FOOTBALL!!!!

This week I read "Tales From the Bible Belt" by Shelby Knox and I decided to do a little more research on how she came to be who she is today. That's when I found an article by Jehmu Greene and Shelby Knox concerning Superbowl Sexism.

First of all, I never used to be a fan of the Superbowl. I would watch it with friends and enjoy the company, I would pay attention to the commercials, and I would scarf down the deliciously un-healthy foods that go with it. But never did I pay complete attention to the game.

Then I came to college. I made friends with so many football fans it was almost a culture shock. See Orange County, California doesn't have a team that we really associate with, so the Superbowl was never a super big deal for me. But today, everyone I know pays attention to football, so I do too, and honestly, I really like it. It is exciting. It is addictive. It is yelling-at-the-tv worthy. But it is not for everyone.

Continuing on:

In the article, Shelby Knox and Jehmu Greene number off all of the sexist things that revolve around the Superbowl, and it got me wondering:

1) Are the ads really sexist? Or are they just appealing to their audience?

2) Is there a line between comedy and sexism?

and 3) Can we blame the companies for trying to sell their product in these ways? Should there be some sort of restriction on what companies can use as advertisement campaigns?

So let me try and answer question #1:

"$1200 - price of 4 Bridgestone hot rod tires. The official tire company of the NFL served up a particularly disturbing version of male devotion to their automobiles. In this ad, a faceless driver tosses his wife out of the car and into the clutches of a waiting evil villain rather than surrender his tires. Simple math: if the tires are worth $1200, how much is this wet, abandoned woman to whom he's supposedly pledged his life worth? $1000? $800? Shameful. "

While the idea that a car is more important than a woman is awful, I'm not really sure that the aim of the advertisment was to say a woman is worthless. Saying "you will care for this car MORE than the woman you love" is pretty gross, but I don't think they intended to say a woman is worth less than a car... Bridgestone is just appealing to what their audience thinks is funny, and considering most of the audience of the Superbowl is made-up of men, that is the market they are trying to reach.

So take a second to ponder question #3: Can we blame them for this?

Now let's go to #2:

"2 older women sacked by big, bulky football players. In what kind of culture do we live when slamming an older women into the ground makes an appearance in not one but two commercials? Snickers rags on older people by comparing lagging players to Betty White and Abe Vigoda and then slamming them into the ground. The Focus on the Family ad tried a strange stab at humor when Tim Tebow sacked his own mother. Not funny, just unsettling."

26. The number of laps Danica Patrick led the year she placed third at the Indianapolis 500, becoming the first woman to ever place in the top three. That she is such a successful sportswoman in a field dominated by men makes it even more frustrating to see her reduced to the GoDaddy.com logo across her breasts year after year. Even though GoDaddy.com sponsors her race car, she's never portrayed on the track. This year she's trying to live her normal life - getting a massage and appearing on a talk show - but perky blonde women keep insisting on ripping their clothes off for her. Whether it's some writer's idea of a primetime lesbian fantasy or just more catnip to draw men to the soft porn commercials on their site, GoDaddy.com is once again one of the worst sexist ad offenders of the year.

OK, so is there a line between comedy and sexism?

Honestly, when I saw Betty White being tackled to the ground I wasn't thinking it was unsettling or sexist, I did think it was funny. It was a ridiculous situation and it was shocking. Snickers isn't encouraging people to go out and tackle their feeble grandmothers, they were just appealing to their audience through shock comedy. Now if you say "that is awful to say that old women are tired and weak", well, they usually are... So I'm not really sure that Betty White being smacked down was really so much of a feminist thing and more of just a comedic way to get the audience to buy Snickers bars.

As for the Diva Snickers commercials, well maybe that is a little sexist. I mean, basically they are saying when men get hungry, they turn into whiny bitches who expect everything. Who is a whiny bitch? A woman, specifically a Diva. At the same time, Diva's pride themselves on getting everything they want and being picky about what they like, so maybe it isn't so much sexism as it is a stereotype. The men aren't turning into an everyday woman, that would be sexist, they are turning into a stereotype, specifically one where those who are stereotyped take pride in the name.

Now what about GoDaddy.com? Well, I went online and checked out a few of their commercials. My opinion? I'm mixed. They do advertise with beautiful women being half-naked, but they also make the men look like idiots. Every woman who is objectified physically, is also the one who is strong and independent. The men all seem meek and stupid. At the end of "The Contract" the guys all stand around the t.v. watching the commercial and proceed to guffaw like air-heads. So while it is choosing a low-brow way to advertise to men, they still include a sense of power for women.

Now back to question #3: can we blame them?

The advertising agencies only have one mission: to sell. They will do this in any way possible. So at an event that is dominated by mostly men, every business is going to advertise to this male market. Now what do men like (not all men obviously, just the market majority)? The answer is women. Boobs. Legs. Beautiful faces. A business can sell anything with these backing its product.

So while some advertisements really are just gross, insensitive, low-brow, and tasteless, it is just a way to sell a product and we have to remember that. So as long as the commercial isn't saying "put your woman in her place" (which i must say is close to the Dockers ad)  I think we can let them slide, for now...

(For some real hind-sight sexists ads, visit these three sites: 1, 2, 3. Keep that in perspective, and let's just hope for the future.)