3 Reasons Why Gillette's 'Toxic Masculinity' Ad Is Incredibly Stupid And Degrading

[Centerleftfl]

he fine folks at Gillette recently decided to take a break from peddling overpriced razors and instead focus on insulting their entire customer base. Presumably taking the advice of a marketing agency staffed exclusively by pink-haired feminists, Gillette released an ad this week which encourages men to stop raping and bullying and doing all of the other things that men will inevitably do until their shaving cream tells them not to.

The video, which has racked up an impressive 313 thousand dislikes on YouTube, opens with various scenes of men and boys doing various obnoxious and awful things. It is implied that we men have excused these behaviors by shrugging and muttering "boys will be boys." The ad makes this point very subtly, by showing a line of men saying "boys will be boys" in unison as they watch two other boys fight.

But then! "Something finally changed," the narrator tells us. "There will be no going back," we are assured. What changed? The Me Too movement. This, according to Gillette, was the seminal moment when men realized that they aren't supposed to rape, assault, harass, or bully. We learned to "act the right way." Though, the narrator allows, "some already are." Then we are shown various examples of men doing really basic, human things, like encouraging their children and breaking up fights.

Feminists love the ad and apparently cannot understand why so many men have reacted negatively to it. I thought I would help them out by offering a mansplaination:

1) The Me Too movement didn't "change" anything for most of us. It is obviously insulting, not to mention absurd, to suggest that men, as a whole, experienced some sort of great awakening when Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and Kevin Spacey got in trouble. We already knew that it's wrong to rape. We were already well aware that harassment is not okay. There is not a single man on Earth who watched a news report about Weinstein, slapped his forehead, and said, "Oh! So we're not supposed to do that? Alright then! My mistake!" Even the men who do those things already knew they weren't supposed to do them. They do the things anyway because they are evil, and that's what evil people do.

But the vast majority of men are not rapists or harassers and were, prior to this past year, already staunchly opposed to both activities. There was nothing epiphanic or revolutionary about Me Too for us. To insinuate that we learned that rape and assault are bad, or that we needed needed to learn such a lesson, is patronizing in the extreme.

2) "Boys will be boys" is not a rationale for bad behavior. In my entire life I have never once heard anyone, ever, offer "boys will be boys" as an excuse for rape or bullying. I have never seen a bunch of men standing around watching a kid pummel another kid while they all nod in approval and say "boys will be boys" to one another, like programed automatons. Have the people at Gillette ever even met an actual human man before? Perhaps not. Maybe that's why they think we need a razor with 14 blades to shave in the morning, as if our beards are made from the steel bristles of a wire brush.

In any case, "boys will be boys" does not generally function as an excuse. It is a cliche but, like many cliches, it contains great wisdom. Boys will indeed be boys, and should be boys, and should be allowed to be boys without their natural boy-ness being constantly suppressed. Boys are energetic, aggressive, creative, competitive. They need safe and accepting outlets for these impulses. Incidentally, rolling around and roughhousing is one such outlet. The ad shows an enlightened man swooping in to stop a couple of young boys from wrestling around in the grass, which is exactly the wrong approach. As long as it's all in good fun, and nobody is getting seriously hurt, and it is not a case of assault or actual bullying, then the fatherly instinct to step back and let the boys be boys is correct.

There are only, in the end, two options. Either we let boys act like boys or we force them to act like girls. But the latter option makes as much sense as forcing girls to act like boys. You wouldn't demand that your daughter stop playing with dolls and go out and wrestle in the grass instead. Why should we demand the reverse of boys? That's the point of "boys will be boys," and God help the boys cursed with parents who don't understand this point.

3) The ad says that "some men" act the right way. Can you in your wildest and most fevered dreams even imagine the reaction to an ad that spoke about women in these terms? Imagine an ad for Dove body wash that shows women doing stereotypically negative things like gossiping and nagging and shopping too much, and then the narrator comes on: "Sure, some women act the right way." Feminists would be rioting in the street. They'd storm Dove headquarters and stone the head of marketing to death with loofahs dipped in cement.

But no such ad would or could ever exist. Women are not lectured and scolded this way. This sort of treatment is reserved for men. And men are tired of it. We've heard it enough. We're terrible; we're horrible; we've ruined the world. Okay, we get it. Thank you. Now shut up and sell your 14-bladed razors and leave us alone.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/42190...-ad-matt-walsh

Ah yes, all the VIOLENCE, raping, pillaging, machete-ing, poisoning, BOMBING and subjugation of while swaths of PEOPLE is done by pink haired feminists all over the planet--all probably on their PERIODS.

Your's or DAILYWIRE'S pronouncements are bullshit at best. Simplistic or OBLIVIOUS IS more accurate.

SPARE US!

[dukkha]

Most feminists are familiar with the concept of toxic masculinity—women are victim to it on a daily basis, and men suffer under its crushing weight. Now, the American Psychological Association has identified it and called it out in a recent report, and also offered some suggestions for how therapists can work with men and boys to undo its effects. The only problem? Some men are really not having it.

The APA’s recently published guide for therapists includes a warning that traditional masculinity can be harmful for men. According to the guide:

"Socialization for conforming to traditional masculinity ideology has been shown to limit males’ psychological development, constrain their behavior, result in gender role strain and gender role conflict, and negatively influence mental health and physical health."

