Posted on 01/24/2019 4:29:34 PM PST by daniel1212
I saw this ad on Twitter and was a little taken aback, so I naturally shared it with my family. That includes my dad.
My dad’s an incredible person in many ways. He’s smart, funny, and kind. He’s a man’s man. He wrestled and was all-conference in football in high school. He won a college scholarship to play football, but messed up both his knees senior year, so he went to tech school instead and learned to run heavy equipment.
That’s what he was doing when I was born - running dragline, digging ditches, building roads. Union work.
He decided it was a tough life for a family, so he went back to college during the winters and earned a degree in chemistry. Then he went on to get a PhD in physical chemistry. He’s worked as a chemist for many years now in a sugar beet refinery.
It’s not a cushy job - factory work. He’s up and down huge flights of stairs, on the concrete floors, going between boiling and freezing temperatures. He works with people who might have anything from a high school diploma to business degrees, to farmers. He’s in his mid-sixties, and he still works 12 hour days in the factory.
Working as he does in industry, he oversees employees all the time. He’s had to manage employees for over thirty years. He’s earned the respect of his company because he treats everyone - male and female, with respect 100% of the time. He demands everyone treat each other the same way. Sexual harassment simply isn't tolerated.
He has had a large hand in the way his company’s policies have been shaped over the last decades. I know this more than most daughters would because we’re from a small community. My friends worked for him. I worked at the same company for awhile, though not directly under him, I got to observe the results of his management style. I couldn't be more proud.
My dad is an incredible storyteller. My favorite story as a kid was about how his dog Tag chased the town bullies, the Nockamoose boys, out of the park once. He didn't like bullies, and neither did we, and I loved having a dad who was brave enough as a kid to do something about that.
My dad and mom bought our family a TI-99/4a when I was only 5 years old, even though it was a huge financial sacrifice for our family. This was a big discussion between my parents, but my dad won because he thought it was really important that my sister and I be comfortable with computers. I surprised him by writing a program on it only a couple of weeks later.
He brought me to the lab when he started teaching. He taught me how to conduct experiments. When I started working in a research lab, he encouraged and mentored me. He encouraged my sister and me to learn other skills as well. He taught us to change tires, to fix ball bearings, to repair windows, to change oil, drive a stick shift, and go hunting. Is it any surprise I became a chemist and my sister an aerospace engineer?
Last year, after his 13 year old springer spaniel died, he adopted a 5 year old dog from the shelter that wasn't even housebroken because it looked terribly happy to see him, and because the dog had been there for two years.
My dad is the kind of person who buys something from every kid who comes around selling anything. His chosen charity for Amazon Prime is the women’s shelter. He built a ramp for his mom when she needed help getting in and out of her house. He visits his great-aunts, especially the one without children.
He teaches Sunday School and pays great attention to how he is a role model to the boys and young men at church. He spends time every night reading his Bible, and reflecting on how he can be a better person as well. He says living your life well isn't about you - it’s about how you serve God and you serve others - the two great commandments.
He will drive 3 hours to help his sister install a toilet, three hours home, and then come home and get down on knees that are getting arthritic and wrap my mother’s legs tenderly, like he does twice a day every day, because she has lymphedema.
Did I mention that? My mom’s disabled - and I've never once heard him complain about it, even though her disability has demanded significant compromises and sacrifices on both their parts. She’s been in a wheelchair completely now for seven years, but has been unable to work for over thirty. She spends weeks in the hospital every year, sometimes more. We've been through doctors all over the state, and some of the best specialists in the nation.
Sometimes she gets down about it, and you know what he does? He never, ever agrees with her. He brings her roses.
My dad is EVERYTHING that a man should be.
He is all the best things a human being can be - but moreover, he is all the best things a man can be. He embodies the best of masculine strength. He has sacrificed a great deal for our family. He is tough and determined and embodies perseverance.
He’s EVERYTHING that the ad supposedly encourages men to be.
When I showed the Gillette ad to my dad, he tensed up. Halfway through, he told me to turn it off. “I've seen enough. I don’t need to be insulted any more.”
So - do you want to know why this ad lost my dad? Do you want to know why such an AMAZING man - a fantastic role model - was disgusted? Really?
Let’s start at the beginning.
“Bullying” “The #MeToo Movement” “Toxic Masculinity”
Is this the best a man can get? Is it?
Right about here. Gillette lost him here.
Right here the advertisement framed the rest of the piece in terms of opposing patriarchy and set itself up in the far left feminist and Marxist camp.[1] Gillette implied the best of men is bullying, rape, and toxic.
They asked “Is this the best a man can get? Is it?” Challenging. As if that’s what anyone ever thought “the best” was. As if that’s what most men were in the first place.
But of course, no one’s allowed to say that anymore. It’s a “sexist argument”. It’s “derailment[2]”. You can’t say “Not all men[3][4][5][6][7]” Even though it is true - not even MOST men bully. Or rape. Or are toxic. On any objective standard. Yes,there’s too much bullying. And rape, and toxicity.
Yet this argument has already set itself up that all men behave in this manner - and if you don’t, kindly shut up, this argument isn't about you. Now any defense of men has been declared misogynist. Any defense of any particular man is misogynist. The standard is collective guilt.
Everything that follows is now poisoned. Because Gillette poisoned it. My dad recognized what those lines were invoking. He understood the ad was invoking a far left Marxist oppressors/oppressed framework of thinking about relationships.
It’s been going on far too long
We can’t laugh it off, Making the same old excuses >> Boys will be boys / boys will be boys / boys will be boys
You know this is ridiculous. Very few people laugh off bullying or rape. Oh - it’s been dismissed, all right - but “boys will be boys”? Really? Putting this again in the context of #metoo which was explicitly about sexual harassment and rape - and again, the first sentences framed it that every man was guilty.
