More on the Misogyny Bowl

I have to say, I was really not particularly surprised in watching my first Super Bowl in 20 years that many of the ads were really, deeply misogynist.

What I was more surprised by what how offended I was as a man at the ads' portrayals of masculinity. J talks about it here a bit (and links to this discussion at Echidne)... but I'm just saying its hardly complimentary to men that we're portrayed as illiterate, drunken, seething nodes of resentment. And ad after ad did that. That's what was so shocking to me, how negative to a T the depiction of men was. This is not in any way to take away from the justified cries of misogyny about the whole thing, but simply to add to it.

This is how entitlement begets infantalization. Those men in those commercials were babies (in the ETrade ads, this was made quite literal).  The ads were implying that the proper way to treat men is like children, and it expected the men who would buy things off of these ads to be the psychic equivalent of children: entitled, petulant, needy,endlessly fascinated by shiny toys, and filled with the conviction that girls have cooties. 

Comments

[SashaNaomi]

Ok, I looked up some of the ads. Sorry Isaac, but the first thing that ocurred to me was not that the ads treated men like infants. I'm assuming I googled the E TRade ad you were talking about-- the one in which both men AND women were portrayed as babies. Honestly, what really struck me was the subtle misogyny in the Denny's ad (hens flipping out about laying eggs), and the beaver and half-naked woman in the monster.com ad. I just got this sickening feeling that I was being compared to animals.

[Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist]

Yep. The Shitbowl is such a f--king joke. I'm athletic and I like sports, but I refuse to watch it solely based on the sexist, offensive, misogynistic ads.

yeah, in the past decade, a lot of advertisers have been creating commercials and ads that are outright insulting of men, too.

such as that condom TV commercial about a pig that entered a bathroom, packed a condom in his packet, and came out shaped as a man. I found it really offensive and sexist.

"boys will be boys." Right.

[Uke Jackson]

I watched the kick off and the walk off at 16 seconds. Glad to hear NOLA won, for all the obvious reasons.

I've never really bought into the MSM marketing scam that you're not culturally complete til you've seen all the ads on the Superbowl.

However, I will comment here on one of the great related hypocrisies -- the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction of a couple years ago. Why is a pasty over a nipple unacceptable but it's okay to talk ad nauseum about 4 hour erections during prime time every day?

[Adam]

That Dodge Charger ad really creeped me out. When it was over I said out loud the unspoken last line of the ad:

And if you (wife/girlfriend) don't let my buy this car I will freakin' kill you.

[99]

It certainly didn't help using Dexter as the voiceover. It basically upped the creep factor by a billion.

[Andy]

I was thinking the same thing all night. Reminded me of that Mitchum campaign from a few years back and how I would never ever buy their deodorant ever again.

God forbid anyone mistake me for a "mitchum man". The horror!

www.adjab.com/2007/01/26/test-whether-youre-a-mitchum-man

[Scott Walters]

I thought it was a freaking GREAT game, but I don't watch it on TV -- I can't take the ads -- I listen on the radio to the local announcers.

But if you follow sports as I do, you know that this sort of portrayal of men has been going on a long time. But here's the catch: all you people who are offended, you laughed your ass off when it was Homer and Bart Simpson, Married with Children, and just about every sit-com of the 1990s and 2000s. You gotta make sure your crap detector is turned on when the subject matter is liberal, folks.

[isaac]

Scott,
You mean to tell me you honestly can't tell the difference between Homer Simpson and this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPmYxLUoZVc ?

(oh, and i've never seen Married...With Children, so I can't really comment on that one.)

There is a difference between satirizing masculinity, or satirizing the sit-com portrait of masculinity (both of which The Simpsons did pretty brilliantly) and trying to stir up and take advantage of male resentment for personal gain. (Also, I don't actually think that The Simpsons is a particularly liberal show, it is, for example, routinely anti-Union, but that's a conversation for another day).

Also, why less than two weeks after writing something like this: "I think debate has become too rancorous, too bi-partisan, too simplistic, too high volume. " is your immediate impulse to accuse people you agree with of hypocrisy?

[Kim]

I would've thought Married with Children also satirised masculinity - albeit crudely. I don't think there's any contradiction at all between liking those shows and taking issue with the Super Bowl ads.

[99]

Yeah, there is very much a difference between satire, send-ups and advertising that depends on generating the feeling. Definitely watch the ads and you'll see.

Satire depends on an underlying disapproval of the behavior depicted, even when it's tinged with love or affection. What these ads do is reinforce the stereotype. The "jokes" in the ads don't work if you don't think guys are shallow, callow and crude.