Fat Cow, Skinny Cow — Are all women cows?

18th May 2009

Fat Cow, Skinny Cow — Are all women cows?

I’m furiously trying to finish my final graduate paper after wasting an inordinate amount of time playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook this past week, so posting will be light the next couple of days. Instead, I point you to this trademark image of Skinny Cow, a Nestle-owned brand of low-cal ice cream products, to discuss amongst yourselves. I’ve tried Skinny Cow’s vanilla and mint dipper bars; they’re pretty tasty, but the sexualized bovine with a measuring tape encircling her abnormally shrunken waist leaves a lot to be desired. For reasons I have yet to comprehend, there are even Skinny Cow scrapbooking events. Not only is this image creepy for what it says about and promotes as goals for women, but also because it’s yet another example of women presented as meat objects — as well as a roundabout example of Suicide Food (sadly, aging dairy cows are not herded into dairy retirement homes). Your thoughts?

Skinny Cow

Skinny Cow ice cream

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 18th, 2009 at 12:23 am and is filed under Advertisements, Fat Bias. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On May 18th, 2009, elizabeth said:

Not to get too much into this because I know there are lots of things at play here and lots of companies with similar marketing plans (gross) but whenever I see this brand I always think ‘or course Nestle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott) wouldn’t be any better’. But maybe I’m just narrowminded…
anyway, I’ve never bought ’skinny cow’ because of what it portrays and of course it’s nestle…

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 1:37 am

2 On May 18th, 2009, Jackie said:

You should try the chocolate cones. Not only is the ice cream delicious, but the inside of the cone is coated with chocolate.

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 2:07 am

3 On May 18th, 2009, demimonde said:

The actual products are scrumptious beyond belief, and they don’t have that ‘diet food’ taste (at least to my palate), so I love them.

That marketing image is, however, atrocious and disturbing on so many levels. Very sad.

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 2:41 am

4 On May 18th, 2009, lilacsigil said:

I saw those at the supermarket last week and thought “Not buying that, petals!” Also, that cow appears to have no udders! And “skinny cow” brings up the image of starving animals about to be shot because the drought means no pasture for them – perhaps that’s not what they were going for.

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 3:03 am

5 On May 18th, 2009, Emily said:

I’ve never been able to bring myself to buy any of those ice-creams, solely because of the marketing. I just really hate the implications – you’re a cow to other women if you’re skinny, you’re a fat cow if you don’t eat their diet ice-creams. Blech, no thank you.

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 6:49 am

6 On May 18th, 2009, Meryt Bast said:

It’s always bothered me because a skinny cow is not a healthy cow. It makes me sad.

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 8:23 am

7 On May 18th, 2009, Desdemona said:

This has always bugged the crap out of me, too; the combined sizeism, sexism and sheer anthropomorphic weirdness of the image is just bizarre. My boyfriend and I were grocery shopping recently, and he caught a glimpse of their packaging for the first time and was flabbergasted: “What are they trying to say? Are we supposed to find the cow sexy? Why does the cow want to be sexually attractive by western cultural standards?” We’re vegan, and don’t eat “fat cow” ice cream either (thanks for the link to ‘Suicide Food,’ which is run by a friend of ours), but the whole thing is frankly disturbing…if we’re meant to identify with the cow on some level, why does she have to be forced into our “feminine” restrictive paradigms? For my part, I’d rather explore what COWS find attractive; at least it would make for a change, right?

(Good luck on your paper, BTW; I’m in the very same boat!)

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 9:52 am

8 On May 18th, 2009, Faith said:

Aside from all of the political aspects of this brand and its context, and I am well aware that this is my ED brain talking, but I just can’t eat or have anything in my house that is called skinny cow. It feels almost intrusive. Which is fine because I wouldn’t buy them based on the image/context anyway.

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 10:27 am

9 On May 18th, 2009, Dee said:

Honestly, if you’re going to have ice-cream HAVE ICE-CREAM! I’m not a big fan of low-fat ice-cream treats. Indulge every once in a while! I am also not a fan of the Skinny Cow advertisement. Big Kudos to Rachel for pointing this out.

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 11:07 am

10 On May 18th, 2009, Rachel said:

@Dee: In Skinny Cow’s defense and as demimonde also points out, their products don’t taste like diet food. The ice cream bars I tried are actually quite good, as good even as the real deal.

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 11:22 am

11 On May 18th, 2009, Alyssa (The 39 year-old) said:

It IS creepy. And has so many connotations, I don’t know where to begin.
What’s REALLY scary is that I remember the Nestle boycott from when I was a young kid…in the 70’s. 30 years, and Nestle hasn’t learned a damn thing.

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 11:48 am

12 On May 18th, 2009, blablover5 said:

What’s rather funny is that for Dairy cows, having too little fat is actual a big deal. I did some research on adipose taken from dairy cows and the bigger the producer the less fat she can maintain on her body.

It is fascinating sometimes the juxtoposition of marketing and fantastical ideas of how the world works and real research and problems that people are working to fix. Sorry but in the real world we’re trying to make dairy cows fatter.

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 11:49 am

13 On May 18th, 2009, Maureen at IslandRoar said:

Well what’s the deal with cows being the symbol for women anyway? Lactation? My ex grew up with his father calling out “Hi girls,” whenever they passed a field of cows. He had a hard time understanding my problem with this. We should stay away from anything that markets to women with the word “skinny” in it. I cringe every time my daughters talk about “skinny jeans,” and they just mean the width of the leg. But still…

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 12:19 pm

14 On May 18th, 2009, Meryt Bast said:

Well, to be sure, only female cows make milk, so if you see a field of Holsteins, which are dairy cows (in the US, anyway), it’s probably safe to assume that at least most of them are female. Incidentally, Nickelodeon’s “Back at the Barnyard” cartoon has as its main character a male Holstein who sports an udder. Seriously, WTH?