The guide notes that being able to recognize and respond to these facets of traditional masculinity is essential for therapists because they can contribute to poor outcomes among men and be especially harmful to those who don’t fit the standard, such as queer men and gender-nonconforming individuals. The guide also says that therapists should be able to understand and communicate the “impact of power, privilege, and sexism” on developing boys.
https://hellogiggles.com/news/apa-toxic-masculinity/

[dukkha]

Traditional masculinity’ is harmful, says the APA
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-apa-guidlines
Last August the American Psychological Association (APA) released its first-ever guidelines for therapists working with men and boys.
Nobody paid much attention to these for several months, but they went viral this week.
This was largely due to the APA condensing its academic report into a tweet explaining that the key takeaway is that traditional masculinity is harmful and socializing boys to suppress their emotions causes damage. Suddenly everyone on the internet was an armchair psychologist and conservatives were up in arms about war on men.

Traditional notions of masculinity, marked by stoicism, competitiveness and aggression, are clearly toxic to both men and women. As the APA write in an article accompanying the study:

“Men commit 90% of homicides in the United States and represent 77% of homicide victims. They’re the demographic group most at risk of being victimized by violent crime. They are 3.5 times more likely than women to die by suicide.”
They also point to research that found men who bought into traditional notions of masculinity were less likely to seek mental health support than those who had more open gender attitudes.
The guidelines advise psychologists to understand “how power, privilege and sexism work both by conferring benefits to men and by trapping them in narrow roles”.
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-apa-guidlines

[reagansghost]

You probably have MSNBC on right now.

get your own material

[Gotcha68]

Clearly some men require moral guidance from wherever it will make the most impact. If your shaving gel has a message telling you not to rape and you listen to it then good for you. I'm sure all your potential victims thank you.

[Centerleftfl]

but most people see them
and get the idea that men practice "toxic masculinity" ( yes the feminists actually use that term)

Wisely, I THOUGHT, I steered clear of this phrase for 2 decades. Who wants to admit it. Sadly, I've been 'entertaining', okay mulling the theory. I guess I'm still too chickenshit to use it.

We'd all be fucking IDIOTS not to realize there is too much TRUTH wrapped in those words. Which is PRECISELY why the thread even exist. Pushing back HARD, very HARD against 2 words means someone is threatened or certainly (very) discomfited by them.

[MAGA MAN]

get your own material

So I was right. LOL

[CharacterAssassin]

This is just incredibly weak and stupid. This ad basically says, “Don’t be a jerk. Don’t raise a jerk. Call out other men being for jerks.”

Everyone knows it takes more guts to intervene in a shitty situation than to say nothing and let someone get bullied or harassed. So if your idea of masculinity includes courage, you should be onboard.

And the usual RW candy-asses melt down.

[Phantasmal]

This is just incredibly weak and stupid. This ad basically says, “Don’t be a jerk. Don’t raise a jerk. Call out other men being for jerks.”

Everyone knows it takes more guts to intervene in a shitty situation than to say nothing and let someone get bullied or harassed. So if your idea of masculinity includes courage, you should be onboard.

And the usual RW candy-asses melt down.

Yep, they see themselves as the jerks. It’s self realization and it stings.

[CharacterAssassin]

Yep, they see themselves as the jerks. It’s self realization and it stings.

Or it's the mental pain and paralyzing anguish they experience when they just can't face the fact that they're either....
A. too cowardly to intervene or...
B. too cowardly to care (and likely engage in such behavior)

[PostmodernProphet]

there is only one logical solution.......men need to start shaving their pussy hair......

[Centerleftfl]

Traditional masculinity is nebulous at best. Toxic is more descriptive but NOT to be used too broadly. Therefore my conundrum about using it. But by GOD I know it when I see it. It is exhibited here daily. (Although, I also realize the anonymity here could just be "toxic masculine" posturing)

[dukkha]

Wisely, I THOUGHT, I steered clear of this phrase for 2 decades. Who wants to admit it. Sadly, I've been 'entertaining', okay mulling the theory. I guess I'm still too chickenshit to use it.

We'd all be fucking IDIOTS not to realize there is too much TRUTH wrapped in those words. Which is PRECISELY why the thread even exist. Pushing back HARD, very HARD against 2 words means someone is threatened or certainly (very) discomfited by them.

whatever you are trying to say there.. try this.

what is the difference between toxic masculinity and masculinity?
why is the APA now warning against masculinity as being harmful?

Traditional notions of masculinity, marked by stoicism, competitiveness and aggression, are clearly toxic to both men and women

[Niche Political Commentor]

a lot of women in this thread try to ovary act and womensplain things to us.

imagine if there was a commercial with a bunch of cackling chicks watching the view being mindless drones. Or imagine if this wasn't directed to men but black men in particular. Would all of a sudden it take on a different tone? I bet most would think it would.

This is an anti male commercial. It implies a collective guilt and original sin that all men are guilty of, even if they have never done anything wrong. It's also ridiculous "men need to stop other men" or whatever they are saying here. If you want to be a strong powerful women, try not getting the 1000 yard stare when the guy touches your shoulder like what happens at 30 seconds LOL. How could any women think they will ever have respect from men if they can't stand up for themselves and demand other men do it for them? That's not how you get respect from men.

The whole commercial is fucking retarded produced by woke marxist HR new yorkers living in their progressive bubble. The fact that you dummies in this thread buy hook line and sinking a razor company raping the #metoo moment for profit gain and you dont have a shred of cynicism about that tells me all I need to know about your intelligence.

There is an anti-male anti-masculinity social programming going on, mainly by women because they know they cannot compete with men on any significant level so the male population instead needs to be feminized and cucked.

p.s. I was one of the first 5k to dislike this video.

[Truth Detector]

Ah yes, all the VIOLENCE, raping, pillaging, machete-ing, poisoning, BOMBING and subjugation of while swaths of PEOPLE is done by pink haired feminists all over the planet--all probably on their PERIODS.

Your's or DAILYWIRE'S pronouncements are bullshit at best. Simplistic or OBLIVIOUS IS more accurate.

SPARE US!

Moron thinks ALL men are bad.