Gillette has just released a video ad on You Tube that challenges the long-held stereotypes embedded in the phrase “The best a man can get”. It questions whether the values boys have been taught over generations that has led to the toxic masculine society we confront today, is actually the right values that we need to teach going forward.
And it’s a video that seems to have rankled the inner bastions of the alpha male club.
The video which has been online for only about a day has to this point garnered about 5 dislikes for every 1 like on Gillette’s You Tube channel. While this is by no means a scientific snapshot of the general public perception of this video, it nonetheless is very disturbing.
While I generally refrain from looking at comments, unless they are comments on my own You Tube Channel, I took a quick look at the comments this specific video received – and the vitriol, crude remarks and generally pathetic diatribes from some made me shake my head in disgust, but at the same time love this video even more.
I’m appalled that some men believe that this is nothing more than a political attack by the left and that the key messaging here is offensive. It disgusts me that some men still believe in the long-outdated stereotypes that a man is only a man if he is seen as tough, dominant and devoid of any outbound empathy or emotion.
Let’s be very clear here, the traditional view of masculinity is as outdated as leaded fuel, 8-track tapes, floral print sofas and the mullet haircut. The idea that we must raise boys in the model that we were raised in and our fathers before that and our grandfathers before that, is an idea that needs to come to a full, instant and definitive stop.
I have tried to raise my 3 sons to understand that men aren’t superior by default. I have tried to show them that empathy, compassion and a belief in equality are better benchmarks of masculinity than sexism, bullying and a false sense of genetic superiority. I have tried to raise my only daughter to believe that she is just as capable, powerful and deserving of anything she wants in life as are her brothers. Sometimes the challenges to do so are harder than at other times, but if the long term goal is a more tolerant, accepting and egalitarian society then the efforts are well worth the fight.
If you think this redefinition of the best a man can get is offensive, then maybe what’s offensive is that which looks back at you in the mirror. Redefining what it means to be a man in this day and age isn’t an affront to masculinity – it’s actually a long-overdue attempt to fix it.
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