Target Women
Target Women is a segment of the show Infomania hosted by Sarah Haskins. In it, she looks at commercials featuring women and products for women and the stereotypes of women that they present. Far from the dry, academic analysis so common to feminist critiques, Sarah's style is lighthearted, snarky and humorous.
Target Women provides examples of:
- Adorkable - Sarah Haskins
- All Girls Want Bad Boys - Discussed in Vampires.
- All Women Are Prudes - Discussed in Birth Control and Your Garden.
- Barbie - Discussed
- Body Horror: The "lump" discussion in "Botox."
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick:
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The next time words fail you in trying to describe your genitalia, just turn to the world of nature: my chia pet, my fern, my gentle alpaca, my sarlacc pit from Return of the Jedi. |
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- Chick Flick - Discussed
- Closer to Earth - Discussed in Doofy Husbands.
- Deadpan Snarker - Sarah Haskins
- Distressed Damsel - Discussed in Story Time and Broadview Security.
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"You may call these commercials, but I like to call them 'rape fables'." |
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- Disney Princesses - Discussed
- Double Standard - The focus of the show is double standards in media.
- Freud Was Right
- Furry Fandom - The subject of a joke in Lifetime.
- Genre Savvy - Sarah Haskins
- Here Comes the Science!
- Hollywood Pudgy - The "Wedding Shows" episode features a truly awful example from some show called Bulging Brides where a woman who is gorgeous and Hollywood thin is called a "chubster" and shown a "vision of the future" that nearly makes her cry -- and, as Sarah points out, is what she looks like now. Thanks, television.
- Info Dump: The woman in the Yaz commercials who "casually" rattles off information and health warnings about the product to her friends in a nightclub, who is mocked in "Birth Control" and returns in "Ladyfriends."
- Lifetime Movie of the Week - Also discussed
- Male Gaze - Discussed in the Carl's Junior and How to Get Hot Chicks.
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Sarah: The recent Carl's Jr. ad campaign could easily be called "Douchebaggery 101: Embracing your inner douche". It's a follow-up to "AP Objectification". |
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- Men Buy From Mars, Women Buy From Venus - The focus of the show.
- Nerds Are Sexy - Also Sarah
- Nobody Poops: "Number Two" is about companies' attempts to market laxatives and stool softeners to women without admitting that they poop. "You're Old" also discusses incontinence.
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"Let's jump on the euphemism train to Shittown! First stop, Fiberville!" |
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- No Periods, Period: "Yes, milk will also bring sunshine to a land devastated by your period tears."
- Robot Girl/Uncanny Valley: The "clone woman" in "Skin Care."
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"But can a robot lady learn... to love?" |
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- Serious Business: Hair.
- Ship Tease - With one of the guys from her show.
- Shorttank - Sarah Haskins
- Sophisticated As Hell: The "Women are Pretty" compilation has quotations on ladylike behavior between segments from people like Emily Post and Lord Byron, plus this:
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If you a fly gal, —Missy Elliot
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- Stay in The Kitchen: "Feeding Your Fucking Family" and "Cleaning."
- Straw Feminist - Averted by the very reasonable and moderate Sarah.