A Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial promises their new Hot Shot Bites are “like a slap in the face”. And the commercial quite literally depicts an actual slap in the face—a girl in a bar slaps the man who gives her a KFC Bite.
What do you think? Is violence like this ever acceptable in a commercial? What if it was two men in the commercial—and one man slapped another man? It’s certainly likely that you’d never see a man slap a woman in a commercial. Are all attempts at comedic violence off limits? What about in sitcoms or other forms of media? Why do you think society is so much more accepting of female on male violence?
Also, what’s really the deal with all the “roll reversal” in the media lately? Is it something like a “take that …” or “payback …” or even “how does it feel …” type of thing?
If you do think the commercial went too far and would like to see KFC take it down, a petition has been started on Change.org here.
nice article and you are absolutely right
Although the slap is worrisome,it is the values lurking beneath the act that is the problem.The premise behind the commercial relies on our collective understanding of how sex between heteros play out.The woman gives the guy THE sign she is interested in him in a way that allows her to save face if necessary,taking very little actual risk.He offers her food-he must offer something besides himself to prove his worth.The food,spicy chicken,was used as a metaphor for HIS sexual intent or desires,not hers.She then acts offended,as if he said or did something inappropriate and she slaps him.The real mind fuck… Read more »
Quick question – are you actually offended by the commercial, or are you offended by the double standard the commercial highlights?
And yes, women do slap men in bars. I’ve taught my wife to slap men in bars, especially the one i work at. All too often men in bars think it’s there right to feel womens backsides. There’s nothing more emasculating than being slapped in the face by a woman. It doesn’t hurt physically, but there’s no possible way of retaliating without looking like more of a douche, or getting in all sorts of trouble with the surrounding men
I’m not offended by it, but I find the media driven cultural acceptance of women slapping men in the face for minor transgressions rather idiotic, and it should change.
But I’ll take this commercial over the spate of “dumb dad” ones, and I don’t think this is worth any uproar.
Sorry CG I am going to have to disagree with your last sentence, in my opinion it would be perfectly acceptable (at least socially) for a woman to slap a man , why, becuase alot of people would assume he did something to deserve it. If you doubt this, go to youtube.com and look up “The talk and penis mutilation”, it is basically an episode of the “THE TALK” about the guy who had his penis cut off by his wife because he wanted a divorce. Now after you watch this episode, do a role reversal for all participant and… Read more »
I just watched the clip and I’m wholly horrified. There is noting funny about what that horrible woman did to her husband, regardless of why, but it doesn’t surprise me that a human trash-heap like Sharon Osborne finds it amusing. Most people who believe in real equality, believe in the rights of all humans to live and let live. Nobody has a right to put their hands on anyone else, and society won’t advance a step if relieving violence against women is met with perpetrating violence upon men.
I love you! You aren’t blind like some women are.
I usually agree with Good Men Project posts, and I love the site. I also do agree that there are very real gender equality issues in our modern culture. That said, this is just a fun commercial and I think there are bigger issues to address than this. I see your point, and again, I agree, but I think we all know if this actually happened in real life, the behavior wouldn’t be considered acceptable.
I guess that depends on whether you would object to a rape joke or an image of a woman being slapped, etc. How many people would believe rape and DV against women to be socially acceptable? Probably the same or fewer than would believe that rape or DV against men is socially acceptable. If you object to rape jokes or portrayals of DV against women in movies, rap music, Facebook, etc. because it conditions people to accept it IRL why would this not condition people to accept violence against men by women, when it is already more accepted than the… Read more »
Agreed. I think it’s a big mistake whenever people claiming to be the victims of unfairness point to something relatively inconsequential to illustrate their point; they only give their detractors a reason to dismiss their entire cause as frivolous. Now if she had kicked him in the balls…
Maybe we should boycott KFC until the agree to donate $25,000 to stop domestic violence against men like twitter did.