The "Essure" commercials disgust me. Babies are not vermin. They are gifts.
Picture this: A beautiful mom with her beautiful kids are frolicking on a sports field. Suddenly, the mother looks positively stricken! She stops, looking pale, and thinks: "What if I got PREGNANT?! Everything would CHANGE!!" She is horrified! She may faint! She may vomit! Finally, she "pushes" those evil thoughts of pregnancy away, knowing that Essure will give her "permanent birth control" and she won't ever soil her perfect family with a new baby! Whew!!!! Her smile returns! Cue the photos of the doting mom loving on her three perfect children as they skip away down the lane with dad, relieved and joyful that no more dreaded babies will ruin their perfect plan!
Cue to me looking horrified, as now I want to vomit! Really? A baby is so much vermin that would infest the perfect, small family? Our hearts are that tiny, our love that limited?
I first mentioned my disgust with this ad campaign on Facebook. I typed the following:
It's the guise of the "family and child friendly" that really gets me! As if bringing another sibling into the family is something evil! A baby as unwanted intruder set to destroy a "perfect" family. My goodness, there is no greater gift you can give your children than siblings!
I kid you not: As I typed, my fifth, sixth and seventh children were planting wet kisses on my eighth. My nine-year-old son asked, "Mom, isn't he the cutest?!" Ironic, no? Somehow, my children don't see their baby brother as a threat to their happiness or a detriment to our family. Quite the opposite!
How did we get to this low point? Commercials about babies being destructive, calamitous intruders into a marriage and family? Do the advertising geniuses not realize that they are on the one hand showcasing children as this woman's treasures and source of joy, while on the other hand suggesting that any further children are no better than an unwanted and dangerous infection against which she needs protection?
(Totally illogical. I hate illogical.)
In my last post, I lauded the incredible ladies I've met in blogland who would give anything for babies and motherhood. How painful to them must these crass and thoughtless commercials be? Although I guess when the advertised product is literally an anti-baby product, it's going to cause pain to any of us who find children to be the most precious gift that God can bestow. It hits right in the gut, the same way it did when Obama so famously talked about not wanting his daughters to be "punished with a baby." That's what we've come to.... babies as punishment, babies as the cause of ruin for a happy family.
If you haven't seen these offensive commercials (or heard them on the radio), be glad. They will make any right-thinking person sick. A few minutes ago, another one came on (TLC seems to carry them a lot), and my nine-year-old saw it (not for the first time). When I tucked him in bed and told him I loved him, I made extra sure to tell him how much I cherish him, because children are such a gift. He replied, "Mom, did you see that commercial where that mom just pushed those words away on the screen, where she was all depressed if she were pregnant, and then she was all 'Whew!' that can all go away now!" I told him I had seen it, and isn't it so sad how they portrayed pregnancy and children? He replied, "When I saw it, I was literally just glaring at the TV!"
That's my boy! He has not yet been tainted by our Planned Parenthood culture and has an instinctive, healthy aversion to the Culture of Death which surrounds him.
God protect his innocence, and God change the hearts of those who peddle Essure. I have to believe that they know not what they do.
Now that I've taken so much time thinking about those ads, I feel like I need to go take a cleansing shower. Or hug my babies. Or read the Bible which talks about children as only and always a gift, and never as something repellent or repulsive....
Sigh.
Oh honey, it makes me MAD too! I hate all of the BIRTH CONTROL commercials! Especially when your DH sings them unconsciously...(SP?) ERGH!
ReplyDeleteI hate them too! They are awful!
ReplyDeleteOh, I do remember seeing that once! My kids were as appalled as I was! One of the reasons my kids are really offended by abortion is that they know it's often about limiting the number of children. I have four kids and we don't know any other families that have four kids. Most have only one or two. We didn't even have to say we were appalled when we saw that. We were just wide-eyed looking at each other like, "what the...???" I said, "Isn't that awful??" and they agreed.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Every time I go to the bathroom at my OB there's a big fat advertisement for Essure. I HATE it.
ReplyDeleteYou took the words right out of my mouth. I was actually going to blog about this today. :) DH and I were just discussing such commercials this past weekend. I haven't seen the Essure one yet but I have recently really noticed the Merana one. It makes me sick. Oh and the Seasonique(sp) one. That's the pill that only gives you 4 periods a year. They keep saying "Who says you have to have 12 periods a year? Who says?" Um...God maybe? Since that's how our bodies were designed. Just a thought. I've started to change the channel when they come on.
