In a shocking turn of events no one could have possibly predicted, the Superbowl ads this year were somewhat sexist. (Much thanks to Feministe, who watched the ads so I didn’t have to.)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpi2IAec9Ho]
[Transcript: Schluby, geeky, yet reasonably good-looking white man with a coffee cup looks at conventionally attractive, femme woman, who is bending over. She glares at him; he looks away. She approaches him angrily speaking a non-English language, slaps him, then touches his shirt lustfully and whispers in his ear while groping his tie. He looks exaggeratedly turned on. She takes some of the coffee foam with a finger (some of it drops on her cleavage) and pulls him forward by his tie, when it turns out– surprise– she’s actually a car. Voiceover: The Fiat 500 Abarath. You’ll never forget the first time you see one.]
Here’s a fun game I like to play. It’s called Regender. What would this look like if you switched around the genders?
For instance, if you switch around the genders on today’s Google News, all the world political leaders and sports stars are female, and the only men who appear are a man who was murdered, an entertainment reporter, Beyonce’s son, a tech writer, and an intern Joanna F. Kennedy had sex with. If you switch around the genders on My Little Pony, you get a classic case of the Smurfette Principle, and an awesomely gender-non-conforming Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. And if you switch around the genders on this ad…
Well. I must say, while it is theoretically possible that someone could run an ad featuring a geeky woman and the amazingly hot dude she lusts after, only it turns out that the dude is actually a car, I am pretty sure no ad agency would ever be that cool. There is no inherent reason why “you think it is a hot person, but it is ACTUALLY A CAR” has to be gendered, and yet it is.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbbLCvUtHGo]
[Transcript: Brown M&M discusses her job with two white female humans; a white male human laughs at her, which one of the female humans says is because she is naked. The Brown M&M says that her shell is brown-colored and only an idiot would think she would show up to a party naked. Red M&M: “so it’s that kind of party! Hit it!” He takes off his shell as LMFAO’s Sexy And I Know It starts playing.]
Things I Have Learned From This Ad: Men are stupid and hypersexual and do not understand basic social rules like “don’t get naked at the party, unless this is a party that is specifically about getting naked.” Women have to put up with these idiots for reason or reasons unknown. Men believing they are sexy is inherently hilarious, because no men are actually sexy.
Seriously, if I believed that men were as they were portrayed in the media, I’d have to support lesbian/nonbinary separatism.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWrJgFjxlS0]
[A conventionally attractive woman of color puts on clothes in a sexy manner. “Guys, Valentine’s Day is not that complicated. Give… and you shall receive.” Slogan on screen: Happy Valentine’s night.]
Next time I have to define the transactional model of sexuality, I am just linking to this ad. This is every bit of Myth-of-Men-Not-Being-Hot, Two-Rules-of-Desire, hegemonic-heterosexuality shite we spend so much time talking about. Women are the only ones who are physically attractive! Men are the only ones who want sex! Women are all basically sex workers who are too stupid to figure out how to have actual sex work and instead accept payment in flowers! Men have to buy things for women in order to get laid!
…Seriously, what is it with this year and objectifying women of color?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68WTMYxoSck]
[Transcript: “Meet Lola.” A fat, femme man of color in a pink tracksuit goes “mmmm” in front of a mansion, next to a conventionally attractive white woman who is the only one speaking. “The day he retired from football, Lola started chasing his biggest dream.” A picture of Lola in a football uniform cuts to Lola in a suit looking at models in lingerie and making the stereotypical “mmmmm” noises and hand gestures photographers and fashion designers make at models. “His first step? Lola made his website with GoDaddy.com.” Lola makes femme facial expressions and more “mmm” sounds at the computer. Blah blah blah sales pitch. Lola lies on a floaty couch thing with a drink at a party full of scantily clad models. “Lola dreams big…” The narrator makes a significant look at Lola. “and who’s to argue?”]
