Your daily dose of outrage

[sabotabby]

Via BoingBoing, every violent act in the Superbowl ads:

Most of that just comes off as slapstick, to be honest. None of it's as violent as the following ad, which also apparently aired during the Superbowl (via fengi):

Watch on YouTube

Dodge Charger @ Yahoo! Video

I know, rationally, that most men I encounter don't think that way about women. I mean, they can't, right? You can't hide that kind of hatred.

Can you?

I saved the worse for last. This story comes to us via audrawilliams.



U.S. soldier waterboards his 4-year-old daughter for not learning her ABCs.

You know, I think I'm just going to curl up under a pile of blankets with my cats for awhile. Wake me up when the world doesn't suck so much.

Comments

[gethenian.livejournal.com]

Where are you getting hatred out of that?

Also, I could be wrong, but if a 4-year-old doesn't know the ABCs, wouldn't that be indicative of some kind of learning disability?

[sabotabby]

Seriously?

The men stare, dead-eyed, emasculated, and sullen, at the camera, while a voiceover rattles off a list of the ways in which these martyrs have suffered because of the women in their lives (having to hear their friends' opinions! taking off their socks before going to bed!). The only freedom in life they are afforded, indeed, the only way in which they can redeem their manliness, is to buy a really manly car.

Honestly, if their relationships suck so much, why don't they just break up with her? Clearly, they aren't happy in their relationships and they aren't staying for love.

Also, I could be wrong, but if a 4-year-old doesn't know the ABCs, wouldn't that be indicative of some kind of learning disability?

Quite likely. I'm fairly certain torture doesn't cure that, though.

[caprinus.livejournal.com]

I see you were misunderstood on the ABCs, possibly because the point was made in proximity to the first paragraph, and thus appeared contextually linked -- "Where are you getting hatred out of that? And doesn't the kid maybe have a learning disability? [implication, sotto voce: "...so where are you getting torture out of that?"]. Glad to see this is not the case. But you can maybe see how you were misinterpreted! :)

So back to the first ad: I would agree it appears to me, as a male, to be seething with strong negative emotion. Is it "hatred"? Well, it is certainly resentment, and patient, jaw-clenchened endurance of some great injustice. The coupling of a completely impassive affect and a litany of indignities one is putting up with in the voice-over narration has a very chilling air of someone about to snap. I was immediately reminded of Christian Bale in "American Psycho". I would also expect the same kind of affect from a prisoner undergoing interrogation, someone being unjustly punished insincerely recanting their beliefs, casting the women and indeed society in the role of jailers, torturers, the Inquisition. Not a pretty ad. Close enough to hatred to me, sorry. :/

[But as a male again I hasten to reässure sabotabby I find the ad completely unrepresentative of the men I think I know. The men in this ad exist, to be sure. Apparently the have money to buy cars. But they scare the piss out of me too.]

[misfratz.livejournal.com]

It could also be indicative of being traumatised by such severe ongoing abuse, in which circumstances you'd hardly expect a kid to be at a normal developmental level. But eh.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

What?! Soldiers have difficulty separating their service from the rest of their life? I'm shocked. No I'm not... It's tragic, and the method is disturbing as hell, but somehow it seems a bit inevitable that torture will leak into domestic abuse.

Gosh the Superbowl was all about men dealing with women and then buying a product to maintain an metaphorical erection.
Advertisers really do not respect consumers, do they?

Have you seen the "Go Daddy" ad? Lesbian Titillation + Homophobia all in one! So not on.

[sabotabby]

What?! Soldiers have difficulty separating their service from the rest of their life? I'm shocked. No I'm not... It's tragic, and the method is disturbing as hell, but somehow it seems a bit inevitable that torture will leak into domestic abuse.

On a related note.

I think I have had all the ads I can handle today.

[lienne.livejournal.com]

that second video is horrifying.

[sabotabby]

It creeps me out on so many levels.

You know, probably because I have some stereotypical male interests and am sometimes in stereotypically male spaces, I've had guys say things to me that they wouldn't maybe say in front of women that they considered "real women." I saw that exaggerated, but not invented, in that ad.

[terry-terrible.livejournal.com]

The article about the waterboarded child made me my stomach turn, I thought I was gonna have to go in the bathroom and vomit for a sec, luckily not.

I'm glad I lost my faith in humanity long ago.

I'm beginning to think that Valerie Solinas was on to something. She just wasted her best efforts though.

[sabotabby]

I still have faith in humanity sometimes and then I realize that it's probably misguided.

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

What the fucking fuck? On both counts. I mean, the waterboarding is the most horrifying and tragic in itself - but that ad I find scarier for the idea that they can seriously reckon that that's how a significant proportion of the male population thinks. I really, really hope they're wrong.

