Clue me in on the sex-trafficking link with the image?

Enjoy your butter.

Last edited Sat Apr 18, 2020, 05:39 AM - Edit history (1)

She is holding up butter, smiling up at what appears to be an observer looking down at her, she is apparently offering up her butter to them.

It's creepy and weird.

Why even use a Native American character to sell the European-introduced staple of butter, let alone a young Native American woman on her knees?

Or I wouldn't have asked the question in the first place. What you describe would be sexist in general, without even getting into the tragic NA history part. Least not where I purchase it, Safeway in AZ.

Now, granted, at some point in the past it may very well have been such an image (though I don't recall anyone but her in the image, ever), but I have a box in my fridge right now, and at this point, it's a perfectly nice portrait of a pretty NA woman in traditional garb, smiling, from the shoulders up.

That's why I asked why it recalls 'sex-trafficking'.

Link to tweet

Mine looks like this ... okay? That's why I asked.



Nevertheless, even in the pic you showed, it's most certainly not this:

"She is holding up butter, smiling up at what appears to be an observer looking down at her, she is apparently offering up her butter to them."

Look I get the objections on various other ground like cultural appropriation, and a woman on her knees (any sort of woman) isn't too cool, but ... sex-trafficking accusations are a bit over the top, given the image.

MHO, ymmv.

And Rep. Buffalo didn't accuse Land O Lakes of sex-trafficking. Her point was that depicting Native American women and girls as sex objects "goes hand in hand" with sex-trafficking of Native Ametican women and girls (i.e. is part of the spectrum of abuse of Native American women and girls that includes sex-trafficking).

It's no joke, sex-trafficking of Native American women and girls is a huge problem. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/18/native-american-women-trafficked-searchlight-new-mexico

Because stupid little boys fold the package? Do you think that's the company's intent?

Again, I get the objection on various other grounds (in particular, the accusation of wrongful cultural appropriation, from the standpoint of First Americans), and I'm not suggesting sex trafficking doesn't happen.

I just think it's a big stretch to say the image 'goes hand in hand' with sex trafficking.

Which was my original point, and I remain unconvinced otherwise.

Link to tweet

..for post. That's great news!

In solidarity, Paz

That's been conditioned through mass media as a kid to associate anything Native American to be cool - from stories as a kid, to being in Cub/Boy Scouts, to products like this or the song from the Hamm's Beer commercials (From the land of sky-blue waters), etc. Plus I hate to see anything historical to be damaged like some sort of signage with a Native American on it from the 50s in a small Oklahoma town I used to have to go to quite often (eventually destroyed by storms). But it's unfair to co-opt another culture like this which has to be what is taken into consideration over nostalgia from an ignorant childhood.

TlalocW

And the older image, which seems to not be used anymore, with a woman on her knees I think can be argued is showing women as subservient and thus uncool on those grounds.

But I also think bringing sex-trafficking into the argument is a bit over the top.

Let's just agree to disagree

And using a pretty girl's face to sell butter is sexual objectification. You may not think that it is, probably because it is so universal and you grew up with it and saw it all your life, but it is.

When I think of 'sexual' ads, they look something like this ... you know, the sort that are on every other page of magazines that are bought almost exclusively by females.



I think you have to have a dirty mind to think the Land O' Lakes lady (not a girl, really) is a 'sexual ad'.

So, we're not going to agree on this point you're trying to make, so let's just leave it, kay?

It doesn't have to depict a sexual act. Sexual objectification is the treating a person solely as an object of sexual desire. Objectification more broadly means treating a person as a commodity or an object without regard to their personality or dignity. 

Understanding this does not mean you have a "dirty mind."

was 'Hey, I bet we can sell more butter if there's a picture of a chick that dude's wanna f*** on the label'.

Especially since the % of butter purchased by men in stores in 1928 was maybe 20% at most (my guess).

OTOH, there's 2 solid, reasonable arguments against this label:

1) Images like these should only be used by Native-owned companies at their own discretion. For others to do so is unfair cultural appropriation, and/or
2) Images of women (of any sort) on their knees offering up foodstuffs is a negative stereotype of women, implying they are subservient, belong in the kitchen, etc.

Making additional claims that the label 'goes hand in hand with sex trafficking' is over the top, and undermines your valid arguments by making you sound extreme. You just give people a reason to disregard what you said before, that made perfect sense, and was rhetorically sustainable.

In MY opinion.

Like I said, agree to disagree

I can understand why you think Rep. Buffalo's opinion is a bit over the top, but I can also understand where she's coming from and she makes a valid point. I totally get that she may sound "extreme" to folks who don't share her cultural experiences. She lives in a community where sex-trafficking is a pervasive problem, so her perspective differs from yours, obviously.

You of course have a right to your opinion.

But I think the use of Native American imagery here is also to imply the butter is made the old fashioned way without additives, etc. (Whether true or not) I'll point out my example of Hamns beer using stereotypical Indian drum beats and singing rhythm to tell us the beer is "from the land of sky blue waters."

TlalocW

Regardless, how does a young woman invoke no additives? Is it because she's supposed to be a virgin and pure?

And credibly back it up, but I still stand by the "all natural" aspect. All natural might be a misnomer, but even back then I'm sure there were more advertisements for products that played on nature themes to indicate purity, and using a fresh-faced young girl as part of it would not have been used by just one company.

TlalocW