Black Widows

This e-poster is making the rounds on the internet.  Does it strike you as funny?

Every year in the US, about 3.2 million men are the victims of an assault by an intimate partner.

Is THAT funny?

Data from British Home Office statistical bulletins and the British Crime Survey show that men made up about 40% of domestic violence victims each year between 2004-05 and 2008-09.

Is THAT funny?

In 2000, 1,247 women were killed by an intimate partner, while 440 men were killed by an intimate partner.

Is THAT funny?

Why is it okay to joke about killing males?  Whatever happened to all those cries for "equality"?

McDonald's

McDonald's is highlighting man's natural insecurity and bumbling attempts to fetch a damsel.  This commercial (ending edited) features a nerd anxious about his fading looks, and stretching to sound intelligent about a stupid park sculpture.  In the unedited version, the librarian mar'm catches him in his pretense which he plows ahead with anyway.  The commercial reminds me of the old M*A*S*H episode where Hawkeye coaches Radar on how to sound intelligent around cultured women.  "Any time she mentions music, just say 'Ah, Bach!'"  When did women seize all intellectual pursuits beyond  Nintendo and football?

United Mileage Plus Credit Card

A man and woman walk through an airport on their way to vacation.  When the husband suggests a solution to baggage fees, the woman snipes incredulously, "You've got a plan?" (5secs) Moments later, the woman half-heartedly commends the man on his work by saying, "My mother was so wrong about you."  (11-13 seconds in.)  Note the look on the woman's face.  Is this adoration and acceptance?

Here's is a bootleg of the commercial.  For some reason United Airlines / Chase Bank don't want to make this one accessible on the internet.

Ball Park Franks

While not completely demeaning to men, the advertiser even goes to the extreme of trademarking their hook line: "Men, easier fed than understood."(TM)  Historically, the 'joke' has been that women are more complex and inscrutable.  I'm not sure I understand how turning the tables advances the sale of hot dogs.  Somehow, I see a wife walking into the house, pulling a pack of franks out of the grocery* bag, throwing it at her husband, and shrugging, "I simply don't understand you."

*Why do I have the wife toting the grocery bags?  Because this commercial is addressed toward women (referring to men in the third person) and presumes that women will buy this brand because Ball Park realizes how incomprehensible men are.  This is a lousy commercial all the way around.

Progressive Insurance

Progressive Insurance is not about to let State Auto corner the market on demeaning men.  In this long-running series, Flo, a strong and capable female (a notion which I celebrate) encounters two bumbling, effeminate males who shill for a competitor.  Not only do the men represent a weaker competitor of Progressive, they also demonstrate themselves to be poor examples of competent males.

I'm going to be completely fair with my criticism.  Progressive is counter-balancing their emasculating Flo with a ruggedly handsome spokesMAN, oddly called "The Messenger".

State Auto Insurance

Denigrating men is especially contemptible when men participate in it, or in this case are spokesmen for the denigration.  If you're a State Auto customer, I hope you reconsider your patronage of a company that takes money from men while, at the same time, running them down.