Activism and Self-Promotion: Vinnie Angel Comes to Conn for V-Week

Purveyor of social and environmental justice consumer products Vinnie Angel appeared on campus last Tuesday in the Women’s Center with a stack of his coveted tampon cases and a slideshow depicting his rise to fame.

Like everyone else on campus, I had seen the over-the-top fliers with statements like “Vinnie talks some mad shit,” and “how to light butt fires,” and wanted to know what was going on.

Unfortunately, after spending 20 minutes perusing his website and the Facebook event description, I still couldn’t figure out how Vinnie Angel’s product worked, why it was necessary, and how a guy selling his artwork on a product for girls was activism.

Vinnie’s explicit goal with his product – the aptly titled “Vinnie’s Tampon Case” – is to incite more candid dialogue between men and women concerning menstruation.

OK, so when a guy sees this crazy-looking case he might want to ask questions about it, but wouldn’t a more direct route be a tampon case without an agenda and a costume?

“I added cars, revving engines and race flags to draw guys to the products,” he said.

I guess this might attract some attention, but playing into such conventional gender norms to attract men seems to undermine Vinnie’s goals.

“I’d like my work to lessen the gender gap and start up discussions that wouldn’t have otherwise happened,” he said.

It seems as though utilizing flashy advertising to draw NASCAR fans into discussions about menstruation is one way to do it, but I’m not sold on that exchange about menstruation being the right one. Is any conversation about menstruation better than no conversation at all? I hope so.

His presentation was confusing as money came into the equation.

“The world was being ruined by Coke, unchecked corporate blah, blah, blah,” he said.

His initial goal with his products was to attack “corporate America” and “greedy politicians.”

I was really happy to hear this, though it was not explained at in any great length, just as I was happy to hear him say he was “bolstered by reading Howard Zinn, watching Spike Lee and listening to punk rock and politically-minded rap.”

But despite his rebellious roots, Angel is still a guy selling his own product with an eerie grip on how to advertise and move his artwork.  He was well aware that he would have no success if women saw him as a guy profiting off of their cause, saying “I did not want to be another guy co-opting another part of your body.”

He gave away his cases to silence any backlash against him, but now that he is personally profiting from worldwide sales the integrity of his product has become muddled for me.

“When people asked to sell my product, I was nervous,” he said. “As long as they promised to sell them for just $5, I was OK with it.” Vinnie’s Tampon Cases can now be purchased for $10 on his website, though he will still give you one for free in person.

Here he is now, a widely respected proponent of gender equality who has enough people listening to him and enough resources to make some things happen. When asked why he did not use the tampon cases and the leverage gained from his popularity to promote awareness about sexual violence against women, Angel spoke of sacrifices that had to be made to push his product.

“I wanted to avoid burdening the case with a cause,” he said.

Angel explained that opening up conversations about women’s bodies is the first step towards lessening the gender divide and doing so in a way that does not offend or attack men is imperative.

Yet, I can’t help but think that he has underestimated men.

Sexual assault is a tough thing to talk about, but it’s a problem that should be addressed directly instead of postponed for a future time when the gender divide is lessened.

From this perspective, especially when coupled with the fact that Angel is profiting from the whole tampon case campaign, I can’t help but think he does not want to “burden the case with a cause” because he can’t turn sexual violence into something trendy.

Vinnie Angel is not a bad guy, he’s just a guy that’s really good at marketing, and I have to question the efficacy of social activism built on personal profit.