As per the original query ported to this forum: Regarding the commercials cited, if the genders were switched, I defineitly believe there would be greater cries of “Foul!”
However, I don’t find any of those ads offensive or belittling to men. The Diet Coke ad with the guy outside the building: I thought it was entertaining. I didn’t think it objectified men (I certainly don’t look that buff), though I did think it objectified that ONE PERSON. I also appreciated that it suggests that women actually share similar desires that men do (Hey! We’re not so different after all!).
I’m as guilty as anyone, in this regard, but I would like to make an appeal to all of us intelligent people to not be so prone to be offended. To give one another the lattitude to have beliefs that differ from our own. Very few people (other than a shock jock or contemporary genre of an artist) sets out with the intent to offend a person and are most likely responding to beliefs that have been shaped by experiences they’ve lived.
OTOH, Angel this week had Angel kicking the living shit out of two women. But then again, they were vampires, so do they really count as “women” within the constraints of the narrative?
I think the people that say that women have been repressed are forgeting that they allowed this to happen. When I was growing up I remember seeing tv shows _movies - where mothers told daughters that if they didn’t act a certain way that the boys wouldn’t like them. Also many women were “taken care of” because they feigned helplessness.
It is a two sided sword.
Chivalry. Whats that!
As writer Peter David pointed out once in a discussion of female super-hero characters, the problem with marketing heroines to guys is that it’s tough to make them respectable. If the heroine beats up men, the male audience get uncomfortable – but if the heroine beats up women, the male audience lapses into thinking, “big deal, it was a woman, a guy could’ve done the same thing.”
That’s why the most reknown female action heroines around are the ones who beat up non-human adversaries – Sigorney Weaver from Aliens and Linda Hamilton from The Terminator…
I can’t whine and pule and moan and get my way! This commercial that objectifies a woman (who is making a lot of money to do said commercial) is an effront to all women!! I’m tired of being a sex object!! I know that white male establishment is keeping me down!!! If I were a man, I would be treated different!!! WHAAAAAAAAA!!!
Yes, you would. It’s called biology. There are things that a man, can’t do. There are things that a woman isn’t supposed to do (but now, they can do. great. good for them.)
I’m tired of women who sit and complain about things like I have said above, that yell at me for holding doors or offering a hand out of a car, and then bitch more when they can’t find a guy that fits their criteria.
I work in a corporate environment, and every woman I see here that plays the game (the “I’ll be ahead of you forever game”) uses their gender as a weapon, and it works like a charm.
But if I were to try to charm the new upcoming manager (a woman) I would be villified. Screw it…
Yes there are differnces, biologically, physically, mentally, and emptionally. Deal with it.
No sweat Zoggie… reading back, I have vowed (again) to try to preview… again… heheheheh…
Well, women can have kids… I can’t. Normally, women can breast feed, while normally, I can’t.
Men, on average, tend to be physically stronger. however, in today’s culture it’s common to see a woman with more muscles than my entire family… gross, but getting to be common. See also: Muscle and Fitness.
Women have higher G tolerance.
Men are more able to detach the emotions from many actions, ranging from sex to homocide.
Women float better.
Women live longer.
That’s all off the top of my head, of course. I’m sure there’s more…
There’s really too much attention paid to PC concepts in ads as it is. A little humor should never be discouraged.
The thing I find wrong-headed is the feeling that if you have one of each age, sex and costume in an ad that you will gain credibility. Doesn’t work for me. Seems like the sponsor doth protest too much.
Yeah you’re right. Humor’s good. i thought it was kinda funny when i saw it…the FIRST HUNDRED TIMES. At my cousin’s house one night on MTV they played it every time there was a commercial break.
But speaking of sexism, is that ad for Circuit City with the guy playing a video game where he’s on a date with this girl sexist? You know, she makes all the rules, he has to agree not to kiss her. If it was a guy expecting a female to act all perfect, would that be sexist? Something to think abuot, hm? Oooohhoooh…
No…No! I will not let you get away with that. I usually avoid femminist threads but Arg! TV, movies and commericials are NOT real life! Not even close. Now watch one of those movies, who produces, wrote and directed it? It’s a man, isn’t it? Note that I am not saying that these men were trying to opress women etc. I am merely pointing out that male-produced media portrayals of women are hardly the place for accurate information about women.
sven
Do you really think that anyone would believe anything seen in the media if there wasn’t some truth in it?
After ww2 women,not all of course, went back to the home. Why? The men were home.
I’m not saying that they had a choice or anything just that they went back to playing the game.
Perhaps you would grace us with the answer as to where the accurate information about women can be found.
Please don’t say Helen Gurly Brown.
Feminists said: “There is an unfairness here–males are called ‘men’ where females in the same context are called ‘girls’. And here–females are shown, displayed, and treated as sex objects for male consumption, while female sexual appetite is denigrated or ignored.”
They were right. And such things could be fixed by starting to treat women the way men are treated; or they could be fixed by starting to treat men the way women are treated.
Neither of such shifts can be said to have occurred to anything approaching completeness, so they are STILL right.
So, OK, another commercial comes on objectifying a female. You hear them complain. The next commercial shows offers up a guy as eye-candy and they say “All right, turnabout is fair play not to mention yummy!”
Once you start talking about heavy-duty permanent rules that will regulate conduct for a long period of time, then, yes, certain behaviors should be OK or not OK, but equally OK regardless of gender.
But on a less formal level, which is mostly what we’re talking about here, you’re just hearing them boo the conventional forms and cheer whenever the shoe goes on the other foot.
Feel free to list any serious works of feminist theory in which it is asserted that sexual objectification is fine and good if it happens to the gander but patriarchal and oppressive if it happens to the goose.
I saw a bit that I didn’t find offensive. It wasn’t on TV, it was a computer game (Diablo II). In the first act of four, your character is faced with hordes of demonically-corrupted and scantilly-clad women. Even the end-boss at the end is a giant female demon. However, I think this is balanced out by the fact that the Three Prime Evils (esentially the embodiments of evil, Diablo of Terror, Baal of Destruction and Mephisto of Hatred) are all men…
