AskMen.com – Worst Male-Bashing Ads:

You’ve seen him plenty of times on sitcoms; he’s the dumb, bumbling, idiot dad, husband and boyfriend who appears useless at everything but bringing home a paycheck. The message: Guys are dumb and women have to lead them around. This, of course, cues the laugh track. Yet a survey from an organization called Children Now found that two-thirds of kid respondents described men on TV as angry, while respondents from another group’s survey said men were portrayed as corrupt on TV by a 17 to 1 margin. Clearly, this is no laughing matter.

Feminists have lots to complain about when it comes to ads. No doubt, some of the rankest gender identity construction can be found in beer ads. But how many think about the impact of advertising on males as well? In my media literacy workshops I find myself particularly saddened by the repeated trope that men are stupidly driven by biology– contrary to some of the classical stereotypes that men are the intellectual masters of the universe. Obviously, both images are wrong. Marc Voyer (quoted above) does a nice job of surveying a number of the worse offenders, although I’m surprised that his list doesn’t contain any alcohol ads, though I suppose that would be too obvious. I have been recently re-reading Susan Sontag, and one comment really stuck out. Violence, she says, turns a person into a thing. It made me wonder, is turning a thing into a person also a kind of violence?

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As evidence that cognitive dissonance permeate our culture, look no further than this specimin of the pop culture complex.
It’s not clear why Belgian’s Che Magazine took on as it’s namesake the Argentine revolutionary, but perhaps the transformation of the South American rebel into a pop icon made him game to become a cigar smoking, beard sporting poster man for the postironic set. Che Magazine, in its ever ending quest to rid the world of feminism and all its gains, has no problem invoking the cad personality, but updates it with high tech glee. It’s a man’s world after all, when more than a one syllable name is too complicated.

OK, don’t ask me how I came across the above video, but it features Andre J, one of the finest people I have ever met. S/he used to work at the fashion store below the Dharma Punx meditation studio in Manhattan. Before meditation I’d hang with Andre to chat about life. S/he is one of the deepest, most fearless people in the universe. I wish I had one ounce of Andre’s sense of inner peace.

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I admit that Dove’s first round of postironic anti-”beauty” beauty commercials rubbed me the wrong way. I posted that it was a little too close to the edge of self-promotion for a beauty supply company to market itself as the anti-product. But this one is pretty darn amazing, to be honest, and it really hit me viscerally because I have a young daughter. The advice is wise: we shouldn’t let media parent our children. So though there’s a tiny cynical voice inside me that decries this as an insidiously ploy cloaked inside the protein shell of a corporate virus, I believe the intention behind it is sincere. I believe this would be a good teaching tool, as long as it is presented within the context of other messages.

Update:

I just became aware that Dove’s parent company Unilever also makes Axe, which has one of the most heinous, misogynous marketing campaigns in the universe. It is so insidious and evil it almost nullifies all the good will that Dove creates with its ad. Because on the one hand, Dove is promoting the self-esteem of girls, but on the other, Axe not only promotes the degradation of girls, it creates the fantasy that women are just tools of male sexuality. It subtly promotes a rapist mentality by encouraging the belief that every woman’s goal is to rip off her clothes at the first sent of a boy using Axe. And if she doesn’t, what will he do with his false expectations? It is quite infuriating and disgusting.

You can send a letter of protest here:

From Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood:

Unilever says it wants to promote girls’ self-esteem. Its Dove Campaign for Real Beauty has been lauded for challenging the standards of the beauty industry.

There’s just one problem: Unilever is the beauty industry. A manufacturer of diet aids, cosmetics, skin whiteners, and other beauty products, Unilever is responsible for much of the advertising it claims it wants to help girls resist. Unilever’s advertising for Axe grooming products – which appears frequently on MTV and other youth-oriented media – epitomizes the sexist and degrading marketing that can undermine girls’ healthy development.

If Unilever is serious about promoting girls well-being, they’ll start by looking in the mirror. Please take a moment to urge Unilever CEO Patrick Cescau to end the degrading Axe campaign.

