Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Man's Last Stand and Gender

The media text that I decided on was one that I have seen before and really enjoyed because of its creativity, but also due to how sexist it really was and how the entire commercial was based on patriarchal gender ideals and what we have been socialized, or in some cases, brainwashed to believe.  This commercial was from last year’s superbowl in 2010 and was considered one of the funniest out of the bunch because it shared the inner thoughts of men when they are standing in front of you with a blank stare on their face.  It is called “Man’s Last Stand” and it’s an advertisement for the Dodge Charger car.  
The first words from this advertisement are “I will wake up and walk the dog at 6:30 AM, I will eat some fruit as part of my breakfast, I will shave, I will clean the sink after I shave.”  It is important to note that as far as race, there is a good amount of diversity but not nearly enough to consider it an equal opportunist advertisement considering they only really showed four men in the entire commercial and the one that had the most focus in the end was an attractive middle aged white male in a business suit.  This is what Silverblatt, Ferry and Finan call “A Hierarchal (Rather than a Democratic World).  Where the main star of the group (who is the one that drives the car in the end) is the leader while the men that are the supporting cast are left in the background leaving the decision making to the main actor.
It’s unfair how the Dodge Charger commercial took the top least oppressed population, which is white, middle class, heterosexual males and turned them into something that everyone should feel sorry for because they have to deal with things such as putting the toilet seat down. There is a phrase for white privilege that women’s studies and family studies students like to call an “invisible line of power” that white privilege gives a person and it is plastered on both the Dodge Charger and the Spoof commercial.  It goes along with a deeper understanding than just class, and gender.  

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