It may be hard to find a summer blockbuster movie in which two female characters have even a single conversation about anything but a man, but MRAs and related species seem to believe that the entertainment industry is one giant conspiracy against men. Why? Because sometimes men are portrayed as buffoons.
Given that it’s hard to have comedy without buffoons, I have to admit that this is often true. Of course, given that the buffoon role is generally a much better role than straight man (or woman), I’m not sure how this is a grave injustice against men. I’d love to see more female buffoons. Like this:
I doubt the guys at NiceGuy’s MGTOW forum spend much time watching old French and Saunders specials. No, they seem to prefer watching those Flo the Progressive Insurance gal ads on YouTube until their heads nearly explode from anger at Progressive’s insidious misandry.
For you see, in these ads – I’m not going to bother to post one, since I assume most of you have seen them — Flo is sort of quirky and charming, but the guys are all, well, to me a lot of them also seem quirky and charming, but to the MGTOWers they – and by extension all men — are being played for fools.
Oh, and apparently these ads also portend the end of civilization. As Juno3 puts it,
Just another symptom of a decaying society. …
Imagine the ad agency staff, probably a bunch of dykes with a few dudes wearing pantyhose to work.
If that were a show — a sort of lesbian revamp of Mad Men, perhaps? — I would totally watch it.
The other commenters aren’t quite so worried about the end of the world, but perky little Flo really seems to get under their skin. G40IntercontinentalGhost writes:
Am guessing she’s the one with the irritating, smirky assed grin on her face that looks like said grin is/was the result of wiring being put in some mighty sensitive places. KEE-RIST on the Concorde! From under what rock(or cock as the case may well be) did Progressive Insurance find that twat? I’m also really glad that my u.s. Driver’s License(Washington) expired some time ago.
I kinda like Flo. Now that I know the MGTOWers hate her, I feel a lot more comfortable admitting that.
If you’re going to get angry at car insurance ads, get angry at this shit. That jingle just makes me want to punch someone.
Oh my god. Bee. That commercial is the BESTI I about pissed myself laughing. EAGLE MAN! The male eagle lays eggs! It’s amazing! XD
Here’s a list of 81 instances of teh evil media promoting “Insulting & Emasculating & Hitting Men”:
http://thenononsenseman.com/nonsense/misandry-on-tv/
What gets me are the misanthropic Geico and Aflac commercials where lizards and birds are shown to be superior to humans! Why do this misanthropic advertising misanthropes hate humanity so much? I’m sick and tired of it!
Y’know, if MRA’s want a car-related ad to get mad about, they should check out the VW ads with Danielle Gumro and Bill Hader (she’s smart and crisply no-nonsense and he’s a buffoon). Actually the ads are a bit more subtle and subversive than that… Bill is a jerk but the (offscreen) director always takes his side… but I think we can count on MRA’s to ignore the nuance as usual. 😀
Graham – Although Flo isn’t an example, there is a lot of violence against men and male stupidity played for laughs on TV, and some of it really is pretty nasty.
As a feminist, I think that kind of thing is disgusting and wish it would go away.
I’m scared of that eagle!
@Holly I agree the media treats men like children and it pisses me off but these Progressive ads are a breath of fresh air and these MGTOWers are STILL not happy.
It makes me think do you they actually want equality or do you just want deference?
marc2020, to an extent I agree with you, but you’re leaving out one important distinction: Men are portrayed as childish buffoons in comic situations. The reason for this is that comedy works by inversion. Men are not “supposed” to be less smart than women, in our society… they’re supposedly the more rational, logical sex… and you see MRA’s saying this all the time… “Men invented society… they invented everything, including fire! Women should stop being so irrational/emotional and thank us!” Etc.
It’s the same reason that the precocious, smart-mouth kid is a comedy staple… children are not “supposed” to be smarter than adults; if they are, then it’s funny. So from that POV, it’s really women who are routinely treated like children in comedy.
Apparently Flo giving men insurance advice will lead to ECONOMIC STAGNATION!!! and the fall of society. Who knew?
I’m going to go write some Flo/Eagleman fanfic.