Every man, in every community, no matter what his record, no matter how his business handled things, no matter how he conducted his private life, bears this collective shame. The wall of men barbecuing, mindlessly repeating the mantra proves the point.
And of course, we know this is inherently wrong with any other group - but for some reason, it’s fine when the target is men. Because “power”. Those are THE RULES™ . (Helen Pluckrose has written an excellent rebuttal to this)
I've been raped. I've been harassed. I've been offered a quid pro quo in a professional capacity. I've been fired for being a whistle blower. I've had a campus police officer BLAME ME for being stalked. Heaven knows I’m 100% aware of exactly how many people out there view other people as things to be used.
But I also had men stand up for me, defend me, help me, teach me, and protect me. Including my father. And those men are the majority. The bad ones - they are too frequent, but they are not the standard. This way of thinking about men - categorizing them as a group - it’s inherently evil.
But something finally changed >> allegations regarding sexual assault and sexual harassment >> toxic masculinity
And we’re back to “Toxic Masculinity”. The APA issued a report defining “traditional masculinity” as harmful. The psychologists behind the report, unsurprisingly, discuss the harmful role of the Patriarchy, again going back to far left.
“Traditional masculinity is psychologically harmful and that socializing boys to suppress their emotions causes damage that echoes both inwardly and outwardly.”[8] It also eschews “stoicism, competitiveness, dominance and aggression”.
You know, my dad is very stoic[9], sometimes to the point of being frustrating - but he wept when his father died. I was with him then. He’s found a few other occasions that emotion overwhelmed him. Masculine strength isn't from some twisted self-denial. It comes from discipline, faith, and love, and the support of family as well.
And there will be no going back Because we? We believe in the best in men >>>> Men need to hold other men accountable
Well whoop-de-doo. Pat yourself on the back. That’s what moral men have been doing for millennia.
Oh, right, a lot of people don’t do that whole God and church and Bible and Jesus thing do they? So I guess they need their razor company to tell them this.
To say the right thing To act the right way
Some already are In ways big and small
But some is not enough >>> that’s not how we treat each other, ok? Because the boys watching today Will be the men of tomorrow
The sad thing is he never even got to this part. This part he’d agree with - this part is completely uncontroversial. This is the part he’s lived his entire life by. This is what his dad taught him. His mom, too, for that matter. Because real men treat other people with respect.
If you asked him, my dad would tell you His strength comes from discipline and his faith in God.
And if you’re really hungry for knowing how to live a good life, there’s a Good Book he can recommend. https://www.bible.com/
Tight shot of that Gillette commercial on a screen. Through the screen suddenly burst through a group of terrified teenage boys wearing MAGA hats, pursued by mouth frothing-network reporters, celebrities, Democratic candidates, and fake-Hebrew nationalists screaming anti-gay, anti-Jew, anti-Christian slogans. At a vegan BBQ, a line of several dozen network newspeople watch the crowd pursue the panicked boys and just stand and say “Journalists will be journalists” and they all laugh. As the boys and their families and friends are beaten bloody, the tag line rolls up…
“TOXIC JOURNALTIVITY. We don’t CARE about your kids.”
Because it’s stupid and bigioted as it advances a distinctly un-manly model?
Has your account been hacked or are you drunk? This isn't normal behavior. Normal men know this. Which makes me wonder....
Real women don’t want beta males.
Some women want to de program males from being who they really are, but in reality, women want a man who is a man, not a soyboy.
I haven’t even seen the ad and yet it still makes me feel like half a fag just reading about it.
You really don’t need explanation on the “why’s”.
But this is a good article, thanks.
I use too much sarcasm without the /s tag.
Glad you agree. You must have liked the article.
How much of the article did you actually read?
One of the actors in that commercial looks like Obama’s Pajama Boy. Only thing missing is the plaid flannel shirt or pajama top, whatever it was.
They are after our sexuality. Along with everything else about our culture.
I’m right with you there. Guess we must be outliers...or something.
I learned to never cuss around girls. Nowadays it’s common to see females who can out cuss a sailor.../apologies to sailors.
I saw a video on Israel's conflicts which (as i recall) said that when Reagan was awoken and told of Israel bombing the reactor in Iraq, he said "They did what?" When the report was repeated, he smiled and said, "Well, boys will be boys!"
Yes I think I was keeping in the spirit of the story minus the sarcasm. But sometimes they go too far and demand that men be weak and effeminate so as not to be “offensive”. So Gillette is added to my “don’t buy” list.
I don’t even get to the content of this sort of nonsense. There is simply no reason why sellers of products should be preaching about social issues or politics to their customers, or anyone else for that matter.
Zero interest in and zero respect for company execs who get on their moral high horse and start preaching to their customers.
Obviously Urban Meyer didn't have that rule.
I’ve used Gillette for 55 years. Good product...and a habit. My dad used Gillette.
Last week I ordered a Schick Hydro 5 razor and blades from Amazon (I know...Bezos...but it’s fast and convenient).
Bottom line, a better, smoother shave than I’ve ever had. Everyone is different, but I’m more than pleased and will never go back to Gillette.
Indeed, for as expressed, the devil, seeks to pervert what God has ordained. And the attempt to demasculinize males is part of a larger revolution, in which what God has placed asunder (men sexually with men) are joined together, or biological men or women are surgically altered to change gender, or the latter is even defined as being fluid, and not biologically determined.
Contrary to
And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:18-25. KJV)
Good point.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.