Letter to the editor...
A friend of DPo wrote this and I whole heartedly agree. My other favorite commercial is the one where the older woman is dating the college guy and her friends are making fun of her. At the end of the commercial it says "treat yourself"! Flip that around, have a 40 year old guy dating a 19 year old girl and a voice saying 'treat yourself', you'd have armies of women protesting and burning down the offices of Maxim and the makers of viagra. Anyway way to go James.
-before I get any comments (yes you can leave comments, I check this site quite frequently and am saddened to see that no one comments are my witty remarks:) ) about being a male chauvinist a-hole, I point out these double standards because if they continue things will swing the other way yet again and women will be portrayed as ...well as men are today.
Why isn't the woman looking for a toy?
Times Colonist
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
I am appalled at the growing number of television commercials that portray men as stupid, bumbling, childish idiots. The latest is a McDonald's commercial that has a man frantically searching through his food for a few moments before the woman with him says, with extreme condescension, "it doesn't come with a toy." The woman, then, is smart and witty, while the man is nothing more than a foolish, overgrown child.
This is not, by far, the first ad that represents men in a negative and stereotypical light, and as a teacher, I am concerned about the male roles that the media projects to boys today, as well as society's apparent acceptance of these images. Are we saying that today's men are stupid and unable to think for themselves? Moreover, are we saying that sexism is perfectly acceptable, when it targets males rather than females?
If the stupid one in the commercial was the woman rather than the man, the ad would surely be pulled off the air instantly, amid angry accusations of sexism. This is an obvious double standard. For the sake of the next generation, we should be promoting and projecting equality, rather than representing either gender as being better or smarter than the other.
James Parr,
Victoria.
-before I get any comments (yes you can leave comments, I check this site quite frequently and am saddened to see that no one comments are my witty remarks:) ) about being a male chauvinist a-hole, I point out these double standards because if they continue things will swing the other way yet again and women will be portrayed as ...well as men are today.
Why isn't the woman looking for a toy?
Times Colonist
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
I am appalled at the growing number of television commercials that portray men as stupid, bumbling, childish idiots. The latest is a McDonald's commercial that has a man frantically searching through his food for a few moments before the woman with him says, with extreme condescension, "it doesn't come with a toy." The woman, then, is smart and witty, while the man is nothing more than a foolish, overgrown child.
This is not, by far, the first ad that represents men in a negative and stereotypical light, and as a teacher, I am concerned about the male roles that the media projects to boys today, as well as society's apparent acceptance of these images. Are we saying that today's men are stupid and unable to think for themselves? Moreover, are we saying that sexism is perfectly acceptable, when it targets males rather than females?
If the stupid one in the commercial was the woman rather than the man, the ad would surely be pulled off the air instantly, amid angry accusations of sexism. This is an obvious double standard. For the sake of the next generation, we should be promoting and projecting equality, rather than representing either gender as being better or smarter than the other.
James Parr,
Victoria.
posted by WesinCalgary @ 8:02 PM
1 Comments:
At 10:34 AM,
Sunshine said…
Actually, I think the writer has a point. As a society we've got to stop seeing our opposite, whether in gender, religion, or idealogy, as less than. We need to recognize that we are all different in some way or another and we should be praised for that, not ridiculed. To each his or her own, as long as you bring no harm to others. No one is superior to everyone.
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