Home › Forums › West Seattle Rants & Raves › Museum of Flight billboard off the West Seattle bridge – REALLY?!!
- This topic has 18 replies, 15 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 10 months ago by JanS.
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June 5, 2018 at 4:25 pm #918720
AndreaBeeParticipantA woman born in the 50s is a “cougar”?!! Right next to the jet plan flown in the 50s? What is it that women have to remain relegated to the sexual stereotypes. A woman born in the 1950s would have been told she could never be a jet fighter pilot – that only men got to be jet fighter pilots. And she would have been told she couldn’t be a jet fighter pilot because of her girl parts – the same part this billboard has made so pronounced.
Heck, the WASPs were disbanded in 1944 without even receiving any benefits. Would a girl born in the 50’s have even been raised to think she would be allowed to clean the jet fighter plane, much less be a mechanic – and “take a job away from a man”?
A girl would have had to have been born in the 70s before she could even have considered flying a jet. The first woman to be accepted and to become a jet fighter pilot was in 1993 and then women were only allowed to fly combat missions in 1998.
I love the Museum of Flight, but that billboard is ridiculous.
June 11, 2018 at 11:13 am #919256
cbofParticipantHave you shared this with the museum? If not, I think you should. I had the same thoughts, and I’m sure we’re not the only ones.
June 11, 2018 at 11:26 am #919257
AndreaBeeParticipantYes I did, and I received a very reasonable reply from Erika Callahan, the V.P. of Marketing. It’s part of a campaign concept (I’m not so sure about so I don’t want to garble the message) and she was part of the brainstorming and approval process. I hope the others coming out of the campaign aren’t as aggravating, but I have my doubts.
June 11, 2018 at 2:04 pm #919276
newnativeParticipantWhat did the billboard say? I can’t translate any of your post to make sense. are there photos?
June 11, 2018 at 3:14 pm #919280
JASJENParticipantI emailed them also. Direct from them: The cougar board in question is part of a campaign where common expressions and physical items are compared with our artifacts.
They compare a female “cougar” as born in the 1950’s to a plane that flew in the 1950’s. Per the response, they have more ads coming out poking fun at macho men by comparing “big studs” to big stud.June 11, 2018 at 3:58 pm #919288
anonymeParticipantHow does labeling a woman a cougar equate with calling a man a big stud? Are men offended by that moniker? Even if that concept weren’t ludicrous, the campaign is extremely inappropriate, as are the responses to complaints. I hate to think what might be planned for the Fokker, the Little Stinker, the Enola Gay, or the Blackbird.
June 11, 2018 at 10:07 pm #919324
Chuck JacobsParticipantI pass this billboard on my way home from work. It consists of two pictures side by side. On the left is an attractive older woman with a sassy expression making “cat claws” with her hands. On the right is a fifties era fighter jet, presumably one on display at the Museum of Flight. Underneath are two captions: “Born in the fifties” & “Flew in the fifties”. Y’all are the ones who labeled her a “cougar”
I see nothing in this ad that should be offensive to women in general or this woman in particular. What I find offensive is not identifying the aircraft. I’m guessing it’s a Convair F-102 Delta Dagger.
June 12, 2018 at 11:11 am #919341
anonymeParticipantWhat part of the ad relates the woman with “cat claws” to a Convair F-102 Delta Dagger? Nothing about this explanation passes the test of logic, nor is it acceptable for yet another man to decide what is or is not offensive to women. The term “cougar”, as applied to women, is sexual in nature. ENOUGH.
June 12, 2018 at 3:28 pm #919373
HappyOnAlkiParticipantIf the ad doesn’t use the term “cougar,” I’m confused about the anger. “The fifties” is what relates one pic to the other, right?
June 12, 2018 at 3:58 pm #919381
CarDriverParticipantI gotta ask….please give some examples of advertising that is guaranteed to “offend” NOBODY. Just to the right of my post is an ad for Quail Park Memory Care. Isn’t that ad Mocking people with dementia??.
June 12, 2018 at 7:36 pm #919397
PokeParticipantI’m confused too. From what I’ve read no where on the billboard is the word “cougar” so I’M guessING that the OP is assuming because one of the women is from the 50’s which would make her 68+ in age so she’s a cougar in “her” mind???.
