You mean Judeo/Christian values like on "24" ?

The was in Cosmo, correct?

I don't think it's any kind of reference to Beatie or anything else. It's just going "See, it's funny because being pregnant and going through labor are painful, so wouldn't it be perfect if guys did it instead of us, ha ha?"

Yeah, let's see her piss standing up.

"Thomas Beatie, who got pregnant and was called a man..." -- Cassy

Thomas Beattie is a man. (Or how many women are there with the first name, "Thomas? Jeesh!). Tom started off life as a woman, but through hard effort on his part, became a man. And then he became pregnant, and so he can now report back to the rest of us men what pregnancy is like, thereby enabling us to better empathize with women. You're a true trailblazer, Tom.

Jeez, it's just a little light humor.

It's fantasy wish fulfillment for women who would prefer that men have to go through the pregnancy and save them from months of mood changes, water weight, back aches, and stuff. I bet that lots of good, conservative women going through pregnancy have stopped and said, "I really wish the men had to do this part."

Not a big deal.

Going through life, I've realized that it's best to save outrage for the things that are worth the effort. This ain't that.

Anyways, I have a suspicion that Beatie was the inspiration for this ad.

Wrong again. This ad debuted in November, which was months before Beatie hit the media. You must be behind in your Cosmo subscription.

And in any case, what is their point?... It says nothing, and in all likelihood was created for sheer shock value alone, meant to be avante-garde and offensive. But how many people will do more than raise their eyebrows?

Quite a few, apparently. Their new ad campaign increased their sales by almost 10%. If you were to look at it in the context of the 18 other different scenes they created, you probably wouldn't get yourself into such a huff about it. Unless you think that having taxi cabs always available is offensive.

What's next? A post against Schwarzenegger? Or Billy Crystal?

zombyboy said, "It's fantasy wish fulfillment for women who would prefer that men have to go through the pregnancy and save them from months of mood changes, water weight, back aches, and stuff. I bet that lots of good, conservative women going through pregnancy have stopped and said, "I really wish the men had to do this part.""

And you libs think us Christians got a screw loose? Goodbye my sweet America...

Huh? I thought the message of the ad was that guys with big beer guts can get a hot woman.

Mark, are you calling me a "lib"?

Really?

You got that from my not being offended by this little ad?

Okay, here's my political pedigree: while I was too young to vote for Reagan, I've voted for every GOP candidate for president (and, typically, in the local elections and House and Senate as well) and would repeat every one of those votes today if I had to. I've supported the effort in Iraq and Afghanistan from the beginning--which hasn't stopped me from being critical when I thought it was appropriate, but I've never wavered from that path even when the popular opinion went strongly against me.

I believe in low taxes, minimal government interference in our daily lives, and a strong military and foreign policy. I despise the UN (and, in fact, a little anti-UN graphic that I made a few years back still pops up on conservative message boards) both for the anti-American bias of many of the member countries and for its inability to adhere to its own lofty principles and goals.

I believe that America should be a good steward of her natural resources--and that doesn't' mean refusing to drill offshore or in ANWR or refusing to find ways to tap into the oil shale on Colorado's Western slope.

I could go through a laundry list of policy positions, but that doesn't actually tell you much. Understand that while I may hold some positions that you would disagree with (I'm opposed to the death penalty, for example), I am by temperament and by philosophy a conservative.

I'm also a Christian--I was raised Baptist and, while some of my social beliefs aren't as strict as my church's, I still identify as a Baptist and believe in the core tenets of Christianity.

So, if you want to consider me one of the progressive left because I don't agree with Cassy on this issue, then it's some brilliant conclusion of your own that simply can't be supported by the facts.

Much ado about zippo.

It's funny! Lighten up, Cassy.

Thomas Beattie is a man. (Or how many women are there with the first name, "Thomas? Jeesh!). Tom started off life as a woman, but through hard effort on his part, became a man. And then he became pregnant, and so he can now report back to the rest of us men what pregnancy is like, thereby enabling us to better empathize with women. You're a true trailblazer, Tom.

1. I don't know, how many women are out there with the name "Beelzebub". So what? For $200, you can go down to the courthouse and change your name to "Deliciously Insane" if you'd like.

2. "Tom started off life as a woman". Which is totally not the same as a biologically born man getting pregnant. Obviously (s)he didn't go through ALL the hard effort to become a woman, as apparently (s)he kept his/her ovaries and uterus.

Looks like those filthy Romans have finally stopped oppressing Stan Loretta...

J.

If absolute makes men pregnant, then I'll never buy vodka again... I think most other men will have similar thoughts. Seems like remarkably stupid marketing to me.

