Screenshot from Dockers Site
by Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux
This is absolutely unbelievable. The new Dockers ad for khakis peddles so much misogynistic bullshit that I am reluctant to give it even a few minutes of my time. Some choice phrases:
“Disco by disco, latte by foamy non-fat latte, men were stripped of their manhood and left stranded on the road between boyhood and androgyny.”
Screenshot from Dockers Site
Discos are emasculating? Something I didn’t know. But it gets better:
“We need heroes. We need grown-ups. We need men to put down the plastic fork, step away from the salad bar and untie the world from the tracks of complacency.”
Complacent about what? The fact that Men (and yes, I do mean He-Men) also enjoy some veggies with their steak? But no, apparently there are some questions that our “genderless society has no answer for” – like after seeing this ad, why anyone would wear Dockers.
‘Cause Dockers are comfortable pants…?
Does anti-femininity mean anti-woman? It would follow, therefore, that all-things-feminine are tied to women — the ‘misogynist’ critique of this ad requires the same underlying assumptions that this ad makes.
Though I do agree that there’s something wrong here, I’m not sure that misogyny is the issue. This ad doesn’t feel ‘oppressive’ so much as outdated — too reliant on traditional gender roles, which I think is the real problem. And really, that’s an issue that both men and women can take responsibility for.
First they use sexism and now they use racism. I guess we’ll be seeing a homophobic version too.
“Once upon a time, white men wore the pants, and wore them well. Black men rarely had to worry about measuring up and little old black men were happy on the plantation. White men took charge because that’s what they did. But somewhere along the way, the world decided it no longer needed white men. Urban by urban, wigger by silly pride-free wigger, white men were stripped of their khakis and left stranded on the road between boyhood and racial equality. But today, there are questions our race-free society has no answers for. The world sits idly by as cities crumble, children misbehave and those little old black men are left longing for the plantation. For the first time since bad guys, we need heroes. We need grown-ups. We need white men to pull up their pants, turn off the rap and hip-hop, and untie the world from the tracks of complacency. It’s time to get your hands dirty. It’s time to answer the call of white male supremacy. It’s time to wear the pants.”
Here’s something you can try at home: stop every male you come across and ask him what he thinks of the color pink. You can probably imagine you’ll run into a lot of inexplicable hostility; blue inspires no similar reaction in either males or females. Only pink.
Why the antipathy toward pink? Pink means girls and to be a girl means to not be a boy, and that’s bad because girls are bad / defective / weak / diminished / afterthoughts / marginalized / oppressed, and if you don’t want to be those things, you have to avoid being a girl. You better REALLY try to not be a girl, because vulnerability is how that oppression happens and whenever you feel vulnerable it’s a warning sign that you’re at risk of turning into a girl. Of course, men don’t get hurt / used / exploited / enslaved / objectified / terrorized / owned / diminished / degraded / hurt because men’s manhood and masculinity are the opposite of being vulnerable, the antithesis of vulnerability. You must prove your manhood, your masculinity, and by doing so you demonstrate how much of a girl you’re not.
And that’s how the fear of being girl-ified becomes hatred of girls for existing and bringing with their existence the dire threat of girl-ification, so hate girls, and pink is girls, so hate pink. And that’s how pants become the tool of sexist oppression: because girls wear pants or skirts but men wear only pants. So wear pants. Your manhood depends on it.