Assvertising

As if Reebok's talking boobs weren't enough for one day, here's a new Virgin Mobile spot [via] in which a woman actually disembodies her own mouth so she can keep talking on the phone while she takes a shower at the gym:

Woman 1: [wrapped in towel, in gym locker room, talking on mobile phone] Yes, Mom, everything's fine. ... Really, stop worrying. ... I saw the doctor this morning. [sets down her phone on a bench, and her mouth rips off and goes with the phone; her mouth carries on talking while she walks away] He said it's probably not contagious as long as I, you know, air it out a bit. [Woman 2, also wrapped in a towel and sitting on the bench, looks at the disembodied talking mouth, confused and slightly horrified] ... I know! ... No, no, no, no, that smell means it's healing. [Woman 2 looks disgustedly from mouth to general direction of showers] ... Yeah, like the top layer has to die before the rest of it heals. ... Ha ha ha! [Woman 2 scoots down the bench, away from mouth.]

Male voiceover: Never stop talking. With totally unlimited calling. Get the new LG Rumor 2 only from Virgin Mobile with no annual contract.

There's so much wrong with this ad I literally don't know where to begin. But let's start here...

There are, in the real world, examples of disembodied female mouths, and they are almost always associated with demeaning women. There's the mouth urinal, for example, and there's the sex toy called the Fleshlight (get it? har har!), and it's not the only one on the market, but it may be the best-known. And it's been specifically designed for a dick to be stuck in it (the patent was granted for a "device for discreet sperm collection"), so a guy can approximate the fun of a blowjob without the hassle of the human woman (or man) attached to the mouth doing the blowing.

The sexual objectification and exploitation of women's bodies is one of the most basic expressions of misogyny, and the disembodiment of women's body parts (especially the breasts, vulva, vagina, buttocks, anus, and mouth) is sexual objectification combined with abject dehumanization.

That Virgin Mobile would almost certainly argue they weren't trying to sexualize the disembodied mouth (a dubious claim given the setting of a women's locker room and a conversation about a rash/wound that existed on a body part covered by a gym towel) doesn't absolve them of the responsibility to not feed into existent cultural imagery of and narratives about disembodied women's mouths. This shit doesn't exist in a void.

[Assvertising: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty-One, Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, Twenty-Five, Twenty-Six, Twenty-Seven, Twenty-Eight, Twenty-Nine, Thirty, Thirty-One, Thirty-Two, Thirty-Three, Thirty-Four, Thirty-Five, Thirty-Six, Thirty-Seven, Thirty-Eight, Thirty-Nine, Forty, Forty-One, Forty-Two, Forty-Three, Forty-Four, Forty-Five, Forty-Six, Forty-Seven, Forty-Eight, Forty-Nine, Fifty, Fifty-One, Fifty-Two, Fifty-Three, Fifty-Four, Fifty-Five, Fifty-Six, Fifty-Seven, Fifty-Eight, Fifty-Nine, Sixty, Sixty-One, Sixty-Two, Sixty-Three, Sixty-Four, Sixty-Five, Sixty-Six, Sixty-Seven, Sixty-Eight, Sixty-Nine, Seventy, Seventy-One, Seventy-Two, Seventy-Three, Seventy-Four, Seventy-Five, Seventy-Six, Seventy-Seven, Seventy-Eight, Seventy-Nine, Eighty, Eighty-One, Eighty-Two, Eighty-Three, Eighty-Four, Eighty-Five.]