By David Futrelle
Gillette’s new ad challenging toxic masculinity has got a lot of people talking. Unfortunately, most of them seem to be angry dudes attacking Gillette for challenging them to be “The Best Men Can Be,” and using the ad as an excuse to call other men “soy boys,” cucks, sissies, pansies and f***ots.
The ad, which took on an assortment of related issues ranging from bullying to sexual harassment, has gotten 5.6 million views on YouTube since it was released Sunday. It’s also gotten more than 400,000 “dislikes,” nearly four times the number of likes.
If you haven’t seen it yet, here it is. I have mixed feelings about giant corporations trying to position themselves as progressive entities, but the ad itself is pretty good, as these things go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koPmuEyP3a0
So what are the online, er, critics saying? I spent a while reading through some of the reactions on Twitter, where the video was also posted, and, well, let’s just say that, just as comments on any article about feminism prove the need for feminism, Tweets about videos challenging toxic masculinity prove the need for videos challenging toxic masculinity.
Let’s start with Jeffrey here, who conveys some of the flavor of the response with this weird attack on Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks, who appears briefly in the video as an example of a journalist talking about the #MeeToo movement.
But most of the attacks weren’t misogynist attacks on women; they were, rather, misogynistic attacks on the allegedly insufficient masculinity of the Gillette executives behind the ad, and on those the ad was designed to appeal to.
Did I say men? I meant “soy boys.” Or at least that’s what the commenters meant.
Apparently, all the excess testosterone in these manly men’s systems has rendered them incapable of original thought. These aren’t the most creative of people.
Still, some eschewed the “soy boy” insult in favor of assorted old-school insinuations of inadequate manhood.
Others mixed-and-matched old and new school insults with gleeful abandon.
Others descended into straight-up homophobic attacks:
Others went with everyone’s favorite transphobic slur.
Such an inventive play on Gillette’s famous slogan “The Best a Man Can Get.”
And it’s not like anyone else thought of that joke. Oh, wait.
Yes, I’ll have the combo, please.
On second thought, I’ll have one with everything.
But perhaps the strangest contribution to this whole debate that I ran across while, er, researching this piece by bumbling around on Twitter came from our old friend Stefan Molyneux, the culty Canadian “philosopher” and YouTube blabber, who had this observation about the ad:
Stefan is suggesting, in a sly if not-quite-plausibly deniable way, that the ad is somehow going easy on Jewish men and exempting them from the “toxic masculinity” accusations, almost as if there were some big Jewish conspiracy on Madison Avenue to go along with the one in Hollywood.
How do I know this is what he’s getting at? Molyneux is an increasingly open anti-Semite who pretends to oppose anti-Semitism; he regularly tweets regurgitated anti-Semtiic talking points and, in a tweet the other day he explicitly denied that he has any Jewish blood in him. Which is evidently a big concern in the circles he hangs out in these days.
My question, of course, is how he can tell that none of the guys in the ad are Jewish. I mean, there are a LOT of boys and men in the ad, and it kind of seems statistically likely that at least a couple of them are Jewish. But evidently Stefan’s Jewdar is better than mine.
Turns out Stefan wasn’t the only one thinking about Jews. So were these guys, and they weren’t quite so subtle as Stefan in their tweets.
(I’m not quite sure how this fellow decided she was Jewish; I found no indications as to her religion online. “Gehring” is a German name but as far as I can tell not one specifically associated with Jews. Not that anti-Semites are big on accuracy.)
So I guess the problem isn’t just that a lot of men are poisoned by toxic masculinity. I guess a lot of them are also Nazis, who turn every discussion into an opportunity to talk shit about Jews.
I mean, we knew that already. But how convenient to be reminded of both facts so colorfully in this little collection of tweets.
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@Victorious Parasol and @Crip Dyke, those are brilliant! Absolutely ??? (also I don’t think I’ve ever seen Barrett’s Privateers referenced outside of talk about Due South or more directly about Rogers himself, so extra yay and wow to that 🙂 ).
omgggg sea shanties omggggg
And I wrote that without caffeine!
@Shadowplay
I mean he started off coherent if sleazy, but then just… leaped off into the demon-infested depths of entitled male rage.
So hatefulness, much bigot, wow.
*shudder*
*puts on eye patch and shivers me timbers* 😀
And it’s not even Sept 19! Arrrrrrrrrr!!
To the tune of ‘Donkey Riding’ –
Way hey and a way we go tro-oll slayin’, tro-oll slayin’,
way hey and away we go slayin’ all the tro-olls.
Was you ever readin’ ‘bout the things the manosphere tries to spout, leavin’ us all with no doubt about slayin’ all the troo-olls.
Was you ever readin’ a post, when you realised – “It’s a ghost!” MRAL has come ’round to boast, but we’ll slay all the tro-olls.
Was you ever spendin’ moments, when you notice some necro’d comments, I guess they hoped to escape our involvement, but we’ll slay all the tro-olls.
Did you ever have a day, when someone reveals they’re an MRA? The regulars all shout ‘hurray!’ Time to slay the tro-olls.
Way hey and a way we go tro-oll slayin’, tro-oll slayin’,
way hey and away we go slayin’ all the tro-olls.
Way hey and a way we go tro-oll slayin’, tro-oll slayin’,
way hey and away we go slayin’ all the tro-olls.
(for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FO4R5SmSrw)
NOT COMPLETELY HAPPY but here’s another shanty.
(To the tune of that one in Jaws. Where they’re comparing scars)
@Rhuu: ??
What have I begun?!
@Alan Robertshaw: Nice one! ?
@Crip Dyke may yet prove right and we’ll get a songbook together ?
invol’vment, dammit! Like, if you take out that ‘e’ and sort of make it shorter, it flows way better. lolollll oh well.
