Dear Sir,
I agree with Jeanne Chaussee about women going naked on Mexican TV. But it’s not limited to television.
Billboard advertisers have this predisposition as well, especially when it comes to promoting beer. I haven’t seen those advertisements in a while, but imagine nothing has changed. Once, on the road from Cancun to Playa del Carmen, placed strategically on a curve, we were confronted by a billboard that left nothing to the imagination. The larger-than-life nymph, wearing little more than a scarf, pouted with a look that could only be described as “jail-baiting.” Not a single, subtle nuance on the board.
I happened recently to find an old tequila advertisement, probably from the time when the drink was first commercialized extensively. The advertisement showed a handsome “criollo” (nothing Indian about him) with black curls peeping out from under his very large hat. His shirt was tasseled and his wide leather belt buckled. His horse was not far away. One arm was slung possessively around the neck of a very pretty, dark-haired señorita with a very white throat and slim white arms protruding from lacy puffed sleeves. She smiled shyly, peeping from under long, downcast lashes. The man’s other arm held aloft the tequila bottle in question. No mistaking the implication – this is my woman and this is my tequila (in arbitrary order).
So what has changed? In bygone advertising the woman is prettily but decently clothed, and she is definitely ‘owned’ by her man. In today’s advertising the girl is on her own. She is vulnerable, clothed in bits of fabric that have nothing to do with real fashion and seems very available to any one who wants her, no strings attached. She must be every man’s dream. In Mexico it’s still a man’s world, but the focus has shifted.
Lucille van Straaten, Riberas del Pilar