Okay. Let me get this out of the way first: this ad is hella problematic. Although it is a fairly positive portrayal of a femme man of color, it’s pretty clear that the expected humor here is “he’s femme! And black! And fat! Isn’t this all just hilarious? Hahahahahaha fat people and femmes and black people are fuuuuuuunny!”
So, you know, if this ad were run, I’d have problems with it.
But this ad was banned. And I have to say I have serious problems figuring out what’s so objectionable about this ad that it was banned. I mean, it is far less offensive than many of the ads they ran. I kind of think it has to be “fat, femme men of color are so threatening to us that we can’t have an even slightly positive portrayal of them, even one that depicts their existence as hilarious, on our Big Manly Night of Manliness. Especially if it suggests that football players, instead of being paragons of masculinity, might occasionally be femme.”
Compare this to the ad GoDaddy actually ran…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ2lXGK5juY]
[Transcript: God, I don’t even know, some shit about naked women and bodypaint and something. The idea of transcribing this makes me want to get out the Peace Moon.]
Yeah. I know which one I’d want my small children to watch.
The “Lin” to “Linwood” change is almost certainly because “Lin” can be a woman’s first name, not a racial change. It’s not a common name/spelling, which is probably why it goes to the extremely uncommon “Linwood” instead of “Len” or something. Weirdly, I know people with each of these first names.
@superglucose @monkey @jesus_marley oh, that one didn’t make the feministe.us list either so I didn’t know if the general feminist population took issue with it. And seeing as how i’ve never been in a relationship past an LDR that lasted almost exactly 2 months, I have no idea what goes on in a normal one, except that feminists often speak of emotional abuse and teasing in the negative. Not that im endorsing that site at all mind you, it’s pretty much a hate read for me and I’m not a feminist anyway, but it’s a good news outlet for stuff… Read more »
“monkey: I’m just pointing out what I see as the reason that a commercial like that can be aired with little complaint, whereas the same commercial with the genders reversed would have 99% of the US up in arms. I strongly dislike the commercial too.” The reason is no one cares about male victims. At least not the people who have enough political weight to do something about it. Thus they are acceptable targets. Trans people are the same, too. Not enough people speaking on their behalf, which makes discrimination based on gender identity and expression, wether overt or covert,… Read more »
monkey: I’m just pointing out what I see as the reason that a commercial like that can be aired with little complaint, whereas the same commercial with the genders reversed would have 99% of the US up in arms. I strongly dislike the commercial too.
@Zipped, meh. Teasing happens in relationship. It happens often amongst friends. There’s an entire fetish out there about teasing. I can’t be super upset by teasing because it’s something I enjoy doing and enjoy having done to me.
I can be upset by the violence though.
Adam: whether or not men “fear” domestic violence isn’t the issue. It’s just plain wrong to have that out.
Zipped: there’s no reason for her to hit him like that. Period.
@zipped – While the guy was indeed being an ass by teasing his partner, the reaction he received was completely unjustified. Further to this if you watch to the very end, the guy after being knocked to the floor then approaches her in a very supplicative manner to which she first lures him with a “reward” and threatens further violence by lunging at him. Completely unacceptable.
the thing that urk’s me with the yogurt commercial isn’t the violence at all actually, it’s the way the dude is devilishly smiling while eating all the yogurt himself and teasing (whom i assume is his partner) with it.
Give’s me that whole Schrodinger rapist vibe I get where I remember that everything with an x chromosome looking at me thinks I’m that guy <_<.
@Zipped I loved that Toyota commercial. For one, they actually had a couch made out of men, and two, the guy’s expression wasn’t complete disgust, it was more of an “okay, cool!” expression. A lot of men in media have this aversion to stuff that’s even slightly homoerotic. So, to see a guy that didn’t scowl at a group of shirtless men was refreshing. I hope other advertisers take a cue from Toyota on that one. Not sure why Feministe wouldn’t like that commercial, though. I’m with superglucose on that one. It’s hard for me to be offended by something… Read more »
Man now *I* want a falcon.
