#MeToo Shaves The World: The Worst A Man Can Get
For those who think the #metoo movement over-reached a tad in making a 36-year-old unsubstantiated sexual assault claim the basis for rejecting a candidate for the U,S. Supreme Court: Hold my beer.
Here comes Proctor& Gamble’s venerable brand Gillette. The company that made its rep on the slogan The Best A Man Can Get has embarked on a series of short films that tell its male customers that they’re not worthy to drag the blades of its esteemed product across their poxy skin in the mornings.
In the manner of a scolding daycare instructor addressing a naughty boy, the films suggest that the ”toxic masculinity” alleged in the Kavanaugh SCOTUS campaign is a bullying, raping, abusing plague on modern society. In its initial salvo the commercial says that “boys will be boys” is no longer an acceptable philosophy when it comes to rearing males.
“Bullying, the Me Too movement, and masculinity—is this the best a man can get?”
As with the Kavanaugh show trial, the method here is third-generation feminism’s attempts to marshal statistics churned by academics and political think tanks about sexual assault in this country. So “micro-aggressions” and “unwanted touching/ kissing” have been used to bloat statistics brandished by #metoo.
It’s now an article of faith among a significant segment of the population that college campuses are the most dangerous places in society for women, with one in three or four allegedly being assaulted during their tenure in academe (in fact, native women face a fare more serious threat of sexual assault than undergrads, but they don’t sell P&G product.)
That these numbers— as with the Kavanaugh allegations— are trash is no impediment to wheeling them out in support of selling razor blades. Author Heather Mac donald has dissected this toxic ideology in her book The Diversity Delusion.
“The root of this problem is the belief in America’s endemic racism and sexism… Diversity commissars denounce meritocratic standards as discriminatory, enforce hiring quotas, and teach students and adults alike to think of themselves as perpetual victims. From #MeToo mania that blurs flirtations with criminal acts, to implicit bias and diversity compliance training that sees racism in every interaction, (America is) creating a nation of narrowed minds, primed for grievance.”
While it is a P&G company, Gillete’s production company isn’t American. The ad was directed by a UK-based company Somesuch whose previous efforts include a campaign called Viva La Vulva for a Swedish feminine-products company and This Girl Can for Sport England. (Hmm, wonder why they got the contract?)
As the Kavanaugh hearing illustrated there’s a ready audience for this sort of #metoo clear-cutting on gender. That holds that testosterone-choked males are guilty by birth. Due process is irrelevant. When in doubt, break glass and say All Women Must Be Believed.
It’s also clear that most men have been caught wrong-footed by this storm of accusations. Wasn’t it just ten years ago that liberals laughed at their sophomoric humour in movies such as The Hangover and Gillette stroked their masculinity? But then Obama and Trump happened. Now soap companies portray them as barbecue slobs.
Many aren’t buying it. Comedian Rick Gervais tweeted, “I used to love beating up kids at barbecues. Now I realise that is wrong. Also, my balls have never been smoother. Thanks, Gillette.”
It could also be that the ads aren’t even aimed at men. While numbers on such things are not always available, Gillette (once owned by a former proprietor of the NFL New England Patriots) probably has statistics that show how many women consume their product themselves and, crucially, how many women buy blades for men in their life.
The guessing here is that the number is substantial and that this campaign is far less of a risk than some of the current critics are alleging. They point to Nike’s campaign embracing Colin Kaepernick, the #BLM symbol of bias in the NFL. Nike’s sales increased by 61 percent in the wake of their commercial, boosting the company’s value by $6 billion.
At its heart, the #metoo movement and its new adherents on the Fortune 500 are buying into the neoMarxist concept that stretches equal opportunity into equal outcome. Emasculating the Donald Trumps of the world in favour of guaranteed health care, income balancing and groupthink orchestrated by the elites.
If the next election is indeed to be guided by the hand of suburban women, then P&G will be the big winner.
Here’s a thought experiment. How about P&G launches a campaign based on its feminine products that takes a run at the hundreds of thousands of abortions women have each year in America? How about a few films where women are told to buck up, have the baby and use proper contraception next time like Real Women?
No? I didn’t think so. Then why should P&G get away with vilifying an entire gender to sell a few razor blades?
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the publisher of his website Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). He’s also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, he is also a best-selling author whose new book Cap In Hand: How Salary Caps Are Killing Pro Sports And Why The Free Market Could Save Them is now available.