Raw Drip

I think reading one’s daily astrological forecast is a fun, harmless ritual – pure entertainment. I belong to Astrology.com’s subscription service which emails me my daily horoscope. However, the unfortunate side effect of this daily ritual is an onslaught of spam email from the Astrology.com people, who seem to be convinced that emailing me every few hours with provocative subject lines, such as “Is He Planning to Leave You?” and “Is He Your Real Soul Mate?” will somehow strike fear in my heart and compel me to spend all my money on their computer-generated “forecasts”.

Here’s a snapshot of one of today’s spam emails with the subject line “Is it time to move on?”. Personally, I think the tone of this message is downright hostile towards women.

“Do you find yourself thinking about him constantly, wondering where he is, who he’s with, and if he’ll come back?”

“Find out if you should stop looking backward and start looking forward to finding your true soul mate.”

[read: "You're an obsessive, pathetic, loser. We know where your real soul mate is and he's waiting for you to get your act together..."]

Am I the only one gobsmacked by the sexist overtones in this ad? It relies on tried and true gender stereotyping to prey upon the vulnerabilities of women. Does anyone really think that men are out there, en masse, sitting in front of their computer monitors, reading their Astrology.com email and panicking over thoughts that their soul mate may be packing up to leave them (presumably soulless)? Of course not! And if men were Astrology.com’s target audience, wouldn’t the provactive subject lines read something more like, “Drive Your Woman Wild in the Bedroom”?

This got me thinking: is the above ad for Astrology.com any less sexist than some of these ridiculously sexist vintage ads I found on the blog, Found in Mom’s Basement? You tell me…

Of course, it’s all my fault for subscribing to daily horoscopes in the first place. I was “asking for it”…

Comments are on. Don’t be shy, ladies!