Barbelith Underground > Head Shop > Wimps, sextoys and fools...

I can't help but feel that the use of negative male stereotypes in advertising is an affirmation of negative stereotypes in general, and therefore reinforces silly assigned gender roles. I don't recognise any difference between adverts (or other media) that make out that all blokes are idiots and adverts (or other media) that make out all women are idiots. I just find the whole thing ugly and unpleasant, I don't really feel personally offended by any of the male-bashing stuff as it's all a bit daft, but at the same time there's something really tiring about it.

I tend to believe that absolute equality of all people will only be achieved if everyone behaves as if absolute equality were a reality here and now, and not in some far off mythical future somewhere down the line. So I tend to base all of my responses to stuff like the above on this standpoint - which would mean that anyone championing adverts containing negative male stereotypes cannot do so without simultaneously endorsing the use of negative female stereotypes and stereotypes in general.

As another, possibly clearer, example of what I'm getting at. I used to work with a person who would often send male-bashing jokes around the office. To her, it was a feminist statement in opposition to all the similarly tedious blonde-bashing jokes that would also occasionally circulate the office. Occasionally, the male-bashing jokes would be responded to with a bunch of female-bashing jokes from somebody else, which would yield further male-bashing jokes, and on, and on, until it fizzled out in unresolved resentment.

My response to male-bashing jokes is very similar to the way I feel when a 'blonde-joke' lands in my inbox. I don't feel as if the integrity and worth of my gender has somehow been 'attacked', I just feel fucking tired that this kind of childish shit is still being perpetuated and that I'm somehow being implicated and expected to take a side on something as ridiculous as "my gender is better than your gender". I'm of the opinion that the objectification of all people is equally bad, and as soon as you side with either position you're automatically contributing to a paradigm where there is some sort of 'contest' happening. I don't think this is particularly productive, as casual sexist office e-mail banter re-enforces a reality where sexism can exist and thrive. Just as casual male-bashing in advertising encourages the type of dumb 'battle of the sexes' false polarity that makes people think that 'blonde-jokes' are OK.

I'm willing to accept that I'm not seeing the whole picture here, and that I've got some blind spot which has lead to the formation of these thoughts. My main reason for posting this is to examine my thought processes and question my immediate responses to this subject. I'm not here to argue with anybody, I'm here to question my own currently held beliefs on this. My current thoughts are that everyone posting above in favour of male-bashing adverts is very clearly contributing to the perpetuation of offensive stereotyping in general, and I find that quite a weird position and would like to look at this subject from perspectives outside of my own.