.
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ehj2 says:
Well, the French do have that reputation of “amorousness” to uphold. And if a country is going to have a world reputation for something, that’s actually a pretty good one to have. For awhile, the State of Virginia tried to fit into that brand with a bumper sticker that proclaimed, “Virginia is for lovers.” Huh? How?
When’s the last time you Virginia-kissed?
And let’s avoid the nightmare of America’s world reputation. Even Superman has given up on supporting the “American Way” and calls it a day at “Truth, Justice, and … whatever.”
Violet, it sounds like your experience of Google News is exactly the one they want you to have and work hard to ensure you will have — both pleasurable and informative enough to keep you coming back. It’s a hard balance to maintain, and worth gazillions to those very few companies that can achieve it.
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Mandos says:
OK OK I give in! I’ve been wondering how long it would take for someone say it, and now I will do it myself!
“I see England, I see France, …”
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Paul Tergeist says:
I see Dottie in her underpants!
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Paul Tergeist says:
Oh, crap! After I wrote that I realized Mandos had suckered me into making what sounded like (but really wasn’t) a sexist or racial or derogatory comment and now I’m gonna be in trouble again with Violet and all the bulldykes, feminazis and dotheads from Canuckistan.
It’s just one more example of foreign propaganda designed to make Americans look like a bunch of frickin’ idiots like they keep trying to do with President Bush!
ENJOY GITMO, MANDOS!
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Tom Nolan says:
Violet, it’s “je me souviens” not “je me rappelle”. “Se rappeler” needs an object,
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Paul Tergeist says:
“Se rappeler” needs an object
Tom NolanIt has two of them. “Les lolos!”
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richard cherry says:
is that direct or indirect objectification of women?
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Paul Tergeist says:
is that direct or indirect objectification of women?
-rcI don’t know, for I am a bear of very little brain and long words confuse me.
