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.
We Hunted the Mammoth is independent and ad-free, and relies entirely on readers like you for its survival. If you appreciate our work, please send a few bucks our way! Thanks!
Oh holy hell I love this place!
I have to get in on this!
(to Greenland Whale Fisheries – I know the PP&M version best)
Twas one Tuesday night on WHTM,
on Jan, the fifteenth day,
That Desperate Ambrose came swaggering in
to blow us all away,
dumb troll,
to blow us all away.
Well, he took his stand on masculinity,
“The toxic kind,” cried he
“does not exist, it’s all a fraud,
those words are mean to me
(dumb troll)
those words are mean to me.”
We Mammotheers rose up as one
and kicked him in the ass.
We knew he hadn’t a single clue –
we mocked DA en masse,
dumb troll,
we mocked DA en masse.
DA, frustrated, said he’d go have sex
with his real wife in his real bed,
because she was REAL and we Mammoths weren’t –
to him we all were dead
dumb troll,
to him we all were dead.
To his dismay, we Mammoths laughed.
His taunts had no effect.
We give no fucks what he thinks of us,
so he crawled off with his dreck,
dumb troll,
he crawled off with his dreck.
Oh, if hunting Mammoths trolls would go,
on this blog they’ll find only pain.
We chew them up and spit them out,
and flush them down the drain,
dumb trolls,
we flush them down the drain.
Many a troll has floundered here,
their arguments we’ve torn apart,
for on this blog, with this Mammoth crew,
troll dissection is an art,
dumb trolls,
troll dissection is an art.
Edited to fix a couple of typos
Whenever I see some hapless wowser carping about masculinity here, I’m reminded of a comment an old college friend made about my home life.
For clarity, I’m a man, my husband is a man, and our two sons will be men. I’m probably the only brother in my Masonic lodge who doesn’t have a more androcentric experience at lodge than he does at home.
She commented, ‘I imagine that your household is so overwhelmingly masculine that you leave snail trails of testosterone around the house.’
Well, tchyeah. That’s not normal?
@Jes
You available tomorrow for game? Haven’t seen you round the discord
@Robert:
Now I’m just imagining your breakfasts as being like that scene in Apocalypse Now. “I love the smell of testosterone in the morning…”
@Dali
Always!
I’m currently at a spoons deficit, I’ll be back regularly once I feel more able to cope.
@Jes
hugs Spoon deficits suck.
@ V.P.;
re: “braying MGTOW”
You got the GIFT!!!
Thanks, Weird Eddie!
And yes, I am pondering another sea chantey.
Huge round of applause for the Mammotheer sea shanty efforts! You all are fantastic.
This isn’t really a sea shanty, but I can’t resist…
It is an ancient MGTOW
And he stoppeth every thread.
“By thy long unGilletted beard and unwiped ass,
Please go the fuck to bed!”
And a good south wind sprang up behind
The seagull did follow;
The MGTOW SHOT him with his bow,
And cooked, and ate, and swallowed.
Incels, incels, everywhere,
And all their thoughts did stink;
Incels, incels, everywhere,
Nor any peer-reviewed scientific studies to link.
(I’m terrible at scansion. Sorry.)
Alone, alone, forever friend-zoned!
Alone on a roastie sea!
And never a foid took pity
And stopped my planned ER spree.
The many Chads, so beautiful!
And they all with girls did lie
And a thousand thousand slimy things
Trolled on, and so did I.
I pass like night, from site to site,
I have strange powers of brain,
The moment that masculinity is questioned,
I know to whom I must mansplain.
Okay, here we go! I listened to both the Corries and Judy Collins singing “The Bonnie Ship the Diamond” to make sure I had the rhythm down, and here’s what I came up with. Of note, I wanted to find a good inclusive term to substitute for “my lads,” and finally settled on “m’peeps.”
The Mammoth is a blog, m’peeps
Misogyny it mocks
We see MGTOWs and trolls about
But half of them are socks
There’s targets foul a-plenty
Found by our gracious host
‘Tis the comment section of this blog
That we enjoy the most!
(Chorus)
And it’s cheer up, m’peeps
May the snark always roll!
When the Mammoth comment regulars
Line up against the troll!
All ’round about the intertubes
The words of hate run hot
They bray and strut and stomp their feet
But clever they are not
They swagger when they find us
Sure that they’re bound to win
Not knowing that behind the screens
We’ve started all to grin
(Repeat chorus)
Here’s a health to our lads and lassies
And folk of other kinds
For we don’t impose a gender test
Just respect the guidelines
We welcome all who want to talk
But you’ll find yourself banned
If you’ve no taste for honesty
And rather would grandstand!
(Repeat chorus x 2)
Merrily we yakked along
Though the trolls were plenty strong
Through the twisted forum threads
Following along
Our beloved forum mods
Tried to warn us all
Oh they call him Splainin’ Guy
Don’t you let him stall!
Oh the stories we were told
Gaslighting and slurs of old
Propaganda serenades
Through his ‘pinions cold
Laying on the sexist lies
Such a ghastly sight
Like a pig sprawled in his sty
My poor Splainin’ Guy!
And all the men would cry
And many women sigh
And all the trolls would tip their hats
To the Splainin’ Guy!
And all the men would cry
And many women sigh
And all the trolls would tip their hats
To the Splainin’ Guy!
(With many, many apologies to Candice Night.)
Maybe we can put the sea chanteys over by A Voice for Pierre?
I will be singing those when I play “Return of the Obra Dinn”. 5 YARRRS out of 5!
And now to practice the tune with Celtic Women (unless you speak Irish):
@Lumipuna (nee Arctic Ape)
Fun fact: That song is about the pirate lord, Grace O’Malley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_O'Malley
Thanks, that’s interesting.
The lyrics are about how Grainne Ní Mhaílle is coming home (the chorus means roughly “welcome home, welcome home, summer’s coming) with an army of gaels, not Spaniards or foreigners, to kick English ass.
I am humbled and enriched, truly, this is GOOD STUFF!!!
Sinead O’Connor does a version of it too:
We have enough here to make a record.
This is LOLarious 🙂
@Crip Dyke:
Super late to the party, just got back home from the hospital, but wanna say your summary is the best, the cherry on the cake that puts the cake to shame