Target Women: "rape fables"

Sarah Haskins delivers a very important message to the ladies: You are never safe! Unless you spend $99

Published November 16, 2009 2:17PM (EST)

"In the peaceful era we live in, it's easy to forget that someone is always lurking outside, planning to rape you," says Sarah Haskins in the latest Target Women video (below). This one skewers Broadview Security ads that educate women about how high-risk behavior -- like hanging out in our houses and backyards with no men present -- makes us sitting ducks, but a top-notch security system will offer the peace of mind that can only come with loud noises and calm-voiced dudes in a call center! 

"You may call these commercials," says Haskins, "But I like to call them rape fables."

 


By Kate Harding

Kate Harding is the author of Asking For It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture--and What We Can Do About It, available from Da Capo Press in August 2015. Previously, she collaborated with Anna Holmes, Amanda Hess, and a cast of thousands on The Book of Jezebel, and with Marianne Kirby on Lessons from the Fat-o-Sphere. You might also remember her as the founding editor of Shapely Prose (2007-2010). Kate's essays have appeared in the anthologies Madonna & Me, Yes Means Yes, Feed Me, and Airmail: Women of Letters. She holds an M.F.A. in fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a B.A. in English from University of Toronto, and is currently at work on a Ph.D. in creative writing from Bath Spa University

MORE FROM Kate Harding


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Broadsheet Love And Sex Sarah Haskins