So, I watched the Superbowl yesterday, for the first time... possibly ever. I've never had much of an interest in this particular American holiday, but, seeing as 1) I was in the mood for beer and buffalo wings and mozzarella sticks (when am I not in the mood for these things?) and 2) I now live in Texas, I figured why not watch some large men in Spandex prove their masculinity by tackling each other in an often oddly sexual way?
But what I really want to talk about is the commercials! Not because they were glorious, as Super Bowl commercials are rumored to be, but because I spent a large portion of every commercial break shrieking "WTF?" at the screen. (When I wasn't busy stuffing my face with taco dip, that is... mmmmm taco dip.) Apparently, blatant, overt sexism is real cool for 2009.
A lot of feminist bloggers seem to be particularly irritated by this gem, where a bouquet of flowers tells a woman that she's ugly and pathetic, closing with, "No one wants to see you naked." ...What?
Insulting to women? Check. Unnecessary? Check. I've never heard of Teleflora before, but I'm not exactly sure who (either women or men) would be motivated by this ad to use them in the future.
However, for me, the terribleness of that ad doesn't quite measure up to this masterpiece from godaddy.com:
Not only does it objectify women and portray us as bimbos or catty bitches, it just doesn't make sense. I'm not even clear what's going on here. Is the clever "play on words" really that enhanced can mean both boob jobs... and other things(!)? Even when women say it! Am I missing something, or have we tumbled into the world of Idiocracy where the mere mention of sex is enough to be funny? (Will a TV show called Ow My Balls! be next?) I especially like that purposeful "Warning! Web Content Unrated" notification at the end. Ugh.
Not to say that there weren't some actually enjoyable commercial moments. In fact, I'll leave you with this one, which features a hilarious British coffee-drinking koala bear and several other moments of delightful absurdity. And isn't that something we can all agree on?
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2 comments:
We already have "Ow, My Balls!" It's billed under the unassuming name of "America's Funniest Home Videos."
Oh boo hoo. As a man, I see plenty of sexist and degrading portrayals of men on tv. Only MRA's have pointed out this double standard. So excuse me while I don't cry a tear.
Also, looking over your whole blog it seems as if feminists have run out of real issues to talk about. If you instead look at the MRA blogs you'll see we have real issues: violations of civil liberties. Weren't feminists supposed to care about the civil liberties of men too? Funny how things work out...
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