Miguel in Barcelona sent us this government-sponsored poster aimed at promoting egalitarian relationships. He translates the text as:
The love has to be free
Free of machismo
Free of fights
Free of jealousy
This image, as a representation of idealized egalitarian love, is a nice contrast to the representations of love common in the U.S. (and in Spain?) that make power asymmetry sexy, desirable, and constitutive of love. Consider the love affair between this apple and pear and these two images (which look more like the fruit than Miguel’s image above):
Thanks to Miguel for sending us our first image from Spain!>
Comments 6
Nicholas — April 11, 2008
A nice contrast indeed, though I find it rather surprising that the girl's bondage collar seems to have gone unremarked. It was one of the first things I noticed about the image.
Lisa — April 11, 2008
I have to give credit to Miguel here: He did remark on the collar in his e-mail to me, I just didn't get it into the post. I wonder what people think. Miguel called it a leash, Nicolas called it a bondage collar. I kind of think it looks like an animal caller, but with no leash attached. That would, anyway, work with the theme. Any thoughts?
Elaina — May 2, 2008
That's totally a slave collar, yo. First thing I noticed in the picture.
And as someone who used to be involved in the "lifestyle," as it were, the schpiel isn't too different, either. Especially the "no jealousy" part. This is like some idyllic s/m photo-layout to illustrate the whole "safe/sane/consensual" mumbo-jumbo. Just my 2 cents.
napthia9 — September 5, 2010
Interesting that in the first image, the man is holding her. They're not holding each other. (Actually, him placing her body in front of him so he's mostly obscure and his face is in shadow/has hair in it sorta creeps me out.) Both people in the first image are facing the viewer and not one another, while the couples in the other images face one another and not the viewer.
Scott — December 2, 2010
Here's a commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOfUWTnQCXg
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