It's just silliness. Yeah, it'd be nice if for once guys would have to carry the buden of being pregnant while the woman could kick back with a drink. It's humor, Cassy. It's no slight on men, no slight on women, and certainly not a promotion of gender roles. Long before the "pregnant man" crap, women have been saying "It'd be nice for my husband to carry this child for a while and give me a break!"

Cletus:

What it tells me is that Absolut (at least in "women's magazines") is targeting women with their advertising, not men. It's no different than cereal and junk food makers targeting kids with their Saturday morning tv ads. Is their marketing approach any good? We'd need to see their sales demographics and volume numbers.

Either Absolut seeks to be branded as a woman's drink or they also do a male orientated advertising program in "men's magazines", or at least gender neutral advertising in magazines such as Time and Newsweek.

Personally, I don't much care*.

U.O.G.
*scotch drinker

How drunk do you have to be to be a guy and imagine you are pregnant? Yup. It takes an Absolut world.

Are we sure the one on the right is a woman? If it is, I'm not sure it could handle bearing a child. It's rail thin and no hips.

Gotta agree with some of the commenters. Not everything is an affront to your values. Quit acting like a perpetual victim and laugh a little.

I have a very, very strange hypo that I'd like you guys (especially Cassy) to comment on.

Let's say that in a standard opposite-sex marriage (one man, one woman), the wife, for whatever reason, was unable to carry a child for term. Now, let's say that technology existed to allow the man to carry that child to term. Should the man carry that child?

I will grant that it seems kind of outlandish, but we're seeing research these days on artificial wombs, which would allow a child to be grown outside of a human being. And who knows which way research will take us in the next two decades?

--|PW|--

I don't think Pennywit's hypo is going to be all that hypo for very much longer.

That said, I can't think of any objections to such an arrangement. Assuming all parties are agreeable, of course.

One thing, though. We're assuming that men and women are neutral "carriers" and it would make no difference if a developing baby spent its first 9 months inside a man or inside a woman. It wouldn't surprise me if this turned out not to be true.

Oregon:
I hesitate to imagine what the technology might entail. I do think, however, that if the technology were viable it might become a way for single men to have children.

--JH

response to #9 by zombyboy:

Let's see,I quoted your madcap proposition that "lots of good,conservative women" fantasize about men having to bear children and you responded with a series of qualifiers totally devoid of any kind of direct response to what I said. If that isn't the essence of modern liberalism,please tell me what is Obama, er, zombyboy.

1) CF appears to be using this as a "vector" to the Beatie story/issues. Why don't you just write about that?

2) Give it up, zombyboy.

3) Careful, pennywit -- someone may figure out who you are if you use the initials JH.

I wouldn't call it funny. Silly, maybe.

Yeah, let's see her piss standing up.

Uh huh. Let's in turn see him give live birth through that tiny little "canal". Guinness is waiting.

"In an Absolut World"----perhaps.

Not in MY world.

Heck, No One Else wanna put a Fembot in the White House and drink Svedka instead?

Ted said, "Quit acting like a perpetual victim and laugh a little."

Come on Ted, do we have to laugh? Couldn't we just smirk or say,"Hey! Who does your hair man?"

OH OH,I got one for ya, Mr. "Perpetually Cool with Anything": Picture a recipient of public assistance laboring away for benefit of a hard working tax payer. The smug tax payer grins, with pleasure, in agreement with the cheesy slogan,"In a Budweiser World" (can't have shlubs like that wasting good vodka).

But, for ones intelligence, the ad is not offensive,it accurately illustrates the mentality of Absoluts' patrons,ie; They are liquor swilling elitists, as opposed to beer swilling non-elitists. Those on the right are simply pointing out how lame the ad is, and those on the left are exposing something else altogether. I can't upload images on this thing so you'll have to use your imagination. You know imagination right? It's that thing you used before "George Bush is soooo dumb" jokes were the only thing that made you laugh.

ijosh: Give what up?

Mark: You made an assertion about my political beliefs that wasn't supported by anything I said, by anything you said, or by my simple disagreement with Cassy. So, yeah, I felt that was worth addressing on a political and philosophical level.

What else did you leave me to actually respond to? You didn't actually respond to anything that I wrote--you didn't say that you don't think that conservative women are incapable of wishing that men could shoulder more of the load of childbearing, for example. You didn't say that anything other than:

"And you libs think us Christians got a screw loose? Goodbye my sweet America..."

Which, you might note, isn't actually an argument of any kind. Now you have the gall to complain that I haven't actually addressed what you said? Good Lord, you're an idiot.

So, what precisely is it that you want to debate? I've said a whole hell of a lot more that has substance than you have.

Oh, that's right, you just want to make useless noise and pretend that it's an argument. Say something intelligent and meaningful and I'll address it directly. Comparing me with Obama? Again, as I said: you're an idiot.

