Conservatism runs deep in America, and I’m not just talking about the current bigoted administration.

New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) recently rejected an advertising campaign by Dame, a company that makes precisely engineered sex toys for women.

Dame is now suing the MTA for violating First Amendment rights (the right to expression, freedom of speech etc.).

Before we continue, let’s get a look at the supposedly offensive ads destined for the New York subway.

So it’s a tasteful, clever campaign, which is why the reasons for banning it might surprise you.

According to Mashable, the MTA rejected Dame’s entire campaign because it promoted a “sexually oriented business, which has long been prohibited by the MTA’s advertising standards”.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit (against the MTA) lists a litany of sexual, explicit, revealing, and even objectifying ads that advertise erectile disfunction medication, breast augmentation, and other goods and services that either play on or directly advertise sexuality and sex products. The biggest difference? These ads promote male pleasure.

And there it is. The main issue with Dame’s advertising is that is talks about something that society doesn’t like talking about – female pleasure.

“Because we sell sex toys, we’re prohibited from many modes of advertising,” Fine said. “Erectile dysfunction companies can advertise with the MTA (and Facebook and Instagram, which are other platforms on which we can’t advertise). The MTA is prioritizing ad space for tools that make sex better for men/people with penises – but ignoring all of the many benefits of tools for women/people with vulvas.”

This issue runs much deeper than advertising and extends past America to all societies. Just last week, I was ranting about the fact that there have been five times as many studies into erectile dysfunction as there have been into PMS.

Let’s do a little visual comparison between ads from Dame and ads for medications that assist in erectile dysfunction:

And another:

Women are conditioned to believe that their pleasure comes second to that of their partners. That’s why ‘faking it’ has become such a commonplace reference in pop culture.

One more to drive the point home:

Advertising effects what is and isn’t normalised by making things visible, starting conversations, and giving people (in this case women, or rather vagina-having people) permission to put their pleasure first.

If the pearl-clutchers and conservatives want to lie back and think of England, they’re welcome to.

As long as they leave the rest of us alone.

[source:mashable]