Finding Feminist Lessons in the Super Bowl
Posted by gansie on February 3, 2009
A version of this article was originally posted on Endless Simmer
I’m a little riled up.
I went to the Fem 2.0 conference on Monday and learned how feminists can really make an impact in society, in communities and in lives through technology. We also learned how important it is to take the feminist message to broader audiences. So even though I’m a food blogger, I want to continue the conversation and demonstrate that there can be feminist lessons everywhere. Especially in Super Bowl food ads.
But I don’t want to straight up dis the sport. I love football because it’s the best sport there is. And the Eagles will one day be recognized as the most dominant force in the league. Well, recognized and will win games against crappy teams like the Cardinals and Bangles. And one day, I will cry in the arms of my fellow fans as Donovan McNabb hands off the football to Brian Westbrook, who then dives into the end zone, for a game winning touch down. And then Brian Dawkins sprouts wings and flies around the stadium.
Anyway.
I hate the Super Bowl because every commercial is directed to what ad execs think the white male 30-year-old wants to see and hear and consume.
And I don’t even want to get into the whole Danica Patrick tasteless, tacky and completely un-feminist ad campaign. She’s an athlete! Must she stoop to the level of a Playboy Bunny?!?!
So on to Pepsi Max.
Okay, so the ad depicts stupid (mostly white) men doing stupid, stereotypical *men* things:
Male gets hit in head with golf club, proclaims, “I’m good”
Male gets bowling ball dropped on head, proclaims, “I’m good”
Male gets an electrical shock while doing male house repairs on roof and flies into trailer thirty feet away, proclaims, “I’m good”
Male announcer proclaims, “Men can take anything, except the taste of diet soda.”
And then magically Pepsi introduces a diet soda that is specifically designed so that men can still be macho while drinking this healthier option.
Perpetuating the paradigm that men need not worry about their health. That men should eat manly things like red meat and potatoes – in triple the portion that they should. And men don’t have to think about their food choices because they’ll have their own Claire Huckstable ready to snag away that artery-clogging cheesy, meatball sub. Well, kids. The stigma needs to die.
Men care about their health. Which is why, in the first place, Pepsi created another line of low calorie soda. But does it really have to be marketed to the frat boy?
I understand that humor sells. And yes, my (feminist) boyfriend pointed out that this may just be self-deprecating and over the top on purpose. But I don’t care. Can we please start to break down gender stereotypes, especially such life-threatening ones as obesity. Pepsi at least started to dispel the stigma that men shouldn’t think about what they’re ingesting. But then decided to make their point by promoting machismo.
Now, Pepsi is a big ole company. And I’m not sure how to combat this ad. I’ll be going through my notes from the fem conference and sending this post to my new fem friends. And hopefully some boys will read this too. And be just a tiny bit outraged. And will pass it on. And will most definitely not drink Pepsi Max.
Full disclosure: I’m a (full fat) Coke drinker
A.Y. Siu said
Well, it was funny when I thought it was about “Look how silly these guys are for saying I’m good while getting pummeled.”
But when they said “Men can take anything,” I was like “WTF?” That makes no sense. So that’s what this commercial is supposed to be about? Stupid.
The commercial started off almost making fun of excessive machismo and then ended up reinforcing it.
nezua said
i hear you. which is why i don’t have TV programming. i’d be mad all damn day. the messages are nonstop and mostly disgusting. but i definitely appreciate deconstructing racial/sexist messages in media.it feels different when i watch for the purpose of deconstructing. but it’s so offensive when you are trying to be entertained and it just smacks you. ugh. keep on!
doug said
OK, maybe, just maybe, feminists should notice the routine anti-male sexual sadism in commercials and programming today. It was not very long ago that it was taboo to show men or women being sexually injured on TV. Now it is obligatory to have either commercials or programming show men being sexually injured as ‘humor’. I’m speaking of the Doritos ad, of course. I no longer wathc the super bowl because of such obligatory ‘humor’. Indeed the last time that I watched the super bowl was the famous Janet Jackson breast-exposing affair (while everyone seemed to ignore that Budweiser showed an ad with a dog sinking its teeth into a mans genitals). Until feminists start taking notice of such sadistic, anti-male content on TV, it is hard for me to view them as HUMAN rights/dignity advocates. Instead, I tend to view them as ONLY caring about half the human race.
espressodog said
Feminism is about supporting the equity of women with men not men with women. It has a blatantly pro-woman point of view. That is because men are the norm in our society and women are the exception. Until those ads of men being hit in the balls are used to suggest that men are inferior to women, I am not going to worry about them. Sure it sucks that advertisers use violence against anyone as a motivation to buy a product. But, that is not a feminist problem.
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