|
How Scary TV is For Women - A Guy’s Take
Joe Nelson describes how oppressive TV can be to women versus men
by Joe Nelson
When I turn on SportsCenter at night, it doesn’t matter what kind of day I’ve had. Inevitably, someone on TV is trying to make me feel good.
I’m not talking about the game highlights— I’m talking about the commercial breaks. Turn on ESPN some night, any night, and you can start to get a sense of how advertising companies sell beer and snacks and trucks to the men you know. They set up a fantasy world—fast cars on deserted winding roads, drinks at the bar where everybody knows your name, endless pizza without the gut—and they sell it with the wink-and-a-nudge appeal of one guy offering advice to another.
I never thought there was anything weird about this until someone started leaving the TV on in my office during the day. The commercials that followed the overcaffeinated yammering of the morning talk show hosts gave me a glimpse into what it must be like to be a woman. And it scared the hell out of me.
One after another, jagged bursts of 30-second terrors assaulted me: Is there something wrong with my hair? Are my kids going to catch germs from my dirty floor? Am I getting fat? These TV women seem to live in constant fear of buying the wrong shampoo or wearing the wrong shoes. Each ad is a mini-drama—life is going fine, a problem presents itself, and then it’s solved in the nick of time by some product that makes everything better. Man secret: Nothing besides Oreos makes everything better.
Most women I know don’t live their lives in fear, but you wouldn’t be able to tell that from watching the ads. On TV, women worry about stubborn stains. I mean, they really worry. They face dilemmas about floor wax and carpet cleaners and toilet bowls and grape juice on T-shirts. They spend endless hours debating the best paper towels, or whether to scrub with something oxygen-powered or lemon-scented. Even the good news has an underbelly: a new chocolate treat with only 100 calories (subconscious message: you’re fat), a new makeup line to turn you into a sultry vixen (subconscious message: you need a makeover).
 (No Ratings Yet) Loading ... |
Email to a Friend
Share on Facebook
Digg It
Delicious
Newsvine
Stumble
Reddit
1 Hellyamargaritas // Sep 15, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Oh, yeah, JC, it’s women’s fault that they’re stereotyped in the media, and if we want to end it, all we have to do is to stop buying cleaning supplies! I wish my world was as simple as yours!
2 chris roth // Jan 5, 2008 at 3:23 am
dude totally
3 JC // Jan 4, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Men are portrayed as absolute morons in American advertising and who’s complaining? No one. Ad companies have their hands tied by the ropes of political correctness. The ads that are geared toward women are just a reflection of the giant percentage of their demographic that make up most of the consumers and the ads depict males as bumbling idiots reinforcing a mostly negative male image. Ads geared toward men are at least in admiration of women (albeit eye candy, it’s still a positive image however twisted it may be). Women could very easily force the advertising to change; stop consuming. And if you want advertising to be a bit more loving and peaceful, ask the guiding force of advertising (women) to take a stand in defense of men and demand that they stop poisoning the minds of our culture with male bashing propaganda. And if women don’t want to be viewed as eye candy, they can stop viewing each other that way. It just may end up a win/win situation for everyone.
4 pinotdrnkr // Jan 4, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Love all those fattening food ads surrounding the articles here. (subconscious message: you need to fatten out wallets by clicking on the rediculous fatbombs).