But you just go on with your arrogant, judgmental self.

Now, if you want some evidence, my fiance (who also voted for Bush both times and happens to be a Christian), says that she wishes men had to do the pregnancy part.

If I were the face of modern liberalism (and I think we'd all be better off if that were the case), we would be drilling offshore, ANWR would have been tapped, Social Security would have been heavily modified from its current form and would include private accounts, and my next Supreme Court nominee would look an awful lot like Justice Thomas.

So, yeah, let's hope that the modern face of liberalism shifts a bit toward my world view, shall we?

Never mind, zombyboy... just being a buttinski. It looked to me like it was going to be a waste of your time.

Well, on that count you were probably completely correct.

Next time you should probably warn me with a big, flashing sign so that it gets through to me.

Hello zombyboy,

Thank you for taking the time to "respond" to my response to your response to my...well anyway. Again, I must insist that you have liberal tendencies, latent or otherwise, that you, apparently,are not even aware of yourself.

Following are crucial excerpts from my upcoming novella: "Cronology of a Debate, The True Life Story of Mark and zombyboy"

Chapter 1)"z-boy embraces silly leftist dogma to prove his,'McCainesque',come-hither bonafides to the liberal set" (actually, that is both the title AND the entire content of chapter one.Thank you and carry on.)

Chapter 2)"Mark Quotes the Zombinator as a Means of Illustrating His Point"
Mark,his chest heaving in the throws of passion, thrusts himself into the debate,unashamed before all who dare witness his naked agression!(it gets kinda weak after that, but you get the point)

Chapter 3)"zombyboy asserts himself as the newly formed,'zombyMAN',or,'He Who Holds Dominion Over All Conservative Ideology'"
Well not really, that was just the "hook" to get y'all to read on.Actually, what the zombified one does here is,he sets up his next step(no less than 2 whole steps in the future) wherein he eviscerates his prey, like a thinly membraned bag of marmalade....or so he thinks!

Chapter 4)"Move it Along.Nothing to See here Folks, Just Boring Facts"
I'll keep this one short as it just involves Mark whining about the "fact" that the zombaroni refuses to respond to his,Marks, point, to wit: It is not only not conservative to view fantasies of wombified men with a non-jaundiced eye,rather,it is a distinctly liberal thought process that comes up with such rubbish, and or, makes one feel compelled to defend it as "funny" or "harmless".(see what I mean? Blah bluh blah bluh blah...)

Chapter 5)"zombio,'the gay blade',slices with his double edged,razor tongue"
Nearing the climax of our story,the heroic zombio hacks huge swaths of egocentric flesh from the once dreaded, Snidely Marklash, with zingers like,"You're an idiot!", and,"You're an idiot!", oh yes and, "But you just go on with your arrogant, judgmental self." Finally, finishing him off with the rapier,"So's yer mother!"

Soon,cut to intellectual ribbons,pathetic Mark,insistent fact user that he is, crawls off to slowly bleed to death from shame and exposure. His final,blood-choked lament, "I'll be back damn you! With charts and graphs to illustrate why it is folly to 'back up' an absurd point, as Obama did with his tire pressure fiasco,with an even stronger affirmation of the swill you've alreaddy puked up...ACK! ACK,ACK,ACK,ACK!" And then, he shut up.

Storys' moral(z-boy edition): When arguing with an idiot,first, establish to the reader which one you are.

Story, moral thereof,subtext 1)paragraph - A is A(for benefit of Mark): When a player, in the theater of the absurd, don't assume the obvious is so darn obvious to all but, if at all possible, find a way to amuse yourself.Otherwise,at best,you're just a winner in the "special debaters olympics".

The End? (now really folks, do you think this "Blob" like mess could possibly perpetuate?...stay tuned for more aimless mishapery, Marky D. -oot)

Mark, this is a guess I admit, but I am pretty sure that this irrational defense of the humor-impaired of yours will not increase the likelihood you get to touch Cassy's yabos.

You are not a knight in electron armor.

Zombyboy a liberal? That's funny.

Wow, next time you don't have anything to post, maybe you should just admit that. Or just rage at transgendered people because they offend your delicate sensibilities (are they trying to hold you down and chop your breasts off? wtf do you care, unless you're concerned that perhaps they should have their heads examined before the chopping). I guess people should have freedom, as long as it's the freedom to be exactly like you.

I really don't think absolut was attacking your "values", though they may have been attacking your lack of a sense of humor. It's a frickin quirky absolut ad, not an endorsement of transgender pregnancy. You are reading your own agenda into the ad. If I had a dime for every time my wife wished I could walk a mile in her shoes when she was pregnant...