Media Bites – Men, Relationships & Products
February 24, 2010
This week’s Media Bites takes a look at a couple of ads that ran during this year’s Super Bowl. Both commercials present men as submissive to the women in their lives, even emasculated, which doesn’t matter because they will feel better about themselves when the consume products like mobile TVs and the new Dodge Charger. Both of these ads are really a subtext for all ads, which says you will ultimately be happy through consumption, a theme explored in the documentary, The Ad and the Ego.
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Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 
I was really struck by these two ads during the Superbowl. What I thought about when I saw them was the way the ads framed the popular idea, advanced by various men’s “support groups,” that men are oppressed, and losing power to women. This concept really took off with Warren Farrell’s book “The Myth of Male Power” which came out in the 90s.
Recently, Samatha Bee did a hilarious (although equally sexist) piece about this on The Daily Show. She interviewed Farrell, who said, with a straight face, “It’s a difficult time to be a man in America…Men today are probably where women were in the late 50s. We’re about a half-century behind in terms of being understood; in terms of having options. We did a great job for women; we now just need to do the same for men.”
Samantha Bee then said in her voice-over, “He’s right. Men run just 485 of our Fortune 500 companies, and only three branches of government. And more doors are closing on them all the time.”
It’s interesting in these ads how that myth of power loss, which seems to speak to a lot of men currently, is woven together with the myth that buying things will make you happy and solve your problems, as you point out in your video. Thanks for making that connection; a great job.
Kate, thanks for your comments. I agree that the idea that men are oppressed is a bit of a stretch, if we are talking about gender oppression. Patriarchy is still the norm and men still have tremendous privilege in this society. To me it is just sad that popular culture and marketing affirms in men the idea that they can only be themselves with the consumption of products instead of trying to develop healthy relationships with women and with other men.