Cornellius Posted October 23, 2013 Posted October 23, 2013 How do you personally deal with the frustration of being in an insane culture that insults the individual at each turn? I'm bringing up this topic as a framework for an ad I thought about listening to Stef's latest video which is on Male Disposability. The most putrid ad I've ever been subjected to. So, it's about an online gambling site with a lot of great casino-style games to play. The name escapes me. In Québec fashion of glorifying the police, the Sureté du Québec, in every one of the countless state-funded movies and ads, two stoic policemen knock on the door of a noisy house to see what's up; a large woman and a larger man standing behind her. A particularly sophisticated and diva-like woman opens the door (and seems completely undisturbed from the surprise of seeing two bulky state thugs.) First, the female policeman says why they're here, to which the woman replies there's really nothing bad in here, but the male policeman insists earnestly that it'll only be a moment. The three of them get to the living room where there are several men playing obsessively with live casino machines all over the place. The male policeman's earnest airs dissipate as he stares with the same air of obsession at the games room, like he's comically absorbed by some gambling addiction. And I don't remember what kind of condescendence the female policeman comes up with but she mockingly fists his chest armor and heads out while he just stands there. And while we're at it, there's a different example of male disposability in advertisements, which I believe is ABSOLUTELY RAMPANT and impossible to get away from once you turn the tv on. There's an insurance ad or something where a bunch of coworkers in an office dining room in costumes are obsessing about some technical issues. First it's four guys arguing about the best thing to do and they can't even find the solution! And they all look so clumsy. They have like brutish medieval costumes and one of them is a bull that can only groan. Then the camera centers on the diva-like female coworker at the other edge of the room slouched suavely with her mermaid tail on her table, coming up with the simple solution that is offered by the advertised company. One last. In a different ad, a man and a woman are taking their break around the watercooler of the office, cups in hand. The man is the generic bulky male, the woman is the AUDACIOUS, CALM AND CONFIDENT female diva that basically does the same stuff as you all day, but better. So, she asks him for an estimate of her age, and he fails, giving her 5-10 years over, so she shoves her cup full of water in his face and storms off with a sadistic smile, after which once again the male just stands there staring, this time as if he was consternated that he might be a monster because a woman shoved water in his face. And he does nothing. And we're supposed to laugh. I see one recurring theme in all those ads. TAMING MEN. And apparently that sells stuff. At the end of the day, I don't blame the admakers, I blame the culture that their ads singlehandedly define for me. Because I know that the crushing insults they display are accepted by society. Culturally accepted. It helps me condense the frustrating offence into the simple pain of making conscious what it really boils down to. Manipulative destructiveness.
In the belly of the beast Posted October 23, 2013 Posted October 23, 2013 I wonder whether this "taming" of men reflects "society's" worries that, however unlikely it may be, large numbers of men might reject many of their traditional social roles, refusing to go off to war to be machine-gunned and bombed by the millions, refusing to send their kids into the tender arms of the (mostly female) public elementary school teachers while they go off to work, refusing to hold women to a lower standard of personal responsibility, etc? In other words, what would happen if large numbers of men learned to become "wild", as we all were at birth before copious amounts of social conditioning were inflicted upon us?
Cornellius Posted October 23, 2013 Author Posted October 23, 2013 I think "wild" in this case... is synonymous for free.
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