Some just long to be understood
Fisher Price “Wells for Boys” SNL commercial spoof
A newly-wed couple has just recently found out the sex of their baby. Since the baby is a boy, they decide to paint their nursery blue and agree to decorate the room with dinosaurs, a masculine theme. Once their baby is born, he is always found dressed in blue, green, and pretty much any color other than pink, so that he is not mistaken for a girl.
Gender socialization in this scenario began before the baby was even born. Through social learning, children are able discriminate “this is for boys” or “this is for girls.” SNL’s spoof of Fisher Price toy commercial, “Wells for Boys,” satirizes the variation of how parents respond when children’s play and self-expression does not correlate with their gender.
Some kids can be four-star chefs. Some kids can win the race. But some just long to be understood. Introducing wells for sensitive little boys from Fisher Price.”
The commercial starts with light-hearted, bop-along music playing in the background while the narrator begins listing off common aspirations of young children. Suddenly, the music switches to a mystical, fairy-tale melody, and the audience experiences a drastic change from the merry mood with the introduction of a new toy which accomplishes little boys’ aspirations to fulfill a sense of identity and acceptance.
No matter how accommodating the parents seem to be with their son’s odd preoccupation with emotional expression typically reserved for girls, society still manages to uphold children to certain standards. Parents are often faced with the dilemma of either supporting their child’s individuality or encouraging them to conform with society in order to fit in. The parents in the commercial hold two different angles on how to deal with their child’s uniqueness.
The mother displays full support for her son by embracing his differences and encouraging him to find comfort in his toy well. As the little boy, Spencer, hides behind his mother’s skirt when interviewed on his opinion of the well, she coddles him and tells him that he doesn’t have to do the commercial if he doesn’t want to. His father, however, lies on the opposite end of the spectrum. There is a scene when the family is outside and the father is barbecuing. It’s easy to tell that the father wants nothing more than an average little boy who will keep him company while he flips burgers and maybe even toss a ball around with him, but Spencer is preoccupied with his toy well. The father’s confused expression reveals that he does not quite understand how their son is playing, but the mother is quick to inform him. Spencer doesn’t respond to the loud shouts from his father, but rather to the gentle call of his mother. If Spencer’s father, a grown adult, has a hard time discerning his own son’s peculiarity, it only makes sense that the other little boys will have an even harder time comprehending Spencer’s quirkiness.
The other little boys engage in typical “boy play” as they have a pretend gunfight in the first photo, while the second photo emphasizes the differences between them and Spencer. Each aspect of the boys appearance on the left is perfectly aligned with their gender from the backwards hat, the guns, to even the colors of their clothes. It seems as though the other boys have failed to include Spencer as they continue to play as if he weren’t even there. Spencer appears lonely as he sits by himself at his well simply because he isn’t able to relate to the other boys.
Later on in the skit, one of the other little boys recognizes that Spencer isn’t joining in on their fun and inquires why. He doesn’t try to tease Spencer in any way, but instead says to him, “I don’t get it.” In response, Spencer’s mother immediately comes to his defense in order to avoid any possibility of having another child harass her sensitive little boy. It is apparent to the viewers that Spencer has a strong relationship with his mother, who gives him unconditional acceptance. Oddly, the mother seems to appreciate having someone who shares her emotional sensitivity as if he were the daughter she never had. Because they both experience a lack of understanding from other boys, they share a greater special connection. Perhaps the mother substitutes what she desires from her marriage with her relationship with Spencer.
The product “Wells for Boys” contains a great deal of underlying symbolism. Water wells are commonly found in rural, developing areas where their purpose is to serve as a primary water source for a small population. Since wells mostly exist as sole providers of the most basic necessity, fairy tales often portray wells to symbolize thirst or desire, which is why superstitions exist that wells can fulfill wishes. When I personally think of a well, the first thing that comes to mind is an image of a Disney Princess wishing for her prince. Spencer seems to maintain the same melancholy persona as the princesses in these fairy tales, indicating that he realizes that he is unfulfilled. Perhaps, the burger-flipping father in this commercial worries that his son is also wishing for a prince to come rather than a princess a father hopes for.
“Also check out other cool new toys for our sensitive boy line. Like balconies for when they are ready to announce something. Or a shattered mirror to examine the complex contradictions of their being.”
The commercial next introduces two other products alike. The well, along with the balcony, and the mirror are blue, which align with the male gender, however; each of those objects are associated with female characters within fairy-tales. For example, the princess in Snow White sings by her well and her evil step-mother owns a fortune-telling mirror. Meanwhile in just about every other fairy-tale, the damsel waits upon a balcony to be rescued by her prince. The purpose of mentioning the two additions to the sensitive boy’s toy line is to frame Spencer’s character as a boy who has yet to come out about his homosexuality.
The writers of this Saturday Night Live skit are two gay men, Jeremy Beiler and Julio Torres. It is only fitting that they modeled Spencer’s character after themselves. In the interview on an Apple Podcast, Good One, the writers of the skit, “Wells for Boys” discuss the story behind the skit and how it relates to their own childhoods.
As the two writers tell of their childhoods, Jeremy Beiler seems to have the childhood of a very normal little boy. He was interested in playing with cars and firetrucks, as well as pretending to be a doctor or a pilot. On the other hand, Julio Torres preferred to play with Barbies, especially a Cinderella Barbie. Torres says that he was very quiet and reserved and mostly kept to himself because he was a closeted-gay boy. Torres also tells how he too had a well in his back yard that he would go to when he needed time to himself.
According to the writers, the last line of the skit about the Barbies is not meant to be about gayness, but about what it’s like for a little boy to be different. Society and culture determine the ordinarily arbitrary criteria for the representation concepts such as gender. Although such criteria is arbitrary, it is almost cognitively impossible to completely dissociate certain characteristics from their respective gender.
