A really good summary of the majority of US Super Bowl commercials

[solarbird]

From fengi, here, via nihilistic_kid:

HAVING TO PRETEND THE FUCKHOLE IS HUMAN.

DOESN'T THAT SUCK?

DON'T BE A GIRL, BUY OUR SHIT.

The misogyny really was just laid out there this year. How horrible and emasculating it is not to be a total ass all the time; how if you're forced to choose between your automobile's tires and your wife, if you're a real man, you'll throw your wife out of the car in front of the guys with the guns and take off to save your automobile's tires from theft; how horrible and emasculating it is not to have a TV screen showing sports in your face at literally every moment.

(Which, if you analyse things even momentarily, also means you're not a real man if you're not a braying jackass, a coward who throws companions to the wolves while screaming off to save your own life, and a mindless consumer who spends most of his time staring at a portable television showing sports and sports ads. In other words, if you're not a baby having your whims catered to by the moment.)

This is deeply broken.

It's a shame, really. It was one hell of a championship, if you're into handegg. No, seriously, it was the best game I've seen in a while. It's not just the let's-start-the-second-half-with-an onsides kick call (which was brilliant, as was the cut to the Indianapolis coach literally gaping - spectacular directing work there), no; I really thought the quality of play up and down the field - but particularly of both offensive lines - was just marvellous. You really got to see two impressive coaches and teams at work here. From a game standpoint, that was nice.

Too bad about the pathetic, insulting packaging wrapped around it.

Comments

[solarbird]

True, but unhelpful. Calling privilege, even when accurate, doesn't encourage those with that paricularal privilege - the privilege to ignore the problem becuase it doesn't affect them - to step out of the comfort zone and act anyway, despite that privilege.

[tacky-tramp.livejournal.com]

What approach do you suggest?

[solarbird]

In this kind of case where they're saying "yes but I fear retribution" then how to do things that make retribution less likely if not effectively impossible. See above. It's a small thing, but effective.

[tacky-tramp.livejournal.com]

A good addition to the toolbox.

I still think it's important to call out the privilege of avoiding retribution when women do not have that choice. When we stand up for ourselves, we take the risk of getting insulted, demeaned, shamed, and yes, physically attacked. If you honestly care about us, you'll take that risk with us.

[solarbird]

See, now, you can and sometimes absolutely should say that. But whittling it down to a label and tossing it out there as kind of a perjorative will generally shut people down more than get them to do something, particularly in comparison to telling them what they could do. Particularly when they have an expressed interest in being helpful but have fear.

[loopback.livejournal.com]

because motivation for action isn't important? That's nothing more than an appeal to guilt to get people to act.

You don't get people taking your side in a way that matters by guilting them into it by yelling privilege at them or telling them how they have a choice and the other group doesn't.

They have to buy into it, body & soul, and believe it to be true. Then they run with it.

"Privilege" is one of the words that has driven me out of more dialogues with groups I am in support of, because I have no interest in being told about how goddamned privileged I am by those who are not. since the Hierarchy of Privilege Finger Pointing can only go from the disempowered towards the empowered.

Do I think 'privilege' exists? abso-fucking-lutely.

Do I think it gets trotted out instead of actual reasoned conversation more often than not? You bet.

"If you cared, you'd do this."

Gosh, then I guess every time I don't meet your external standard of behavior, it demonstrates that I don't honestly care. At some point, that leads to people genuinely not caring anymore. If you're going to be hanged as a thief for stealing a loaf of bread or for robbing the treasury, why not at least steal enough to live well until you get caught?