I mean, the nagging wife, the poor put-upon man having to put up with the constant yak-yak and demands of his screechy lady, and similar misogyny, are some of the oldest tropes of the comedy world, though I think that at least in mainstream broadcast material they're becoming less acceptable. But that? Like you say, the sheer virulent anger, the barely-concealed threat of violence - that's not something I've seen. Is this just what certain sections of American society are like these days? Yeesh.

[sabotabby]

I wouldn't know. Either the target audience is atypical, or the countless men with whom I associate, be they friends, family, colleagues, or lovers, are just weirdos. I hope it's the former.

[laughingimp.livejournal.com]

This one is my personal favorite. And by "favorite," I mean, "Well, I guess I'm not buying one of those any time soon."

All by itself, I would think, "Okay, your marketing people are misogynist jackasses, and you should fire them." But all together? Dodge? GoDaddy? Dove soap? Dockers? C'mon, man, when one of the least woman-hating ads is from Focus on the Family, something has gone seriously fucking wrong.

[sabotabby]

Excellent. Wow. He even has a bra on his shoulder. He allowed a bra to touch him. How gay.

(It'd have been funnier if they'd said "balls" instead of "spine.")

[ironed_orchid]

That ad is awful. AWFUL.

[sabotabby]

I feel a little sick.

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

That commercial is my new response to theodicy argument.

[sabotabby]

Theodicy?

[loolica.livejournal.com]

I was shocked at how repugnant I found that ad. And by shocked I mean, I thought I was immune to the virulence of pop culture.

Not to defend violence or anything, but about half of that first montage is people punching each other from a VW ad, as in "Punch buggy, red one." I don't know what all the head slapping was about, though.

I don't really have a comment on the waterboarding one, it's just a horrorshow.

[sabotabby]

I don't mind a little slapstick (okay, to be honest, the more violent the entertainment, the more I tend to like it).

The second one genuinely shocked me even though it shouldn't have.

[seanmonster.livejournal.com]

As to the link: I'm gonna go hug my son...

[sabotabby]

...yeah. Give him an extra one for me.

[suburbannoir.livejournal.com]

That Dodge ad? Urgh. Oh Micheal C. Hall, I really liked you, why did you do that?

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

That last one... Terrifying!

[sphinctourist.livejournal.com]

maybe it's because i'm a fairly newish parent, but I gotta say, my views on the death penalty have changed significantly since Ryver came into the picture. I used to be against it across the board on general principles as i'm essentially a pacifist, all misanthropic outlook aside. But now? I read an article like the one about Mr.Waterboards-his-FOUR-YEAR-OLD-DAUGHTER and just feel an absolutely sick hatred and rage at this piece of filth... i mean, there's still a part of me that thinks perhaps he could get help, see through the error of his ways and atone for what he's done... but honestly, most of me thinks the world would be a better place if someone just put two in his head and dumped him by the side of the road. Good thing I'm not in charge I guess heh

[mistersmearcase.livejournal.com]

That commercial is absolutely astonishing. Boy is it a drag to be a dude, but at least there are CARZ to make it better. Womenfolk: demanding, inscrutable emotional vampires. Carz: AWESOME.

[mistersmearcase.livejournal.com]

Also that guy looks like he shaved within the hour. So even if he shaves again to satisfy the hellbeast, it really isn't going to take long to clean the sink.

Apparently I am opressed, and it took a car company to let me know!

[cerulean-knight.livejournal.com]

It's hard for me to know, being American, and being that most advertising I see starts in and is geared toward Americans, but this whole "free the emasculated male" thing is incredibly prevalent (especially in car commercials.) That is a particularly egregious one, but only in its length and breadth. Is this not something seen in other countries advertising to males?

I guess it shouldn't really surprise me, given this country's baffling "oppressed christian white male" zeitgeist anyway. If it keeps working for politics, why shouldn't it work to sell cars?

[orpheus42.livejournal.com]

I'm probably wrong because my memory sucks (or else I subconsciously expunge it of certain offensive content I don't need to deal with), but it seemed like the misogyny quotient of this year's super bowl ads was even higher than usual - which still surprises me, because it's the game women are most likely to watch out of all of them. "Quick, Ed, let's put on the cultural values reinforcement training while we know all the women are watching!" maybe?

The waterboarding story made my stomach hurt. Seriously, I feel like I have a huge hole in my abdomen right now, and the only response is to lay on the floor in a fetal position for a while. Absolutely horrifying, I have no appropriate response that doesn't involve spilling blood.

I could, however, use more images of animals reversing the devices with which humans torture them in order to enforce behavior, a la the Doritos ad with the dog and shock collar. Perhaps some lab animals escaping and putting people in cages and injecting them with various weird shit.

[orpheus42.livejournal.com]

*alert: reading the above post in the United States could constitute a violation of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act*

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Women react to the Dodge Commercial:

[sabotabby]

That is beautiful. I want to take all of the women who made that out for a beer.