Gillette may just be the wokest razor brand of them all. In the wake of the company’s controversial ad smacking so-called “toxic masculinity,” Gillette Venus tackled fat acceptance and body positivity on Thursday.
The official Twitter account for Gillette Venus posted a photo of a morbidly obese woman in a bikini named Anna jumping at the beach. “Go out there and slay the day,” the captioned praised.
In a subsequent tweet, the account made clear their declaration: “Venus is committed to representing beautiful women of all shapes, sizes, and skin types because ALL types of beautiful skin deserve to be shown. We love Anna because she lives out loud and loves her skin no matter how the ‘rules’ say she should display it.”
Feminists have been at the forefront of not only stripping stigma from being morbidly obese, but celebrating it. An example of the extremism of the movement was illustrated by Connecticut College psychology professor Joan Chrisler, who claimed in 2017 that medical doctors alerting patients to health risks concerning their obesity are engaging in “medical fat shaming.”
Last year, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro asserted that it’s “counterproductive to praise people for things about themselves they ought to change, particularly regarding health, assuming change is possible.”
“The media’s new focus on building up self-esteem regarding weight status isn’t totally disconnected from radically escalating rates of obesity in the United States; 12.7 percent of our kids are now technically classified as obese,” Shapiro continued. “Self-esteem shouldn’t be disconnected from achievement. Doing so leads to a lack of active decision-making. That holds true whether we’re discussing obesity or whether we’re discussing any other status than can be altered by decision-making. Self-esteem must be earned, not given.”
Thursday’s body positivity message fits in perfectly with Gillette’s latest political ads. In January, the razor brand turned heads with their take on “toxic masculinity.”
“‘Boys will be boys’? Isn’t it time we stopped excusing bad behavior?” Gillette asked.
The Daily Wire’s Ashe Schow described the ad thusly:
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.”
Daily Wire podcast host, writer, and author Matt Walsh highlighted the idiocy of the ad, noting specifically that the “boys will be boys” expression is not an excuse for rape and bullying, but holds real wisdom about the difference of the two sexes.
“There are only, in the end, two options. Either we let boys act like boys or we force them to act like girls,” Walsh explained. “But the latter option makes as much sense as forcing girls to act like boys. You wouldn’t demand that your daughter stop playing with dolls and go out and wrestle in the grass instead. Why should we demand the reverse of boys?”