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The American Psychology Association has issued a report from its task force on the sexualization of girls. I found it to be balanced and was impressed that even though media contribute negatively to the objectification and sexualization of girls, the study also identified other ambient and environmental factors. Furthermore, it recommends (see quote below) media literacy and DIY media as effective approaches to dealing with the problem.

You can download the report pdf here.

There’s also a great page for media literacy resources dealing with sexuality and girls.

Also, you can check out my own media literacy resource that deals generally with the subject of sexuality, body image and youth of color.

Executive Summary:

Because the media are important sources of sexualizing images, the development and implementation of schoolbased media literacy training programs could be key in combating the influence of sexualization.There is an urgent need to teach critical skills in viewing and consuming media, focusing specifically on the sexualization of women and girls. Other school-based approaches include increased access to athletic and other extracurricular programs for girls and the development and presentation of comprehensive sexuality education programs.

Strategies for parents and other caregivers include learning about the impact of sexualization on girls and coviewing media with their children in order to influence the way in which media messages are interpreted. Action by parents and families has been effective in confronting sources of sexualized images of girls. Organized religious and other ethical instruction can offer girls important practical and psychological alternatives to the values conveyed by popular culture.

Girls and girls’ groups can also work toward change. Alternative media such as “zines” (Web-based magazines), “blogs” (Web logs), and feminist magazines, books, and Web sites encourage girls to become activists who speak out and develop their own alternatives. Girl empowerment groups also support girls in a variety of ways and provide important counterexamples to sexualization.

Technorati Tags: APA, media literacy

You have to hand it to the commodities system for being so effective at absorbing dissent. But also credit the media literacy movement for making the misrepresentation of beauty in commercial media a contentious issue. For over a year now Dove has been running its “Real Beauty” campaign, the above video being its latest salvo. But this needs to fall under the “buyer beware” category. When an advertisement uses deconstruction as its sales technique, it’s a sign that the industry is getting increasingly sophisticated in its ability to deflect criticism.

Advertisers are well aware of our skepticism regarding the claims of commercials. It’s a tribute to our evolving critical engagement skills, but also an indication of the shallowness of commercialized culture. There is no dampening the human spirit when it comes to intuitively comprehending manipulation and false spiritual assertions, and advertisers are constantly searching for ways to circumvent and counter our innate resistance to such deceit.

But there’s insidiousness to the ad. Its viral nature is the result of its compelling aesthetics, but it also appeals to our sense of justice and truth. It’s persuasive through its technical agility; it “beautifies” the self-criticism it claims to make, thereby canceling out its own proclamation. After all, Dove sells “beauty” products. Dove’s goal is to convince you that you need them to improve your looks. By deconstructing its own industry it deflects criticism, but also absorbs the language of dissent. It “winks” at you, claiming to be on your side, yet in the end, is it any different than other so-called “beauty aids”?

But as they say in education, this is a “teachable moment.” I would advocate using this ad in the classroom as a point of discussion/contention. My suspicion is that teens that view this would sniff out the deception rather quickly. But sometimes it takes pulling it out of its media context to get at the core truth that’s operating in the ad’s construction. Ultimately its messy, and meaning is not so black-and-white. Exploring the gray areas of the ever-changing rhetorical strategies of media are always rich stress points worthy for testing resistance and acquiescence.

I’m sure there are well-meaning people behind the Campaign for Real Beauty, but I wonder to what extent the notion of “beauty” is actually challenged. I also think it’s worthy having a dialog about self-esteem; I think this is our most fundamental challenge when it comes to media education. We want students to find their way using tools of critical engagement, and we also don’t want to just dismantle their highly mediated universe. It has to be their choice. But what we can do as educators is at least share with them effective tools so they can be informed consumers, and not just passive recipients of media messages. Remember, the whole reason for the campaign is to deal with the resistance that is already there. Realizing that communications are dynamic, it’s a myth that there is only one-way communication in mass media. This “syringe model” that is touted by media activists is just as disempowering as the messages of commercial media that claim to be self-critical. Youth have their own uses for media, so let’s honor that as well, and acknowledge their skills for finding new meaning in the world.

CBS Whittles Katie Couric’s Waist In Doctored Photo.