Monday, September 16, 2002
So as I was sitting at home last night watching television - Noell wasn't back from Flordia yet and Beth and Chad had already left - I saw something that made me made. I can tell all of you are shocked. Me, mad at something on tv? Never. Okay so many of you have had the privledge of watching me scream and yell at said television when something makes me upset. Noell and I often do that together now... We play with the cat and yell at the tv. We lead very exciting lives.
Back to the outrage at hand. There was this commericial for some video game, which game I can't remember at the moment, and it starts out with this man in a padded suit at a women's self defense class. The women are practicing their techniques on him, beating him up rather well. Cut to outtakes of the game. This warrior fellow is tearing it up on a pack of bad guys, being all sweaty and manly. Cut back to the self denfense class. The man in the suit - who is still wearing it - has beating up the entire class of women. One of the women who had previously been shown punching him is keeling over in pain and defeat.
Can anyone guess what I'm not happy about? Could it be that A) the makers of this commercial actually think that a man - who was not given to look all that brawny - dressed in a constricting suit would be able to single handedly take on an entire class of obviously trained women; B) that the commericial idicates that even though women may be taking these self defense classes, they are just kidding themselves, after all, the Pillsbury Doughboy can beat them; C) that violence against women who are trying to empower themselves is a good thing and all real manly men won't hesitate to do it; or D) all of the above and so much more.
The sad thing is, these types of commercials are aimed at a specific audience, an audience that spends its time playing these games where they can be warriors and inflict violence wherever they wish. In most of these role-playing games, those that the hero fights are not human - pure evil - thus the violence is justified. Given that, what does this commercial say about women?
Back to the outrage at hand. There was this commericial for some video game, which game I can't remember at the moment, and it starts out with this man in a padded suit at a women's self defense class. The women are practicing their techniques on him, beating him up rather well. Cut to outtakes of the game. This warrior fellow is tearing it up on a pack of bad guys, being all sweaty and manly. Cut back to the self denfense class. The man in the suit - who is still wearing it - has beating up the entire class of women. One of the women who had previously been shown punching him is keeling over in pain and defeat.
Can anyone guess what I'm not happy about? Could it be that A) the makers of this commercial actually think that a man - who was not given to look all that brawny - dressed in a constricting suit would be able to single handedly take on an entire class of obviously trained women; B) that the commericial idicates that even though women may be taking these self defense classes, they are just kidding themselves, after all, the Pillsbury Doughboy can beat them; C) that violence against women who are trying to empower themselves is a good thing and all real manly men won't hesitate to do it; or D) all of the above and so much more.
The sad thing is, these types of commercials are aimed at a specific audience, an audience that spends its time playing these games where they can be warriors and inflict violence wherever they wish. In most of these role-playing games, those that the hero fights are not human - pure evil - thus the violence is justified. Given that, what does this commercial say about women?
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