Upon further thought, I the “skinny cow” reminds me of the “chocolate milk comes from brown cows” thing, i.e., low-fat dairy treats come from slender cows. I don’t think any harm or offense was meant, but I still find it disturbing.

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 12:32 pm

15 On May 18th, 2009, Cute Bruiser said:

Ugh, have never even wanted to try those products simply based on the mascot. Then there was an advertisement on TV recently that made it even worse for me … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me24dCvxBAc

When I saw it the first time, the first few seconds of it made my heart leap … until I realized it was that dang boney cow!

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 1:09 pm

16 On May 18th, 2009, Mary Sue said:

Back when I was paying an exorbinate amount of money to Weight Watchers while going to school full time and working full time, if I scraped together enough coins I would buy a pack. They were okay. Ben and Jerry’s is tastier.

I grew up in a cattle family, and we used to call the cows ‘meatheads’.

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 1:13 pm

17 On May 18th, 2009, gamer said:

Maybe it’s just my opinion as a World of Warcraft player, (tauren!) but it really weirds me out to see something so anthropomorphizing without breasts (or clothes). The hyper sexuality without any sexual organs is just creepy. Not to mention ridiculously unattractive, why am I supposed to aspire to look like something emaciated?

That said, I liked Skinny Cow for being a lot more light than normal ice cream, while having most of the flavor. My other ice cream option is frozen custard, though, so. . .

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 1:48 pm

18 On May 18th, 2009, Catgal said:

That is just downright creepy. No utters, no boobs either, yet trying to be humanly sexy? .

Too bad their ice cream is really good, but I have moved on to Blue Bunny. What the heck is that telling me?

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 5:20 pm

19 On May 18th, 2009, SteveD said:

A Cow without Utters is a Bull or without all his equipment a Steer. (not pretty how it’s done)

I buy the Diet (40cal per bar) of Diet Fudge Sickles and Popsicle.

If I want a treat (about once a year) I go for one of those Dairy Queen Dipped Cones that drip all over your shirt.

In 100 years somone with a Web Blog will drag these ads out and say “look what they did in 2009″.

SteveD

posted on May 18th, 2009 at 5:44 pm

20 On May 19th, 2009, Jackie said:

SteveD, sooo…that would make the Skinny Cow a cross-dressing bull?

posted on May 19th, 2009 at 4:25 am

21 On May 19th, 2009, elizabethpatch said:

as an illustrator myself, I can just imagine the corporate meeting: Women worry about weight! Hey team, create a character that “they” can “identify” with! Something like a combination of cow & Barbie!
All the illustrators on staff then try to come up with something according to what corporate wants. Let’s do lounging by the pool! Let’s try adding lipstick! I’m surprised that “she” is not wearing a bikini and heels…

posted on May 19th, 2009 at 7:14 am

22 On May 19th, 2009, mccn said:

I know that it’s not only weight – the fact that women bear children also brings in a lot of cow-imagery. I’m childfree myself, but I can’t get behind any of the communities, because I don’t agree with them on a lot of social issues, but also on the way they refer to some mothers as “moos.”

posted on May 19th, 2009 at 9:38 am

23 On May 19th, 2009, Rachel2 said:

I just take issue with this whole thing. If I’m going to have some ice cream (as I just did), I am going to damn well have some ice cream. I try to keep myself moderated. Today has not been the best day to moderate, but I will “detox” tomorrow via my normal bagel/vegetables/whateverIcanthrowtogether.

That being said, “skinny cow” that’s emaciated and without udders is supposed to be something we idolize? Excuse me, but it seems as though some of the fashion designers have crossed over into the illustrator/corporate realm. It reeks of runway model trash mentality (women are objects=coat hangers/starved to look like prepubescent boys). Women that don’t really have boobs either because they’ve starved them off. :-\

…Still disturbed…

posted on May 19th, 2009 at 10:29 pm

24 On May 20th, 2009, Twistie said:

I don’t buy (or eat) snack treats that have horrifically mangled, desexed, yet pornily sexified quadrupeds as their symbols – particularly the ones that then expect me to identify with and long to emulate the poor, deformed creature.

I like being a human. I like who I am. And if I want ice cream, I’m going to eat full fat ice cream.

And that’s why there’s some Ben & Jerry’s in my freezer right now while I’ve never once tasted Skinny Cow.

posted on May 20th, 2009 at 9:50 pm

25 On May 21st, 2009, Shanti said:

I’ve always found the implications of the image awful. I find I’m even more offended, though, by just how terrible that artwork is. It is seriously just awful and it makes me sad that somebody got paid for such an aesthetically worthless image.

posted on May 21st, 2009 at 8:10 pm

26 On May 27th, 2009, Liz said:

Wow, after looking at the ingredients list of a few of the products, ugly sudo sapien cow aside, the only thing that should be in ice cream is milk, sugar, and vanilla/chocolate. I with stick all natural brands that don’t require food science degrees to read. Someone please feed the skinny cow.

posted on May 27th, 2009 at 4:45 pm

27 On March 15th, 2010, Jami said:

(head to palm) My mom bought these when they first came out. She laughed when she went to get them out of the freezer and ’skinny’ had been crossed out in sharpie and ‘healthy’ had been written in.

When I see them in the grocery store I always have an urge to go sharpie crazy…why not?

posted on March 15th, 2010 at 2:15 pm