Gillette, Toxic Masculinity, and the New Right
TL/DR: How a positive Progressive commercial inflamed the Cold Civil War
If read on it’s face, the Gillette commercial is harmless enough:
Is this the best a man can get? Is it? We can’t hide from it. It’s been going on far too long, using the same old excuses, but something has finally changed, and there will be no going back. Because we believe in the best in men, to say the right thing, to act the right way, some already are, in ways big and small. But some is not enough, because the boys of today, will be the men of tomorrow.
If this was written in the 1990s then it could easily have been created by a Conservative think tank as a Public Service Announcement. However, everything must be read in its context, and the Gillette advertisement inflamed an already bitter Culture War in ways that were likely anticipated by its marketing team.
Throughout the advertisement, depictions of bullying, sexual displays, mansplaining, catcalling, and a gang attack, are all shown with a buzz of news stories and choruses of toxic masculinity and boys will be boys. The context, source, and ideology of the advertisement touched a nerve on the Right, already raw from recent years.
Actual Toxic Masculinity:
For my part, I will admit to the aggressive male behaviors I have witnessed in recent decades.
- The 00s comedy trope of sex as part rite-of-passage, part battlefield/sports victory, and women as experiences rather than flesh and blood people.
- The 00s college culture following this exact framing. Lying, manipulation, intoxication, and pressure were all the tools of the unscrupulous with the sole goal of getting laid. Any criticism of these attitudes was met with the excuse that everyone was participating in the games of young lust.
- Steam-rolling others in conversation. The most excited male in the room dominates the conversation temporarily, with the next excited respondent immediately taking over after that. Females, either socialized or accustomed to being polite, don’t feel comfortable interjecting or overriding fellow conversation participants.
I could continue, but I believe it is evident that there are dozens of small and large behaviors, routinely done by men, that either diminish the humanity of, take advantage of, or box out women. I think there’s nothing wrong with taking stock of our behaviors, analyzing them, and improving them, which is largely the gist of the Gillette advertisement.
But what struck a chord was not so much the message, as the messenger.
Shoot the Messenger:
Gillette is a razor company, and as such is largely dependent on males for its consumer base. There are dozens of competitors, a host of cheap options, and therefore no real need for brand loyalty.
Gillette creating a commercial discussing toxic masculinity, bullying, and entrenched predatory male perspectives, is akin to Tampax making a commercial about toxic feminity, cyber-bullying, and the manipulative politics of female backstabbing.
In such an advertisement, there could be young girls calling one ugly and then leaving her out of a slumber party. Women dressing their daughters up for beauty pageants, and a line of vacant-eyed contestants. Screenshots of messages calling a teenage girl a slut and a whore, betrayed and shamed by her own friends. And finally, a grown woman telling her daughters that she shouldn’t focus on mathematics, followed by a line of mothers repeating,
“That’s not for girls.”
What if at the end of the commercial, the narrator stated,
“Because we believe in the best in women, to say the right thing, to act the right way, some already are, in ways big and small. But some is not enough, because the girls of today, will be the women of tomorrow.”
How well would that be received?
- Would some women be upset that they were being generalized as a group?
- Would some women be offended that they were being cast in with these behaviors?
- Would other women who chose to be traditionally feminine, and to participate in beauty pageants, be offended that their hobby and attitudes were being maligned?
- Would some women question why a Tampon company, a product they could easily change to another brand, was lecturing them about their behavior?
You bet.
And here’s the problem, this commercial is so obviously the product of Woke Leftist Intersectionality, that it’s not just the messenger that’s the problem, it is the ideology behind it. It is an ideology that can only punch way, but can’t take a hit itself.
Woke Intersectionality is Cultural Rat Poison:
I’m sure if a Woke Intersectional Feminist read this piece, they would simply excuse all toxic female behaviors as social constructions of the Patriarchy. Not only are the rigid social structures of our society to blame for all of men’s problems, they are also to blame for all of women’s problems.
This is the pseudo-religious righteousness of intersectional politics that is so poisonous to our national discourse. If it’s a gendered issue, then men hold societal power and are therefore the only ones who can sustain criticism. If it’s a racial issue, then white people and honorary whites like Jews and Asians hold power, and are therefore the only ones who can sustain criticism. If it’s a class issue, then middle class and upper class people hold the power, and are therefore the only ones who can sustain criticism.
This is just Marxist thinking reapplied along gendered and racial lines instead of class lines. Group A is worse off then Group B. Group B has more power. Group B is responsible. Group A can attack Group B because of the power imbalance.
If an ideology puts you in the camp of the anointed, and non-believers in the camp of the damned, you’re not some hyper-rational, secular, Progressive ushering in the Utopia, you are just a new form of zealot.
I’m old enough to remember the 1990s, when Evangelical Conservatives were flexing their political muscle, and having a disproportionate effect on culture and politics. They attacked single-motherhood, abortion, hip hop, Music Television, video games, and a host of other cultural pillars, attempting to destroy them or remake them in their own image.
Everyone knew that a two-parent household was likely easier to manage than a single-parent home, but they also knew that many single parents worked hard to love and care for their children. Everyone knew that abortion was a necessary evil, but they believed it needed to be protected for female autonomy. Everyone knew that hip hop had toxic lyrics, but it was the cultural vent of an outlaw culture that Americans were in love with. Everyone knew that Music Television was a sacred place for debaucherous art. Everyone knew that video games were a violence-depicting outlet for addicted teenagers. Everyone knew that our minds and bodies would be better off if we lived in the square little ideological box a bunch of fiery Baptist ministers laid out for us, but we told them to get bent.
Evangelicals were rightly lampooned and mocked by Liberals and Centrists as authoritarian, moral busybody, cry-bullies, throwing their weight around. It was obvious they did not respect the dignity, autonomy, choices, or intelligence of their fellow citizens.
The Left rode on these laurels for decades as the champions who beat back these cultural dictators, and now they have become the enemy they once swore to destroy. They’ll be thrown back too, by outraged dads, disgusting memes, satirical articles, incisive critics, and the sands of time.