Cat Mara – You knew what you started. YOU KNEW.
@Rhuu:
Ahhh, Great Big Sea. Saw them live in Nathan Phillips Square one year, and have several albums.
@Alan:
Now you’ve reminded me of a very old Mad Magazine bit where they spoofed Jaws as a musical, and had the people running the tourist part of town dismissing the shark claims by singing (to the tune of ‘Camelot’:)
Gah, my own song-spoofing talents are a somewhat rusty these days. Back in University I did write a song based on a discussion about moderated news groups called ‘A Mod’rator’s Lot is Not a Happy One.’ (To the tune of ‘A Policeman’s Lot …’) It started something like…
@Alan Robertshaw
This the one?
@ tovius
That’s the one! Now I keep expecting to hear the beep beep of a transponder…
@ Jenora
My favourite Jaws reference is Father Dougal’s protestations regarding Jaws 2 in that game of charades.
“It’s a completely different film. It’s a different shark!”
For Ambrose…
(credits due to another mammotheer who suggested this either earlier in this thread, or in a previous thread…)
with humble apologies to the Blues Brothers…
“Troll Man”
Comin’ to ya on on your favorite thread
Gonna misinterpret everything ya said
May seem like I’m really obtuse
But I’m fulla shit as a Christmas goose
I’m a troll man
I’m a troll man
I’m a troll man
I’m a troll man
What you say I never understand
I give insults and I make demands
I got no time to listen to you
But you better see MY point of view
I’m a troll man
I’m a troll… person
Make me leave!!
I’m a troll man
I’m a troll man
Listen
I’m just tryin’ t’ make you see the truth
It’s YOU makin’ ME act all uncouth
Y’know I went to the VERY BEST college
Whatev’ th’ topic, I’m the Book of Knowledge
I’m a troll man 4X
This discussion turns on MY command
Cause I’m WAY UP on my grandstand
What th’ Fuck? I’M being ban….
I… was… a troll man
I’m a troll man 4X
well, hell, if we’re branching out into celtic folk (a closely related genre, I’ll grant) we’re going to **have** to do something with Rambling Rover.
Hrmm….
Hm. Maybe a polish later, but that seems to be working.
@Alan
That’s not the one, actually. This is: (sorry about the quality, most people sing the British version, it’s hard to find a video of the Yankee one that Quint sings.
@ Desperate Ambrose:
ok
“Toxic Masculinity is a term that far leftists use to try to manipulate real men into feeling shameful for being themselves and feeling like normal men do.
[UrbanDictionary]”
so… why the “F” did I pick THAT definition?!?!?!?!? Because, based on your comment stream, I believe you’ll accept it. Interestingly, though it’s obviously meant to MOCK the idea that traditional masculinity (as practiced in patriarchal societies) has real toxic content and that content causes real harm… the UrbanDictionary quote fails miserably at its intended effect, and leaves the reader… wondering.
How? The UrbanDictionary quote and, I contend, the overwhelming majority of patriarchal arguments against the existence of toxic content in patriarchal masculinity does not present an argument AGAINST the existence of toxic masculinity.
Consider the two points of argumentation:
1) “toxic masculinity” shames men for “being themselves”. If “themself” (I love the gender-neutral here) is a bully, yeah… but if “themself” is anti-bully, then no. If “themself” is a spouse abuser, yeah… but if “themself” is a man who treats their spouse with respect and equanimity, then no. Shall I go on?
2) “toxic masculinity” shames men for “feeling like normal men do”. The people who argue that masculinity has toxic content also argue that this toxic content is enculturated into males from an early age, with the intention of the toxic content becoming the norm. I understand that this is not what UrbanDictionary meant when they argued that toxic masculinity shames men for “feeling like normal men do”. So, back to Point Number 1. Does the “normal-feeling man” bully? If so, then those “normal feelings” are toxic. If not, then toxic masculinity does not shame that “normal-feeling man”.
Also, as an aside (if you’ve read this far, then I’d accept that you really do want a dialog), if you want to know who the “regulars” are here, google “[nym of commenter]” AND “wehuntedthemammoth”.
count the hits
@ Dalillama
Cheers!
Now I’m you-tubing that band.
@ V.P.:
before we go to the studio, could you consider;
What do you do with a bigoted MGTOW??
thanx., not that I care if the miggy is sotted, but the sotted-itude is (to me, anyway) beside the point
If we go back a few years and collect all the songs the Mammoth Huntin’ Tune-Slayers have written, we have WAY enough for a CD…
And (if we could find ’em) a BUNCH of really fine names for a band!!
just sayin’….
They’re decent, not one of my favourites tbh, just the first performance that version I found. There’s actually yet a third version, involving ranting and roaring like true Newfoundlanders, but I can’t be arsed finding a copy right now.
“bigoted MGTOW”
Oh, a hendiadyoin, cute
@Weird Eddie
Fair ‘nough. I don’t think “bigoted” scans well, though. Hm.
I present the following options!
“What do you do with a braying MGTOW”
“What do you do with a whiny MGTOW”
“What do you do with a blust’ring MGTOW”
We can pick a different adjective for each repetition of the chorus!
And, of course, for the very end:
What do you do with a flouncing MGTOW
What do you do with a flouncing MGTOW
What do you do with a flouncing MGTOW
When he fucks off from here?
Point and laugh and drink his tears
Pass the popcorn over here
Hope he won’t come back for years
When he fucks off from here.
Very late to the thread, but…wow.
All these words because one excitable twerp cannot imagine how willful ignorance and misuse of a term is not the fault of the people who understand it and use it correctly.
There once was a Desperate Ambrose
Whose brains made no mark on his prose
He screamed “I can’t type!
I’m distracted by tripe!”
As we witnessed his words de-compose.