Second Base: Funny Objectifying, or Too Complex for Categories?
May 12, 2009
by Judy Silver
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“Save Second Base” by donating to breast cancer research – get it? It’s a promotional tag line that fund raisers have used for several years without controversy. However this year, when a Princeton student group made posters that added: “Gentlemen: Save Second Base,” controversy erupted. A counter-campaign posted slogans like “Ladies: Save the Male G-Spot – support prostate cancer research,” and “Gentlemen: Save Tittyfucking.” Chloe Angyal’s Diary explains the counter-campaign’s ire:
Women are not their breasts. Presenting breast cancer research as an effort to save women’s breasts, rather than their lives, reduces women to their mammary glands. …This becomes particularly problematic for women who have survived breast cancer by having one or both breasts removed… Surely we underestimate men if we believe that the only way to get them to care about women’s health is by striking into their hearts the fear of a dwindling supply of boobies…We care about prostate cancer because it’s cancer, and it’s deadly, not because it attacks the male sexual organs. We care about men’s lives, and no one’s trying to sell prostate cancer research by warning women and gay men that prostate cancer will make certain sexual acts impossible.
The event organizers, writing in the Daily Princetonian, counter:
We chose the slogan “Save Second Base” with the intent to appeal directly to college students and especially to students (particularly males) who wouldn’t relate to the prim, girly pink ribbons and rhinestones that often correspond with breast cancer fundraisers. …The slogan was meant to be lighthearted and fun; in fact, many breast cancer survivors have advocated using this slogan as a way to humorously raise awareness and funds.
Posting on the Equal Writes blog, Nick Cox goes further:
The feminist who gets offended by the misogynies that she sees everywhere is putting herself in the position of the victim, and expecting those in power to take pity on her. In that moment she throws away all she has been working for. The next generation of feminists may find it makes the most sense to cultivate not indignation but indifference… I, for one, thought the “Save Second Base” slogan was very funny. It was a clever way to illustrate the tangible effects of a disease that sometimes tends to ossify into a stock phrase whose utterance brings to mind little more than a folded pink ribbon. I did not find it the least bit offensive, and I really don’t think the shitstorm it generated was at all merited.
On the same blog, Josh Franklin takes a more nuanced approach:
I feel that we ought to discuss this state of affairs, one that seems far too common, where feminists’ legitimate criticisms of gender phenomena are met with the frustrating evasion, “can’t you take a joke?” …What I want to advocate for here is a discourse on gender issues that moves beyond emotion-laden categories of “funny” and “offensive”. I don’t know how, but I want to try to think about a way of speaking about gender and sexuality and oppression with more subtlety (because I love subtlety), but more importantly, with more compassion, especially for women like the beneficiaries of the [fundraiser].
Readers, what do you think? Is “Save Second Base” funny or offensive or both? Is it acceptable to trade-off objectification for saving women’s lives? Or do we need non-categorical ways of discussing these issues?
- here we go, Nick and Josh, two men, telling women how to think, act and feel, yet again, men thinking it is their purview to entirely define women. Men put their hands on baseballs and the point made in this Post is 100% accurate – save a woman from breast cancer and you save the objects of sexual gratification.
Nick thinks it’s funny. Hey Nick, how about this one – “Ladies: prevent your mate’s penis from getting even smaller, support prostate cancer research” Tit for tat, Nick, or should I say, teat for a tiny bit…??
I agree Goesh! I appreciate men being welcomed to the new agenda but I am really tired of men telling me how to be a woman.
I consider myself extremely sensitive to media’s portrayal of women. But I don’t have an issue with save second base. Yes, we should all care about breast cancer because it saves lives – BUT – good marketing is eye catching and memorable and this is definitely both. I don’t think it objectifies women or trivializes the deadliness of cancer – I do think that we shouldn’t be afraid to be lighthearted about serious issues.
Those baseballs are made for grabbing, ain’t they? That is the sole intent of this 2cd base gambit , getting breasts and baseballs in one motion , attaining 2cd base, making the human life secondary – in my opinion, very akin to adolscent males dropping an object in front of a seated girl so they can look up her skirt in the process.