ReplyDeleteI've not seen that! how horrible. I like you really despise how they LOOK pro family and pro child while at the same time acting like having another would be the end of the world! Big families are a joy, my husband is one of 11 and all his siblings have many.....and plan to have more!
ReplyDeleteHi Leila! Go check out this commercial on You Tube - it is the best antidote to the Essure commercials I have ever saw! I just saw a link to it on Faith and Family Live and loved it!! I won't spoil it - but it is definitely NOT SPAM! (Although, on a side note, if getting pregnant was that easy...I would be stock in that particular snack food!) But the kid is super cute! ;) God Bless!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bggFBWn7YoI&feature=player_embedded#!
Joy, Awesome link! That commercial was precious! And Leila, I hate all b.c. commercials. I've seen some where they promise your skin will clear up...I guess they are trying to bribe young girls into taking it? Just sick!
ReplyDeleteWow Leila, I had the same WTF moment when I first saw that propaganda..oops, I mean, commercial. The entire thing is illogical.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I wish Mark was 29 so I could marry him. :)
Thank you for writing on this. This commercial makes me really upset -- especially the line, "When you know that your family is complete..." as if our love is insular.
ReplyDeleteUgh! Thanks for taking the thoughts out of my head and putting them down in blogland. It is so very, very sad.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I ever heard of Essure was in "Real Simple" magazine (which I LOVE, btw). I had to look at the ad a couple of times to realize what it was even for!
ReplyDeleteIt's absolutely sick. It always amazes me when I see commercials for bc on the TV. And yes, it hurts that much more because I'm infertile.
I agree, it's the whole attitude our society has towards it. It's everywhere, and it stinks! But you hit the nail on the head, like always!
ReplyDeleteNo kidding! I hear those commercials on the radio ALL THE TIME! They make me sick. Your 9 year old son is a treasure. I agree, our children have not yet been infiltrated by the PP agenda. Bless their souls! Thank God for good mothers like you who watch with their kids and explain it to them. We have to! Great post Leila!
ReplyDeleteLeila, April here. New commenter. Wow, the things I miss for not having a TV, cable, and also for sticking to Immaculate Heart Catholic radio. I tried to post the following on the youtube commercial link but I kept getting an error:
ReplyDelete"The media and ad agency for this product presents a bastardized and deviant message about this product that redefines the truth, beauty, and dignity of a human person as a child. While initially activating the emotions of a woman's senses that children are precious and should be protected, doated upon and showered with love, quality time and attention, the same message is being implanted, literally, that additional children are a threat to the time factor needed for her existing ones. In this ad, a watchful mother is trained to believe she needs to stop the onset of additional children, or she will be a bad, overstressed mother. . . as if additional children are a burden, not a gift, NOT WANTED. Interestingly enough, the imagery painted by this ad presents the following question, 'What made the children she already has rate this high?' That their existence should block the production of future children? Are children now part of an assembly line production that can be stopped at any time? Permanently? This ad is disgusting and robs any child of the value of its current existence within a family. What a twisted message this ad sends to a loving mother. How dare we think to bring more of the same, loving children into this world?"
I have seen this horrible commercial. I posted about it the first time I saw it. It made me sick. Everytime it comes on I change the channel. My hubby got so mad when he saw it for the first time too. It's disgusting how people are so self absorbed that they can't see how precious life is. It drives me nuts when people say they only want one or two kids and that is enough! Well what most people who come from large families know is that the older kids help with the younger kids and they keep eachother busy most of the time. I come from a large family and even though we fought alot with eachother, we never felt like our parents were not spending enough time with us. Now that we are all adults we are very close with our mother. All of us call her almost daily to talk to her. And she has time to spend with each of us, even though she works full time. I pray for all those people who have no idea what they are missing.
ReplyDeleteYou are right -- it is SO very painful to watch those commercials. And yes, I've seen that particular one and it makes me want to just punch something!
ReplyDeleteIt is so unfair that those with the gift of fertility throw it right in the trash every month and those of us without it suffer so deeply ... I cannot, for the life of me, make sense of it all.
What makes me most upset is that we are in the vast minority on this.. even among Christians. Unfortunately, probably even among Catholics! It's so frustrating when good people are just duped by it. Ugh. I wish everyone would recognize the beauty of the Church's teachings.
ReplyDelete