Also, it occurs to me that Flo is the world’s first Manic Pixie Dream Girl who sells car insurance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manic_Pixie_Dream_Girl
@Comet Kalinara made the same complaint a while back, about that fantasy comedy movie w/ Natalie Portman, not just about why guys are always the buffoons but why women can’t be buffoons and can’t be goofy in a COMEDY, and why we’re always stuck as the boring characters.
@mediumdave that’s right… it’s the same reason why it’s “funny” that women can hit men (like the 7up commercial where the woman headbutts the guy suddenly when it looks like they’re about to kiss) .. because it’s supposed to be inversion, it’s supposedly “funny” b/c we “know” that in “real life” a woman could never hurt a man… like as you said, why children can torture adults, or outsmart adults, or the students can outsmart the teachers, or hurt the teachers… it’s why the scene where Kramer is beaten up by a mob of children in Seinfeld is funny, and not horrifying…
I’m not saying that it’s funny when men are beaten up by women obv, but it’s SUPPOSED to be funny for those reasons and it’s seen as “okay” cuz of that :
Holly, check out some of the items on that list.
There’s an M&Ms commercial in which some animated bags of sweets gently throw food at a man while he’s looking for snacks. There’s a beer ad where one guy (out of six shown) is wearing stupidly skinny jeans and his friends laugh at him.
And then there’s this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oULN5a_quGQ
Calling stuff like that “misandrist” is paranoid in the extreme. It’s crap, of course – because it was thought up by people who work in advertising – but bigoted? Not so much.
Women outraged over milk advert is a top priority.
Men portrayed as simpering cowards, fools and buffoons. It’s all good.
Misandry, we just can’t get enough of it!
Women outraged over milk advert is a top priority.
Men portrayed as simpering cowards, fools and buffoons. It’s all good.
Misandry, we just can’t get enough of it!
KEE-RIST on the Concorde!
An ad in which the woman is as dumb as the man is hardly misandrist.
Also, DiGiorno pizzas would never really be mistaken for real delivery pizza.
This DiGiorno ad is much better:
Women outraged over milk advert is a top priority.
Men portrayed as simpering cowards, fools and buffoons. It’s all good.
Misandry, we just can’t get enough of it!
Actually, “guys are dumb” ads do bother me, like I said, because I like to see everyone treated with dignity.
NWO just wants the situation reversed.
Besides that there lots of feminists who DO have a problem w/ how men are portrayed in comedies… (such as me and Holly and Ozy, the triumvirate of evil that I know you detest) you’re ALSO portrayed as heroes, superheroes, detectives, scientists, doctors,problem solvers, geniuses, etc etc etc xD
Dignity and comedy don’t really go together. And overanalysis of comedy is a real killer.
*Somebody* has to be the butt of the joke. As long as the joke is punching up rather than down, to me it’s no big deal. And men (especially straight white abled men) ought to be able to take it, seeing as we don’t have actually have a great deal of genuine shit thrown at us.
Nice to see NWO is around, btw. I’ve been thinking a lot today about his sweet moist lips and toght, firm buttocks. Might indulge myself with some NWOslave porn later, if the little darling doesn’t object…
Graham don’t sexually harass NWO 😐
Bee: Eagleman just shat an egg?
The mind reels.
I always thought Flo was* cute/sexy. The quirky, and the lack of “trying” went miles to avoiding a lot of the ills of commercials.
I actually use Progressive, sort of, because they are the company USAA uses to underwrite motorcycles.
I did think the one where she is winking and nodding at the guy who was buying insurance for vehicles (a boat, and an ATV(?)) his wife didn’t know about was a bit skeevy… but not because of Flo.
(I probably still do, but I’ve not had a television for more than two years, so I’m a bit behind)
Ami, NOWslave feels that sexual harassment should be condoned and practised liberally whenever possible – he said so in the slutwalk thread.
If he specifically withdraws the consent to be harassed that he’s implicitly given (by existing as a being it is possible to have sex with), then I’ll respect his wishes and cease and desist. But until then, he’s my sweet little meat toy.
then I’ll respect his wishes and cease and desist. But until then, he’s my sweet little meat toy.
In all fairness, he’d probably prefer to be called a “filthy slut” — I recall the descriptor of “joyful” accompanying that one. And that way you won’t involuntarily convert me to vegetarianism with all this “meat toy” talk…
Wait, we are talking about NWOslave here, right?