I saw a second base Tshirt on one of the students at work. I just thought it was silly and never realized what point it was trying to make. Why do men need to approve of a breast cancer publicity campaigns? Few men get breast cancer. I have seen some tit and ass advertising style breast cancer announcements in previous years that also struck me as off.
I don’t have a problem with the phrase. I do have a problem with putting two baseballs over the breasts as if they were pasties.
I am glad attention is paid to this but wish, somehow, to be shielded from men who insist that *they* are ‘not offended’ by a sexist remark or tee-shirt.
No shoot – you’re the audience. It was targeting you. Your issues, your sensibility, your body is not the butt of the joke. It never is.
Since when do we women care if men are offended by sexism? This is like those cable news pigs who indignantly insisted that Hillary was not singled out with sexist treatment but merely entangled in the sharp elbows of big politics.
Yet the aura of “we can’t even appear racist and will just smile and nod” enveloped The One – to his benefit.
Women who don’t agree with men’s sexist evaluation of women’s concerns are humorless drudges who need to ‘get a life.’
But anyone who disagrees with The One or his enforcers, men to a person, are bigots if they make a peep of anything but enthusiastic praise.
It is all so exhausting.
I’d be interested in knowing what tangible impact “Save Second Base” (I’ve also seen “Save The Ta-Tas”) t-shirts actually have on breast cancer donations (versus “awareness” which amounts to … what exactly?). The website says they’ve donated $30,000 since 2006 to the Kelly Rooney Foundation and other cancer non-profits. Not that huge a sum. I can’t see any good that would come of decrying this effort to honor a dead sister/friend.
We must concentrate on solving the root problem: too few women in positions of leadership. It’s understandable that breast cancer campaigns might expect to benefit from slogans that appeal to men, since men dominate the power and money ranks that decide what gets funded and what doesn’t. Men also dominate the media opinion ranks that comment on controversies of this sort, so that if individual women or even women’s groups complain, they can be made to seem petty for rejecting ostensible support. Catch-22.
*****A
I do find it offensive, and I’m also sick of men telling women what they should or shouldn’t find offensive. I do appreciate thoughtful comments from men about situations, though, as long as they acknowledge that there are some things about being women that they cannot understand (although they can, and should, try to).
I wonder what men who have lost a loved one to breast cancer think of this Ad? Pssst! Hey mister! Your wife died of breast cancer, so like, ah, tell me, do you think putting baseballs on women’s breasts like helps promote awareness of breast cancer? I mean like do you think baseballs on breasts could have maybe saved her life??
When a woman has breast cancer, it’s not just “second base” that needs to be saved. The whole ball field is at stake. It’s not that I can’t appreciate having a sense of humor. When my son was undergoing treatment for cancer, he and his friends from the hospital wore “I’m having a no-hair day” tee shirts all of the time. However, I think that these baseball tee shirts send a message that it’s a woman’s breasts that need to be saved when it fact it’s her whole life.
Maybe I can punch that guy in the face and then blame him for taking on a victim mentality when his eyes bruise.
This is NOT good marketing. Of course it’s offensive. It is gratuitous use of women’s sexuality to get the attention of men and women who are anxious to please men. This is bottom denominator marketing, just like the marketing that was used to promote and then elect Barack Obama. So many times I heard…Oh, he ran a better campaign, he played the game better…to which my response was, so now we reward those who can lie, cheat and steal the best and call that “good” campaigning, “good” marketing? Heaven help us. This ’2nd base” campaign to draw attention to breast cancer is that same kind of sleazy marketing.
This is like using a cartoon to “raise awareness.” All it does is distract from the real issues of life and death as well as aesthetics if the woman survives. Both are important but not for jokes. Just as it leaves a bad taste if anyone makes a joke about 9-11. Humor, yes, but not sexist humor.
to real change @10:29 – you are so right!
true that…
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