Has anyone else noticed the complete and utter ridiculousness of the ad campaign for “Eat Pray Love”?

Basically, it’s just Julia Roberts, sitting on a bench, eating some ice cream. With a look on her face that could mean anything from “I am on a magical life-altering soul-searching journey of transformative redemption” to “I farted” (see below for the pic).

I’m not sure what movie this ad is selling. What kind of film will it put into people’s heads, when they see it? A movie about the simple pleasures of ice cream? A movie about being a grown woman unashamed of enjoying something normally associated with childhood? A movie with Julia Roberts, and therefore there’s no need to convey any additional information?

I have no doubt that it works, in that cynical advertising kind of way where even the dumbest concepts get into people’s brains and replicate and then before you know it people are plopping down money. It’s just baffling to me. And that’s why I’m not making any money.

There’s a brilliant article in Bitch Magazine about the book, situating it within the bigger context of “books, blogs, and articles saturated with fantastical wellness schemes for women,” the credit for much of which gets laid at Oprah’s feet. The article coins the term “priv-lit,” which I love, and am gonna start using obsessively, because it so perfectly describes the glut of books that “could easily have been called Wealthy, Whiny, White.”

To whit: “Eat, Pray, Love is not the first book of its kind, but it is a perfect example of the genre of priv-lit: literature or media whose expressed goal is one of spiritual, existential, or philosophical enlightenment contingent upon women’s hard work, commitment, and patience, but whose actual barriers to entry are primarily financial. Should its consumers fail, the genre holds them accountable for not being ready to get serious, not “wanting it” enough, or not putting themselves first, while offering no real solutions for the astronomically high tariffs—both financial and social—that exclude all but the most fortunate among us from participating.”

I find this sh*t infuriating. But it’s where the money is. Tell people it’s easy to have a perfect life, all their dreams can come true, God loves you, your inner goodness will be rewarded. People want to hear that. Most of all, they want to hear that the system is set up for them to succeed.  That we don’t live in a world that’s actively f*cking them over. That the oppression they face (because they’re female, or of color, or queer, or differently abled, or poor) is somehow INTERNAL TO THEM, because if it’s INTERNAL TO THEM it means all they need to do is change themselves… (which Oprah and her ilk say is so easy… just buy yourself something nice once in a while)…

When in fact what needs to change is the patriarchal and poverty-based underpinnings of our society. That’s the real source of our oppression. And all the ice cream in the world won’t make it go away.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 12th, 2010 at 11:39 am and is filed under Culture as Resistance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.