Monday, April 20, 2009

Reactions to the Spanish mattress commercial

I was curious about reactions in Spain to the homebirth mattress commercial (what a strange set of words to put together!), so when I came across a Spanish blog that was posting about it I asked. I also asked about how often it was shown. If you don't speak/read Spanish, the blog's author says in reply:

"The commercial is shown as frequently as others, and has created debate. You hardly see her naked body, because she's dressed in a pink shirt during the birth. It's a great social hypocrisy that permits the television and commercials to continually show images of bloody accidents, violence, torture, and explicit sex in all the commercials and that we're frightened by a natural birth and breasts with milk." [Warning: my Spanish is rusty so my translation may be imperfect, but this is the general idea.]

I agree about the hypocrisy! And while it's disappointing to know that this ad is controversial, it's not surprising. In fact, in the blog discussion comments there are plenty of people who feel it's too explicit, and others saying that at least it's prompting a discussion about natural birth in Spain. The fact that this commercial can be shown at all on Spanish television shows they're far, far ahead of us...

4 comments:

Jill Arnold said...

Ya me fascinas más! Viviste en un país hispanohablante o eres nativa?

Escribes muy bien.

Rebecca said...

Gracias! Estudié español y viví en Costa Rica unos meses. Tambien la mayoria de la gente en las clinicas de AmeriCorps hablaban solamente español.

Y tu?

Jill Arnold said...

Andale!

Viví en España y en México. También estudié el español y la traducción. Y con todo esto, sigo hablando como una nena de cinco años. O cuatro.

Rebecca said...

Jaja, tengo el mismo problema. Con eso, español no es mi unica lengua extranjera, y por eso cambio palabras mucho. Que suerte que conozco tantas personas amables que no me ven como loca cuando hago eso!