B often reminds me that we live in a highly decadent society on the edge of decay. As a socialist, however, I try to maintain a more hopeful outlook, believing in some remnant of the social good and humankind's historical fumbling toward progress.
That remnant hope became just a little more tattered last night when I watched an advertisement for deodorant that masks the signs of underarm discoloration. Seriously.
Admittedly, we live a society that believes in bleaching teeth and other ... parts ... of the anatomy, lest these parts be socially or intimately offensive. And we believe that surgery can correct cosmetic issues with faces, breasts, bottoms, and other regions.
But underarms? Seriously?!?
Perhaps one's underarms do in fact become discoloured over time. So what? Must humans be infinitely perfect? Must we appear as ageless and timeless at fifty as we did as newborns?
Apparently the people who sell deodorant feel we don't have enough social concerns: now we must also worry about (in addition to revealing that our healthy, functioning bodies sweat) underarm discoloration. Of course. We need another rhetorically constructed socio-physical anxiety. Toe cleavage and unibrows and cankles and cellulite and curly/straight hair just don't move us sufficiently today, I guess.
After seeing this ad, I have to say that I agree with B. If a multinational corporation feels it should invest its advertising revenues in the made-up issue of underarm discolouring, then this society really is on the downward slope.
L
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