Tag Archives: women laughing with salad

Women Coming with Salad

Laurie and Debbie say:

At the beginning of this year, The Hairpin identified a trend of advertisements that show women, by themselves, eating salad and laughing, grinning, generally having quite a good time.

Sociological Images picked it up, reproduced some of the photos, and made some brief comments about advertising designed to “convince you that the product will make you happy.”

True enough, as far as it goes. However, these women aren’t just happy, they’re ecstatic. You might say “orgasmic.”

So what is it about women getting off on their salads? It’s not just “food makes you happy” because we don’t see comparable pictures of women laughing with soup (which is just as “healthy”). Salad is the canonical diet food. It’s what you’re supposed to eat if you want to lose weight. It’s what you’re supposed to eat if you are thin and want to “watch your weight.” If you’re a woman, it’s basically what you’re supposed to eat for two meals a day. It’s what you’re supposed to feel guilty if you don’t order. And because it has all this baggage, no matter how good it really is, ordering it and eating it often feels like an obligation. The advertisers seem to think that women won’t order salad unless it comes with orgasm as the dressing.

Products advertised to men are often sexualized in the context of “buy this and a conventionally sexy woman will appear on your arm” but products advertised to women are more commonly sexualized in the context of “buy this and you’ll be a conventionally sexy woman.” These pictures makes the statement that eating salad alone will get your nipples hard. You don’t need anyone’s help to get off, just a nice fresh salad.

Who wouldn’t want a salad that … satisfying?

So what brings this up now, many months after the blog posts? A bunch of very clever women and a Hallowe’en costume. Check it out.