Posted on 06/22/2004 2:31:47 PM PDT by Clear Rivers
By Kate Santich | The Orlando Sentinel
You've seen him in TV commercials. He's the guy who can't open a pickle jar or take care of his kids, the husband raised by wolves, the balding, portly fellow who leaps for joy now that a pill has solved his impotence. He's the one scalded by hot coffee and hit in the crotch with a bowling ball, though he doesn't seem to mind.
In the powerful dominion of television advertising, this hapless, sloppy, beer-drinking punch line is the modern American man.
And critics say he's getting more than his fair share of abuse.
"If anything like this was happening to blacks or women or Jews, it would be considered a moral crime," says Warren Farrell, a California author and men's rights advocate. "We're being flooded with advertising in which either a male is being hit by a female, or the man is simply the jerk."
Farrell, author of "The Myth of Male Power," is one of a small but growing number of men -- and a few women -- protesting what they consider sexist, stereotypical and even mean-spirited ads. Male-bashing, they claim, is the last politically safe perversion.
"At this point in time, if advertisers served up women the same way that guys are treated, it would be world war," says Steve Feinberg, chief creative officer at the Seiden Group, a New York ad agency. "Advertising has cycled its way through that. Right up through the early 1980s, (the message to women) was 'Spend all day obsessing over whether you have the right toilet bowl cleaner, because that's how you define yourself.' But you can't do that anymore."
Late last year, a 40-year-old New Hampshire engineer and father named Richard Smaglick launched the Society for the Prevention of Misandry in the Media -- misandry being the seldom-heard counterpart to misogyny. Among his first efforts was a boycott of the clients of advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi because of a spot it produced for Wyeth FluMist. In the ad, we see Mom laid up in bed, felled by the virus, and Dad in charge of the household -- much to the glee of the kids, who march off to school in a snowstorm dressed as if for a luau. Alas, poor Dad can't manage his own children.
On a Web site for the Men's Activism News Network (MANN), readers have compiled a list of companies to boycott for their allegedly male-bashing ads. Ironically, the list includes perhaps the ultimate macho-man vehicle, the Hummer, which aired a spot showing a woman behind the wheel and a tagline that read: "Threaten men in a whole new way."
Imagine the fallout, a man said in a post, if the roles were reversed, and a man were encouraged to "threaten women in a whole new way."
It's a point well-taken, says Matt Campbell, one of the site's administrators. "To get a sense of why there is a group of men finding the state of affairs so outrageous, just switch the gender roles for a minute and see if it would still be funny. Imagine having a laugh track when a woman's genitals are attacked."
Ironically, most of the offending ads are created by men.
"They think it's their way to be feminists. They think women want to see men as dogs and pigs, and everybody can have a good laugh," says Barbara Lippert, critic for the trade publication Adweek.
And if there hasn't been an outcry until now, some advocates say, it's only because men who complain are labeled wimps. Their masculinity is questioned. But until large numbers do protest, until companies are hit in the pocketbook, they're not likely to change.
There is one class of females who are attacked just as viciously as men: Attractive blondes.
I think it is partly because they are so obviously not Black or Hispanic.
This is the type of woman who would probably drive her car for a month with the Oil Warning Light flashing on her dashboard before finally bringing it to her husband's attention.
I can remember shows even back in the 50's where it was SOP to show women as having to be protective of their boy friend's or husband's delicate ego.
The only Andy Griffith shows which were sort of bad were the ones where he make an idiot of himself to his girlfriend and eventually clears things up by apologizing.
Yep. This is another thing that's been annoying me for a few years. The whole "120 lb.-badass-chick-action-hero" was a novel concept about 7 years ago. However, now EVERY action movie has a token female ass-kicker. It's become cliche, as well as rediculous.
I guess there are a fair number of young men portrayed as idiots but it is the middle aged ones they save the poison for.
In the original "Charlies Angels" series I remember one critic mentioned that they beat up some "middle aged man" in nearly every episode.
You bet. Almost every movie clip we see, it depicts some 120 pound female model fighting off two or three white guys, while slinging them over her head, and kicking others in the groin. LOL...Television has become such a bad joke. If it wasn't for the history channel, my TV would be nothing but a boat anchor.
Mary Jane was attacked by 4 armed thugs, (all White of course, as were all the criminals in the movie). The only reason She had to be rescued by Spiderman was because She could only beat up two. Of course She kicked one in the crotch.
Of course.....
lol I'm going to have to remember that one. :)
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
It always worked for Alan Alda.....:))
Niiiiiiiiice... : )
That is because your wish is my command, CC Triple 7. : )
My husband doesn't seem to notice the commercials much, but I do. They irritate me. I adore my husband! I've never had a problem he couldn't fix (or find someone who could fix). By myself, I'd be in deep doo-doo.
While women did try to do this task with good faith, at first, by the 1970's there were enough radical feminists and those who just went along with the "movement", that the trend in education became to actively assist girls and deny to boys the things that they need in order to thrive.
Men let this happen to their sons. This is their shame. Being handy and working for a living is not enough. There was too much tolerance of the idea that running the home and the children was up to the woman. So she did take that over. Of course, the homosexuals moved into the vacuum and piulloried men through their position in the advertizing business.
In short, too many men let women and homosexuals win too many arguments they had no right to win. Those on this thread who point to men's ability to fight and build are foolish if they think that it is the key to masculinity. That key is self-determination. The extent to which men have let women and homosexuals determine the conidtions of life represent their loss of masculintiy. It is only appropriate then that they be riduculed as hollow doofuses. Women and homosexuals only attack when they are sure that the targetwon't fight back. The fact that they attack at all is men's largest humiliation.
The only answer is to decide that you will become self-determining and no longer hand over ot women and homosexuals major areas of life.
Your observations are right on and I would sure hope that more women begin to pay increased attention to this social conditioning and how it will affect relationships for our future generations. We must be very concerned for our young men and their self esteem but folks with young daughters need to especially aware of what's going on if they hope to someday have their daughter marry a confident, intelligent, hardworking young man that will give her a good life.
bump
I feel the same way about mine! He is gem!
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