@Zipped, for some reason I find it hard to be upset when both genders are objectified.
@JM: I smiled when they gave the couples free beer. That felt really cool… like “congrats you overcame your stereotypical fears! I’m really proud of you here’s a beer!”
@Adam, it was pretty funny up until she headbutted him. I don’t “fear” domestic violence but I did watch my step mom threaten my dad with a knife. So you know, wooo! Triggered!
(Man FUCK advertising.)
Actually, having a falcon would be kinda badass.
I don’t read Feministe, so tell me, do they complain when ads feature men buying ridiculous things just because they have the extra money while their female SOs look on with rolling eyes?
Also, men aren’t socialized to fear domestic violence from women in American society (unlike the reverse), so a typical man seeing the yogurt commercial won’t feel like it touched a sensitive spot. I doubt that many men would enjoy it or find it very funny, but they wouldn’t have the kind of emotional reaction that women would have if the gender were reversed.
The yogurt commercial is seen as funny because (in my experience) a lot of people identify with their gender in the same way you might identify with a sports team or with your country during war, and so when your team scores by attacking or hitting the other side (verbally or physically), you feel elation and aren’t really concerned with the feelings of the other side at a time like that. I believe (though I’m too young to have lived through it so I could be wrong) that men would also get a warm fuzzy feeling from putting women down… Read more »
But you watched right through all these commercials, right?
I’ve only just discovered this site, but am finding it interesting reading and thank all of the contributors for their hard work.
After reading this article and watching the ads, I think that the first isn’t necessarily that bad, I think that it’s horribly uncomfortable watching as is and would be similarly uncomfortable gender-flipped. So I suppose what I am saying is that it’s horribly uncomfortable for the underlying theme rather than in any particularly sexist way perhaps (ie. it appears bad to me, just not in the way you believe it to be bad)?
@jesus_marley: Oh wow. That one woman was about to sit down and her husband dragged her away. “Hurr, I need to protect you from the scary men who are sitting down in a theater! Because they have tattoos! And muscle shirts! And are obviously of above-average physical strength!!”
This isn’t a Super Bowl ad, it’s one for Carlsberg beer but it is an interesting examination of some people’s prejudices…
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1dwaJe/www.vidaddict.com/theater-full-of-bikers-two-open-seats/
@superglucose well according to feministe.us it “objectified men AND women” so it goes in the bad pile
also YESS AT LAST AFTER 6 OR SO MONTHS I HAVE COMMENTS THAT ARE NOT BEING STUCK IN THE APPROVAL CUE FOREVER!!!
@Zipped, that toyota one is sweet. “This is the reinvented couch” and you can see the guy light up, “it also comes in male” and then his body language says, “yeah… that’s sweet too!”
@pocketjacks
I just meant the slapping, the tie pulling, and the outrageous invasion of personal space.
“I personally think the problem with the Stamos ad is that it apparently works from the assumption that an act of violence is amusing, and a way to get people interested in buying your product.” They don’t use logic to make people buy their products. To them it’s “make it memorable” and “make it associated with the product enough” so that the end result is “remember our product”. They don’t care if it makes you buy it. It makes you think their product exists – which is more than what other yogurt brands you never saw commercials about (or that… Read more »
I honestly didn’t see the first half of the M&M’s ad. I only noticed Red saying “so it’s THAT kind of party” and doing a striptease. If you miss the first half, the sexism goes away and is replaced with “ha ha, Red is socially inept” (which was the point of a lot of the older commercials with Red and Yellow). @Name (required): Yeah, schadenfreude is the fuel on which M&M’s ads run. To me, the offense level isn’t that different when you change genders. It’s less of a sexism thing and more of a “laugh at people having difficulty… Read more »
I personally think the problem with the Stamos ad is that it apparently works from the assumption that an act of violence is amusing, and a way to get people interested in buying your product.
Is their target demographic violent sociopaths? I honestly cannot work out what their marketing people were thinking when they made that ad.