With this ring, I thee dread

Tuesday, while driving home from Montreal, I caught part of CBC Radio One's Definitely Not the Opera. Probably a repeat. The topic du jour was ''man-bashing,'' as in the portrayal of males as idiots on commercials.

Unfortunately the signal cut out somewhere between Cornwall and Brockville, so I didn't hear it all. Too bad. There must have been hours of Broadsides-like fun on the show. (Joke!) I will dig out the podcast when I have a moment.

Anyway ...

Today, I stumbled on Sarah Haskin's latest -- ''Doofy Husbands.'' Very apropos.

Enjoy.

UPPITY WOMAN DATE: I have been thinking about these ads and why they are proliferating.

For years, women were subjected to ''I'm such a ninny I can't bake a pie'' commercials. Now it's turnabout time.

Not that that justifies the bashing. It's just that women make most of the buying decisions -- and these commercials obviously work or the ad industry wouldn't be churning them out.

Which should make you wonder: What is it about their view of men that women can relate to? What message do they send to men about how they are supposed to behave around the house?  And to what extent are they responsible for creating doofus husbands who think this is the way they are supposed to act?

Comments

[PaulR]

I recall a pet food ad a while back in which the original copy had a dog recommending to a human driver to "Hit that cat!" Cue the outraged and humourless cat lovers hate mail campaign - the copy was changed to the comedically inexplicable "Watch out for the cat!"

The men and women making those ads do so because it is considered socially unnacceptable to present women in a context that is humourous at their expense.

It's not turnabout - the people making those ads are my age, and have lived pretty much their whole lives watching them, and understanding that women must be portrayed in certain manner, while men are carte blanche. If you need a doofus, all you've got are men.

I vaguely recall a prominant black actor - was it Wesley Snipes- around the time of Demolition Man? He was lamenting how especially difficult and rare it is to get a black actor cast as a villain.

BTW, while women do control most of the purchasing in the house, recent research has found that men are now purchasing a lot of the kitchen gear, enough to make an impact on the kind and quality of gear they buy. They'll spend more, and they'll get high end kit. Savvy marketers clue in to connecting with men in a way that reaches them.

[Barry_R]

Hit the cat? Those of us who are sufficiently long in the tooth can recall a Jello commercial wherein kids snuck into a backyard to steal fruity Jello off the tree in some grouchy old guy's yard.

Originally the caption was "Hey you kids - get out of my Jello tree!" This evoked heartwarming images of kids stealing fruit from the neighbour of course, a Tom Sawyer kind of appeal that is universal.

Wrong! It encouraged THEFT by children, and the voiceover suddenly changed to "Hey Kids, get me one out of that Jello tree!"