sexism in commercials

I have been considering a post on feminism, reactions to feminism, and it's impacts on men and women in the church world and the culture at large at some point in the future. My thinking is that people's views on gender impact their impressions of just about everything. I think that most contentious issues owe some contentiousness on some level to conflicting gender views, even if the contentious issue does not appear at first glance to be a gender-sensitive issue. That is something that I will probably put together in a few months though, and I only mention that because I was reminded that I had been thinking about it recently when I saw some of the commercials during the Super Bowl.

To this point I have heard more than one observation that some of the commercials during this past Super Bowl were sexist. Interestingly, I heard people complain both directions that the commercials were either slanted against men or women. I thought I would share a few of the commercials and my opinions of them in regard to how they portray the genders.

Also, something that I would like to note is that I am analyzing these things to death. I am not really offended by any of the commercials mentioned below, but I am very interested by the reactions some of them draw, and I get quite a bit of pleasure working through whether I agree with those reactions.

Since it seems to be the most prevalent type of commercial, I have to note the commercials that imply that men only have one thing on their minds. I am in the camp that thinks this type of commercial is mildly sexist as it pushes a specific stereotype on men. Since many men have found ways to benefit from this sexism, I think I am in the minority who are irritated by it. The Megan Fox commercial and the GoDaddy commercials define this category. Instead of posting them below, though, I decided to go with the more subtle and funny Doritos commercial that only implies that one specific man has less than honorable intentions.



Next, there were two commercials that I saw as remarkably similar. They are the Dove and Charger ads below. I actually really appreciated the ads, though I didn't find them overly funny. The dove one is probably the less controversial of the two as it just goes through the things that pressure men through life, but that also establish his manhood in our culture, so that he does not have to feel feminine for using Dove body wash. Of course, an easier strategy for Dove could have been to re-brand the body wash to a more masculine name, but that's just me.



I understand why someone might think that the following ad has a tinge of sexism against women because the commercial implies that the man's role in a relationship is a chore, so that is why he should be able to purchase a Charger for himself. At the worst, this is only mildly sexist, though, and it really is a good strategy to sell a very masculine car that is anything but practical.



The Bridgestone commercial was certainly mildly sexist, but it is also a joke that has been done to death. Seriously, this is basically the equivalent of the, "Take my wife... please," joke that is as cliched a cliche as I have ever seen.



The commercial that always seems to get mentioned in regard to sexism against women is the following one. No doubt, this is a dysfunctional relationship being portrayed. While I am on the fence about how I feel about this, I am leaning toward the position that it is anti-relationship enough to be a problem. I do see how this would appeal to a lot of men and sell a lot of FloTVs, though.



I have saved the best for last. The following E*Trade commercial again shows a dysfunctional relationship and implies that men can't be trusted. It is still rather funny, though.



In short, I understand how some of the commercials can be viewed as having sexist implications, but at the same time most of them are relatively mild. I see more of attacks on relationships in general in these than attacks on one specific gender, though that is not necessarily any better.

So, what do you think? Were the Super Bowl commercials sexist in some way or were they more benign?