I Want It All!

The new birth control ad from Bayer makes me want to throw my remote through the television.

The pill contains folic acid, for people who are taking birth control and then suddenly get pregnant. This doesn’t inspire confidence in the product for me, but then again, neither does the ad.

A group of young, successful and ethnically diverse women walk into a store and decide what they want to buy — only what they are really doing is choosing their futures. As the female voice helpfully says, “You know what you want today, but you never know what you might want for tomorrow. It’s good to have choices,” we see the women peruse the shelves. Will she pick grad school? The boy? A picnic? A baby? A trip to Paris? A house?

The thing is, they can only pick one each. What kind of fucked up universe is it when going on a picnic means you can’t go to grad school?

The stork tries to get the attention of one woman, who waves him away and instead picks up the Eiffel Tower. We are supposed to cheer at her independence and wild streak. What infuriates me is the implication that all of these things are mutually exclusive. You can’t have a boyfriend and also go to grad school — that would be madness!

Fuck that. I want it all.

I mean, it is conceivable that you go to grad school, meet a guy, go on a picnic with him, then hop a flight to Europe where you get pregnant, right? You could even buy the house in Paris.

Why are we being told we have to limit our options? I fully intend to strap a baby to my back and show off my wild streak by hopping a flight to South East Asia. My future grocery shopping basket is big enough to hold a family, a career and adventure.

I’m sick and tired of people telling us that because we are women we have to choose between the things that make us happy. We can give important speeches in high heel shoes that pinch. We can balance the budget at home and at the office. We create life, so I’m pretty sure we can handle whatever comes out way.

You know what I want out of life? Everything. Frankly, anything less would be insulting.

Contact the author here: mick@morningquickie.com