I found this video last week and was just going to link to it but after Vanessa’s comment, I decided to delve deeper on the subject. V nailed it on the head calling the video “fried barf on a stick,” and then she pointed out several of the ways in which it’s backwards..ridiculously backwards:
Those actresses make light of the years that women labored to be perceived as equals among men. The new product was not equivalent of the Wii. It was substitute for second-class citizens with games that reinforced subservient behavior patterns
All I can say is I’m glad this commercial isn’t in English. It’s offensive enough visually. Putting the lame ass gender norms aside, I think the video employs humor in a really interesting way. The ad is clearly trying to be funny. We get this sense right off the bat with the portly dudes and their annoyed female companions. The viewer is supposed to identify with this scenario: the guys are trying to have fun and the gals kill their buzz. Whichever side you identify–or don’t identify–with, we can probably all agree that this is a culturally familiar narrative.
The Wii turns the guys into buffoons, but then we realize that the women too are subject to buffoonery as the Shii intoxicates them with an innate urge for all things domestic. The women go cra-zy! The men love it. We weren’t expecting this…it’s sooo FUNNY! Then, in the last moments the women start sucking mechanical dick. All hell breaks loose and it’s hard to not gasp–and let out a little chuckle– at the absurdity. I know European ads tend to be much more unbridled then those in America, but still, this is pretty risqué.
Humor is a powerful tool. That’s really my point. When we laugh, we let the feeling take us over and forget to think. Just for a little bit. Sometimes, this isn’t such a big deal. But, a lot of the time, humor is an artificial treatment we coat over a more serious topic that we’d rather not deal with. Political jokes, racist jokes, anti queer jokes, blond jokes, Jew jokes, dead baby jokes.
It’s troubling to see commercials like this because they invite viewers to laugh off thousands of years of systemic subjugation as if “we’re so over it.” With all of the keeled over laughing, the danger is you’ll forget to think.
Wow. Talk about fried barf on a stick. Where did you find this? I started laughing at the video when I saw the ironing game. But as the video continued to play, the “games” became more and more disgusting. I want to slap the person who made this video in the face.
They've taken the antiquated gender expectations that confined women for centuries and compiled them into a visual package with modern components that perpetuate them to another generation via “humor”. Leg shaving games? Fellatio competitions? It's insulting for this video to pose that women would want to digitally substitute tasks that are exhausting in real life, for fun. Both of those activities are done to satisfy men, not women. I've never sat down with a girlfriend and related a tale about how good my last shave was, nor do I expect to ever hear one. I'll spare you my rant about the other activity.
Why would women sit around and watch the men, who were not even attractive enough to realistically be their mates, play video games? In the middle of the day, no less, these men contributed nothing to society, instead, choosing to indulge themselves in primitive urges enabled by the proxy of a virtual world. Those actresses make light of the years that women labored to be perceived as equals among men. The new product was not equivalent of the Wii. It was substitute for second class citizens with games that reinforced subservient behavior patterns. For shame.
Wow. Talk about fried barf on a stick. Where did you find this? I started laughing at the video when I saw the ironing game. But as the video continued to play, the “games” became more and more disgusting. I want to slap the person who made this video in the face.
They've taken the antiquated gender expectations that confined women for centuries and compiled them into a visual package with modern components that perpetuate them to another generation via “humor”. Leg shaving games? Fellatio competitions? It's insulting for this video to pose that women would want to digitally substitute tasks that are exhausting in real life, for fun. Both of those activities are done to satisfy men, not women. I've never sat down with a girlfriend and related a tale about how good my last shave was, nor do I expect to ever hear one. I'll spare you my rant about the other activity.
Why would women sit around and watch the men, who were not even attractive enough to realistically be their mates, play video games? In the middle of the day, no less, these men contributed nothing to society, instead, choosing to indulge themselves in primitive urges enabled by the proxy of a virtual world. Those actresses make light of the years that women labored to be perceived as equals among men. The new product was not equivalent of the Wii. It was substitute for second class citizens with games that reinforced subservient behavior patterns. For shame.