First, The Most Sexist Commercial Ever Made:
Because, obviously, only men love action movies, therefore, all women hate them, just like only women eat/drink diet “foods,” therefore, all men hate them. Yeah.
OK, now to cleanse our brains of tired, bullshit sexism, here’s a commercial that’s surprisingly progressive on gender roles, not to mention just plain sexy:
(apologies for the low quality; it was the only one I could find). For one, I like that this is one of the few commercials where the woman in it is something more than just “female” or “mom.” She’s a tattoo artist. When’s the last time you saw a woman in a commercial where you knew what her profession was?
But what I really love about this commercial (even though the body spray smells like ass) is that it totally flips Madison Avenue’s idea of gender roles. It is rare indeed to see a commercial/ad where men are the objects of the female sexual gaze, as though women don’t really think about sex. In fact, according to Madison Ave., women probably like chocolate more than sex: see the 3 Musketeers and Axe Dark Temptation ads (and also note how these two apparently flip gender roles, with women cat-calling/harassing/molesting men, but really it’s just for chocolate).
No, in this commercial, not only is the woman blatantly looking at the man, he knows it and welcomes it. He is shown actually submitting to her gaze, by disrobing and sitting down to accept whatever painful/artistic/cool thing Tess is going to do to his body. Of course, the set-up is that he’s going to her to get a tattoo, so he’s paying her to do something to his body…but anyone who’s ever been inked knows there’s a lot of trust involved. You are going to have something drawn on your body permanently; you’ve got to trust that the artist is good and knows what she (or he) is doing.
I know there’s a lot wrong with this – and other – Bod commercials. The men are ungodly buff, hairless, and generally look like the plastic “people” Hollywood keeps showing us, as though this is how real people look. Unrealistic standards of beauty are just as damaging to men as to women. But I’ve got to give credit where credit is due: Bod is showing women as active sexual agents, and that’s something we could use a lot more of.