Anyways isn’t the definition of a “cougar” an older female that goes after a younger male…is there a young male on the billboard getting his butt pinched or something? LOL!!!- This reply was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by Poke.
June 14, 2018 at 10:08 am #919520
GreystreetParticipantI just don’t understand how the American public is going to survive if at every turn people become offended. We’ve been watered down to a pathetic version of ourselves over the last 30 years, or maybe it’s because I am from the East Coast. Media, Art, the Press, etc. it’s purpose is to inspire conversation, incite discomfort and make people think but these days the only thing people can focus on is how it “offends” them deeply? We’re one step away from placing fig leaves over the genitalia of sculptural nudes again, lest we forget that period in history. Grow back the thick skin, see art and media for what it is and stop making assumptions based on how it makes you feel. Perhaps it’s SUPPOSED to make you feel a certain way, that’s the point, explore it within yourself instead of immediately pulling the fire alarm and getting out the tar and feathers.
June 14, 2018 at 11:28 am #919528
ltmnemoParticipant@Greystreet…AGREED!
June 15, 2018 at 1:21 pm #919665
PnelsonParticipantThe 50’s jet aircraft pictured is in fact a 1953 Grumman F9F-8 Cougar. The Museum has one in their collection. Another fun fact: The Museum’s F9F Cougar is featured in the 1982 movie “An Officer and a Gentleman,” which was filmed in Port Townsend. The movie starred Debra Winger, an actress that left Hollywood at what was considered the height of her career due to the pressures put on aging women in the film industry, as discussed in the documentary “Searching for Debra Winger,” which is a much more salient movie in light of the recent #MeToo movement. Discuss.
June 15, 2018 at 11:19 pm #919715
JanSParticipantI hadn’t seen this thread before. So…I am a girl (woman) born before 1950. All the way back to ancient times in 1947 That makes me “vintage” now. In the early 70’s I enlisted in the Women’s Army Corp, where women got to shoot weapons, became mechanics working on vehicles in the motor pool, and driving said vehicles, too. So what’s the crap about having to be born in the 70’s, yada yada. Women may not have flown many planes way back then (damn, I feel ancient….oh, wait…), but women did a lot of stuff that you probably don’t realize. It had to start somewhere. And , as far as flying planes, and doing what men do, now…well, that changes and gets better every day. It might be 2 steps forward, one back, under the current administration, but, progress has been made. Things are far from perfect…we definitely are considered 2nd class by many in this country, but we persist…and resist…and hopefully the new generation coming up will follow in the footsteps of women like Harriet Quimby, got her pilot’s license in 1911, or Matilde Moisant, who got her license 13 days later. Military? No. But they could fly. Or consider Bessie Coleman, the first black aviatrix, who got her international pilot’s license in 1921. What an accomplishment. I don’t think Boeing is disrespecting women on that billboard. Yes, we’ve come a long way, and still have a ways to go. But give Boeing a break.
PNelson…thanks for your post.
June 15, 2018 at 11:27 pm #919716
JanSParticipantDear Poke…ain’t nothin’ wrong with enjoying the company of a younger man…just sayin’…
and I disagree…the term “cougar” simply means an older woman who likes younger men, and it’s not necessarily a sexual term. Good grief ! I dislike the term, but that’s me. To me, a woman born in the 50’s is just a woman born in the 50’s. (or 40’s, or 60’s, or whatever)
- This reply was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by JanS.
June 16, 2018 at 11:47 am #919753
poke.2Participant@JanS…I didn’t mean the meaning of “Cougar” meant sexual…worded it incorrectly, writing isn’t my best suit! :>) anyways YES Woman have accomplished a lot but also not known for their accomplishments, but that’s OK we know it don’t we!
And hey maybe I’m a cougar… I’m 62 and the hubby is 55??? LOL!!!
June 16, 2018 at 5:03 pm #919791
CMParticipant@JanS , just a detail, but Boeing has no official connection to the Museum of Flight. They are a stand alone entity. Many people don’t realize that.
June 17, 2018 at 12:35 pm #919873
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