So, Why Are Men Angry At A Gillette Advert?

‘An advert by Gillette intended to shame men into being better people’ is not a phrase most would ever expect to use. It sounds like financial suicide by immolation, but there you go. When your media friends have been shaming men to sell products for decades, common sense just doesn’t really factor. That is how a major conglomerate managed to just walk in and make one of the most patronising and sexist adverts in the history of misandrist advertising.

So let’s dive in to this film that MRAs are dubbing “An entire Red Pill Factory”, and what all the damn fuss is about.

“Thanks for the moral advice, multi-national company that was recently caught profiting off forced child labour and price fixing” – deleted comment by YouTuber ‘Peanut’, later reposted many times.

That comment – one of many that have been deleted by Gillette and reposted dozens of times since the video was launched – is currently the top-rated message. That should give you an idea of the general reaction here – the public outcry has been so huge that Gillette is struggling to suppress it.

Let ‘s take a step back for a moment, and realise what a damning statement that is.

---

The Lecturing and Hatred of Men is Endless

Men, who have put up with adverts like this for decades, have finally snapped. Men are fed up with having their entire gender blamed for the actions of actual, literal, criminals – and they are angry that their own problems are being ignored. Men have finally hit breaking point. They are sick of being constantly lectured – especially about attitudes that mainly exist in Hollywood and the heads of feminists.

Everyone –  especially those feminist activists – demand that women should be respected. But they refuse to respect men. At all.. They laugh at equality, and any attempt to rebuke their lecturing of men is met with accusations of ‘fragile masculinity!’ and ‘you must be a rapist!’ and ‘you must hate women!’. And yet, to do the reverse would be ‘mansplaining’! So many buzzwords made to control men.

And, of course, don’t you dare bring up the fact that women themselves are very open about sexually assaulting men:

---

So – The Question, Really, Is This:

If a man made a gender-reversed version of this film – where he called out all women for their history of flagrant sexual assault, patronizing of men, bullying, and so on – what would the reaction be? Or, as Redditor EsraYmssik put it:

“Imagine an advert that went: “Muslims, stop blowing people up. It’s finger lickin’ good.” or “Women, stop murdering your children. Buy Maxi Pads instead.” – Redditor EsraYmssik

I personally think the reaction to any of these films would be marked on a scale ranging from ‘Nagasaki’ to ‘meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs’ – and all men would be group-blamed. Yet again. 
Funny how it’s okay to blame all men for certain things, and ignore it when women do them as well. And how nice to wake up and hear your entire gender called out as monsters on the news. It’s like being black-out drunk every night, and then finding out about it third-hand.

They’ve Tried This Anti-Male Charade Before

It won’t surprise you at all to hear that the film was created by a feminist marketing consultant. Or that the Proctor and Gamble 2015 SuperBowl message for girls went a little something like this: ‘Girls are great the way they are! Boys – don’t you dare shame the girls! Girls – don’t be ashamed!’ Or that their 2019 SuperBowl message for boys went like this: ‘Some men are okay, but most won’t do or say the right things unless we shame them to. Boys need to change now so they don’t turn out to be horrible people like most men are today.’

What a hideously messed-up and unwanted ‘lesson’ for our children “boys are trash – girls are perfect” – both of which are hashtags, by the way. What a world we live in.  Incidentally, the anonymous Redditor who supplied that analysis also had this to say:

“I’ve got two kids 4 years apart. I’m really supposed to be good with the negative messaging my son is getting at the same age my daughter got the positive messaging …”

This is by no means the first time we have covered this media trait of trying to demoralise boys on Men Are Human. And it won’t be the last. Not by a long shot. And the trend is even more staggering when you try to analyse the sexist train of logic behind it.

---

But Now The Good News

This advert has pushed the public even further towards that fabled ‘critical mass’ which causes social change. Men are starting to wake up to the fact that their horrifying problems are seen as funny, or even childish, compared to the often far-lesser problems women face. They have realised that nobody cares about the fact 90% of the homeless on the streets are men. Or that men are the majority of suicides. Or that they account for nearly all workplace deaths.

This film has made a lot of people realise that men are not the ‘gets sympathy’ gender, but the ‘gets a bossy lecture for no reason’ gender. And with the CDC now outright stating that men and women are hit by roughly equal amounts of domestic abuse, sexual assault, and rape – this advert is is going to cause an awful lot of men to get clued in. Gillette’s film was an entirely ‘reality-free’ production – a propaganda reel of ignorance and bigotry. Who but a delusional shut-in would think that an endless parade of blank-eyed men chanting “Boys Will Be Boys” was an accurate assessment of a world where even young boys are punished more severely and more often than girls. Never mind adult men, who are hit with 63% harsher sentences that women for the same exact crimes. It’s also worth noting the crusty old 1960’s sexism of having the only long-haired boy in the entire advert be one of the lead bullies.

This realisation will only grow even more explosive when men realise that this advert is exactly what Gillette means when they say they intend to donate $3m over the next three years to “programs designed to inspire, educate and help men of all ages achieve their personal ‘best’ and become role models for the next generation”.

How much of that money is actually going to help male victims of rape and DV, considering the advert only shows women in that position? How much will go to help male mental health? Or homeless men? Probably about zero – unless you count more Domestic Violence programs that ignore female abuse of men, and treat male victims as if they are monsters in denial. Or, as Redditor EsraYmssik put it:

---

“how much (of this money) will go to ‘why men are bad and you are bad and you should feel bad’ events run by ‘Sisterhood approved men’?”

---

But, Actually, Gillette May Have Done Men A Favour Here

Like a certain SNL sketch that recently got taken off YouTube due to even more outrageous sexism against men, Gillette have boiled down the male-hating narrative into one of its purest forms. They have made it blatant and impossible to ignore by stepping it up to the next level – and that means even more men are waking up to the narrative being pushed at them. It’s not just one advert anymore – it’s a theme.
And everyone has had enough. 

Men are fed up with women always being portrayed as smarter and more moral than them. Boys are angry that girls are seen as “sugar, spice, and all things nice.” when they are often anything but. And they are even more angry that they are compared to slugs, and snails, and rapists, and every disgusting thing imaginable. It isn’t just the males who are angry either – women are waking up too, and they are furious that their loved-ones are treated this way.
So here we are. Welcome to 2019 – the year when the Men’s Rights Movement explodes into the public sphere.
The sexist man-hating old-guard won’t know what hit ’em.

---

Want to find out more about injustices affecting men? Feel free to check out our news feed at the Men’s Rights Reddit. Do you have an issue that affects you, or a male family member? We are here and ready to support you on the Men’s Human Rights Discord Server. All are welcome in our communities – regardless of gender, sexuality, race, or religion.