As if we needed another thing in our lives to be politicized, now men can’t even get a cheap razor without being told their gender sucks and they’re to blame for other men’s actions.
In a new commercial for Procter & Gamble’s Gillette razor brand, images of men are shown as audio from news clips about the “#MeToo movement” and “toxic masculinity” can be heard.
A narrator asks: “Is this the best a man can get?”
We then see teenagers chasing a boy as we hear clips about “bullying,” fake sitcom stars making jokes about women (there were no actual examples available?), and even an example of “mansplaining.” After all this, we’re told we’re “making the same old excuses” while the phrase “boys will be boys” is heard over and over again, as if that phrase relates exclusively to sexual discrimination.
Oh, but thankfully the Gillette narrator says, “We believe in the best of men.” We then see a clip of actor Terry Crews saying, “Men need to hold other men accountable.” Then we’re shown scenes of men intervening when other men tell women to smile, or walk after them on the street, or stopping bullying.
“Some are already doing this,” the ad says. “But some is not enough, because the boys watching today will be the men of tomorrow.”
This self-policing narrative is one of the gentler smears of men in recent years, but there is never any acknowledgement of men trying to do this – or an acknowledgement that you can’t fix the world. Until no man, anywhere, does anything bad ever again, we can continue to shame all men for the actions of a few is the apparent message here.
Imagine applying this idea to any other group and telling them to police themselves because some members of the group are terrible – and smearing the entire group while you’re at it.
Bullying, especially, isn’t just a male problem. But we never see any calls for women to be better, because that would be labeled sexist.
“This is an important conversation happening, and as a company that encourages men to be their best, we feel compelled to both address it and take action of our own,” Gillette brand director for North America Pankaj Bhalla said to The Wall Street Journal. “We are taking a realistic look at what’s happening today, and aiming to inspire change by acknowledging that the old saying ‘Boys Will Be Boys’ is not an excuse. We want to hold ourselves to a higher standard, and hope all the men we serve will come along on that journey to find our ‘best’ together.”
Last year, Procter & Gamble tried to trademark millennial-related acronyms like “LOL” and “WTF” for use with their detergents and soaps. They also filed paperwork with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to use the acronyms “NBD” and “FML,” as The Daily Wire previously reported.