“To the casual observer, she’s the very embodiment of a lady.”

Dressed demurely in a blushing pink blouse, hands sheathed in dainty white gloves, Aiko – quite possibly Canada’s first android – sits patiently, ready to engage in polite conversation using her 13,000-word vocabulary. She’ll recognize your face, shake how-do-you-do, read you a story, add sums and deliver the current weather.”

They are talking about a robot in the story.

It’s just not the sad creepy Stepford wife allusion. It’s that we – the media – storytellers – culture – parents – keep perpetrating and believing age old stories about how we “should” be and behave.

For example demurely means
1. Modest and reserved in manner or behavior.
2. Affectedly shy, modest, or reserved.

Yeah. Like Paris Hilton, Madonna and Pam Anderson.

Growing up, I railed against this limiting description of how a “real” woman was supposed to act. I was not like that. Most of the women I knew weren’t either – until Grade 6 when we were all hushed, shushed, given the back seat, and beaten into submission.

“You’re not an angry feminist are you?” they accused. The way they said it, there was nothing worse that you could be.

And thus we were kept small, submissive and silent. We were bonsai’d

It’s pretty creepy that men want to screw plastic dolls, and that women like Pamela Anderson and the rest of the Hefner harem want to grow up to be just like them.

Seriously – look at the women in this video. They are using the femmebots as role models and have no problem dressing and looking alike, talking in fake voices and pretending to like turning an old man on. They are trained like poodles in a circus ring.

I don’t like Madonna, her brash bad girl image is just a role she plays to get a reaction and as such, she and her art wear thin, devoid of depth. I prefer authentic, or something close to it – but I’ll take Madonna’s shallow over the femmebots any day.

And don’t tell me it’s not hard to be this fake day in and day out, pretending to be so gaga over old men that you start believing it.

Here’s the
Pam nude video here.

The International Female Value Index falls 500 points because of the poor ratio of old man to women in the video – and because of how they have no problem presenting themselves as silly harmless widgets in his presence.

We have fables like Beauty and the Beast teaching us that we oughta give the somewhat less-than-hot men a second chance and look beyond the external to see their true beauty within.

That’s nice. The drag is it only goes one way.

The Beast sure is beastly – but he wants a beauty. And whereas his character is treated sympathetically, and we are taught to give them a chance, females in our fables do not get the same treatment.

Remember Cinderella’s sisters? My gosh, even their feet aren’t pretty enough.

Can anyone name one story, fairy tale, or myth where the lead woman isn’t a beautiful princess? And where the less than beautiful aren’t vilified?

Now we have the horrid reality TV series, Average Joe, where once again, Princesses are told that they should kiss the frog.

Where is the opposite story? Where are Princes told to take a closer look at the homely but hard working washer woman, or to go beyond the sour expression of the little match girl to see what lies within?

We need more of these stories like that out there – where women are valued for more than looks. The Paper Bag Princess is a lonely warrior.

And don’t get me started on the lack of merits in Princesses. That’s for another post.

Just watched this and it’s a great precis of how cults can suck you in.

But, I also noticed there’s a lot of stuff in here that the so-called “Secret experts” – which as I said before are sales experts – are using to get you to buy their personal development programs.

Here are some choice gems taken from the above film – which uncannily mirror The Secret’s, and a lot of other personal development programs marketing strategies.

To be a successful cult leader you should:

• use deception. Don’t tell them who you really are, lie, leave out important information, or distort information.
• promise to fulfill their dreams. Tell them you have the secrets to self-improvement
• offer them something free. Tell them time is running out – they have to make their decision now
• separate your new recruits and surround them with happy people. Love bomb them
• demonize outsiders – develop an “us vs them” mentality, say the others don’t get it
• tell them the idealogy “answers all questions to all problems.”
• induce guilt. (The Secret says it’s one’s own fault that negative stuff happens – it’s because we are thinking negative thoughts and so we attract that which we think.)
• tell them there is a part of their mind they must eliminate
• make up stories about yourself to boost your importance…but start slowly

That was just half way through the film.

Compare the notes in the movie with some of “marketing techniques” on these landing pages I picked randomly.

Joe Vitale’s Zero Limits program landing page.

Joe called himself a metaphysician in the movie, but he is really a copywriter. He coined one of his marketing techniques Hypnotic Marketing, and you should never forget it when reading his stuff. In fact he makes no secret that he knows how to put you into a hypno-buying trance, dousing his copy liberally with commands like Buy Now, or Go See This.

So “Go Now” to this page and check out the crazy promises Joe makes. “There’s NOTHING like it!”

Mr. Fire as he calls himself is also is an affiliate marketer of this program Simpleology. It better be easier than reading this ridiculously long page.

Free gift here, and more shocking scientific claims and amazing hyperboles here.

I think you get it.

So watch. And think. Especially before “buying it.” And remember the biggest sane-maker is to mix and mingle with as as many diverse people as possible.

Tags: The Secret, marketing, cults, copywriting, buying