Monday, February 8, 2010

Wear the pants, Superbowl edition

In the past couple months I have noticed a new media trend that tells men that they are being oppressed by women. This consists of telling men that they're becoming soft by listening to their partners, letting others take charge, cleaning up after themselves, and overall being considerate. Because everybody knows that consideration = femininity. Is this the start of masculinism?

Here are some Superbowl ads from last night via feministing:




The Today Show mocked the idea that men were the ones really in need of rights, not women:


Docker's came out with a new ad that also called for a reinvention of masculinity (via Feministing):


While at first these ads make you want to curl up in a ball and hide, there is an upside to these ads. The fact that companies feel the need to start this campaign for masculinity makes you wonder if masculinity is on the downfall. Cross your fingers!

2 comments:

Emily said...

Over 100 million people watched the Super Bowl, and 40% of those viewers were women. That means 40 million women watched the game--more than double the number of women that watch the Academy Awards every year. Yet Super Bowl advertisers don't seem to care. Instead, they give us ads that portray women as shrill harpies and men as spineless buffoons.

Misogynist humor is lazy, and a totally inefficient use of ad space. I'm so tired of being insulted by these corporations.

Reconstructing said...

It's interesting that CBS has a policy not to air controversial ads (although, we all know this is less about controversy and more about a political agenday... http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/01/28/exclusive-cbs-limbo-air-gay-dating-site-ad-super-bowl/). On a feminist theory level it's so interesting that society in general (and CBS in particular) doesn't see these types of ads as "controversial." So sad that it's common belief that mascuilinty/strength and collaboration/compassion are seen as so mutually exclusive.