The commercial I’m refering to is one for a Kodak camera or film or something. It has 3 teenage girls show up at the door of a teenage boy’s house, and when his brother answers it, one of the girls sneaks upstairs to the guy’s room. The girl bursts into his room while he’s just in his boxers, and suprises him and snaps a picture. She then comes running back to her friends and exclaims “Boxers!” as they take off.
I doubt this would have made it to TV if the roles were reversed, and 3 dudes snapped a picture of a female classmate in her underwear, especially an underage one.
Now, I personally have no problem with this commercial at all, and I couldn’t care less about “political correctness”. However, I have seen people get offended at just about everything, and I’m kind of suprised that they made a commercial like this. This commercial just kind of struck me as odd, but maybe its just me.
A few years ago, there was a commercial where women were oogling a hunky window washer – I think it was for Pepsi. I remember the discussion from a Usenet discussion group, where some men said if the roles were reversed, there would be an outrage among women’s groups. The women brished off the complaints of the men, stating the commercial was harmless, but also saying that commercials featuring bimbos or rail-thin female models were sexist. Hmmmm …
On a related note, watch Rikki Lake someday. The cheatin’ women are cheered on by the audience, while the cheatin’ men are booed. Women are encouraged to “drop that zero, and get a hero,” while men are condemned for wanting to break up with their lovers for being overweight, lazy, frigid, and so on.
There was a commercial several months ago for a cell phone (don’t remember if it was the phone or a service provider, doesn’t matter). The Totally Ineffectual Dad is out with his two kids buying a Christmas tree, and the wife is sending him reminders on the message window of the phone. It’s actually the kids who are seeing the messages since T.I.D. is probably illiterate and would electrocute himself. It ends with them driving away with the tree on the roof of the car. And the kids read another message:
Kids: “Mom says to be sure and check that the tree’s tied down right.”
T.I.D.: “Your Mom worries too much. Knot tying’s something they give merit badges for.”
And we see the tree blow off the roof while Dad drives blissfully on.
It is acceptable these days to make men look like idiots.
I’m definitely with the guys on this one - if it’s wrong when you objectify women, then it’s wrong when you objectify men. IMHO, prejudices are like a pendulum - first they swing one way, then they seem to swing the other. The trick is to stop the pendulum completely.
About the camera commercial, I don’t have any sons, but if something like that happened to my nephew, I would be outraged. It has to do with common decency. I don’t like that commercial at all.
About the phone commercial, I can relate. In this house the children are smarter than the grown-ups, sometimes.
o.k. - here’s a cold, hard “fact” that men in America need to recognise.
We are wrong. We will always be wrong. The women will always not be wrong. The opposite of wrong is right. Women are right and men are wrong. Men who do not acknowledge this get divorced or not married to begin with. This is America’s society. Have you ever tried to do the laundry for a woman? Or even fold the towels? I bet you did it wrong, didn’t’cha? Yeah… That doesn’t go there. Are you wearing that???
Ahh… Land of defeat, home of depraved…
punk snot dead,
broccoli!
::Putting on flame-retardant suit for those not grasping the sarcasm::
I think that we are missing something here; what everyone has said would be true; all things being equal. But they are not. There is still not equality between men and women.
In our history, the depiction of women as stupid, weak, “less-than” and unholy has been the propaganda that fueled (and in some cases, accomplished) the systematic subjugation of women. Those negative depictions have been used as a tool to determine and shape how humans percieved objective reality.
In the medieval ages, the belief that women were defective shaped ideas about biology: Scientists claimed to see tiny “people” in semen, assuming that women had nothing to contribute to the process of conception and were nothing more than baby-carrying machines. Their misogynistic biases were self-perpetuating.
I can’t recall a time when the systematic perpetuation of negative stereotypes has proved categorically detrimental to men.
When women play the “turnabout isn’t fair play” game, they are only being wary of the weapon that has bitten them on the ass for the past thousand years.
Can’t blame them for that.
The only thing I can think of that’s even somewhat related is Revenge of the Nerds, where the Nerds put cameras in the sorority house. I didn’t particularly like THAT episode, though my husband did. And though I haven’t seen this commercial, your description of it makes me uneasy. It’s an invasion of privacy, no matter which sex it is. And I can only imagine the commotion at school the next day, if this had been an actual incident.
I must respectfully disagree if you are defending a double-standard. In that case, I can and will “blame them”. Those who would essentially say, “It’s our turn now!” have totally missed the point. While I agree that it is important to be aware of the historical context of gender conflict, the past actions of a group are for the most part irrelevant here and now. True, turnabout isn’t appropriate, but neither are egregious acts that would otherwise motivate it. Parrying past ignorance and injustices with sniping and generalizations is devisive and gets us nowhere.
I personally think both sides need to be more magnanimous in an attempt to find common ground, and I agree heartily with featherlou’s pendulum simile.
Hey everyone, this is my very first post, so I’ll be brief…
It would seem to me that in this day and age of extreme political correctness, the only “type” of person the media (or anyone else for that matter) can bash is white males. If you’re female, black, Asian, Mexican, anything else, you’re safe. But if you’re a white guy, forget about it - you’re wrong and you will be made fun of mercilessly.
If you don’t think there are negative portrayals of women in ads anymore, you just aren’t paying attention. I don’t have a TV right now, but I can think of two radio ads off the top of my head. One is a car stereo ad in which a woman whines at her boyfriend about getting married as the stereo is gradually turned up to drown her out. The other has the theme “What’s the difference between your girlfriend and your real friends?”
I agree wholeheartedly. My point was that when men complain of being depicted negatively, it sounds ludicrous because those depictions present zero danger to them. The status quo is not going to change because someone made a car commercial depicting some poor schmo as a, well, schmo. The powers that have kept white men at the top of the pyramid are not weakened by what is shown on television.
However, the women’s movement and woman-related social issues are very dependent upon media and grassroots support. A derisive representation of them is much more likely to make a dent in the effectiveness of their efforts to assert their rights.
It’s like hearing an elephant whine about a chipped tusk, while the mice run around among its feet, trying not to get squished.
It seems as if human nature or cultural nature demands that there always be a safe target to poke fun at, and in this day and age, white males appear to be a pretty safe target. Barbs are obviously also launched at other demographic representatives, but those are less safe, as the target group’s history may include a substantial amount of past or current oppression. By targeting a group which is, or has been, an underdog, it creates the appearance that that oppression is being extended. Having said all that, I agree that a double standard exists and is unreasonable. But reason often does not carry the day, and I would be surprised if double standards of this sort were ever to disappear.
VERY well said, my friend. I have always belived this to be true. Recognizing that I am wrong is my first step toward recovery from this horrible affliction. :-0
Actually, I will disagree with you here. As a libral arts major married to a libral arts major, I have to say that in my experience men are becoming less and less welcome in “high culture”. Most libral arts programs are overwhelmingly female these days, and it sparks a vicious cycle–upcoming Freshmen see that intellectual studies are “girl things” and that they are neither welcomed nor expected to be interested in anything that is not immediatly practical (business, computers, etc.) When it gets to the point where men are under serious pressure to regard thinking as inapproprite for thier gender, they are suffering a real disadvantage. I think that we are creating a paradigm where the expectations for men are very low and are primarily hormonal.