Please Tell Me That I Ought Not Be Offended...

[arwalden]

... I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about a commercial I saw recently.

It was for a Chevy Colorado and in the commercial there are five guys riding along and the radio is blasting "I Feel Like A Woman" by Shanai Twain.

One fellow in the back seat is really getting into the lyrics and every time he sings "Man, I Feel Like A Woman" his buddies get nervous looks on their faces and start to slide closer to the doors and further away from their singing buddy in the middle.

The announcer ends the commercial with a punch line, "If you ever feel uncomfortable in the Chevy Colorado, it won't be because of a lack of space."

So... I'm wondering:

-- Is the commercial making fun of the "homophobic" guys who are getting bent out of shape because their friend is singing a "woman's song" with such enthusiasm?

-- Or is the commercial helping to reinforce those types of stereotypical IRRATIONAL FEARS and stigmatizing those who are even PERCEIVED to be gay?

I don't know. One can look at it from many different angles and even though I can see the intended humor... it made me uncomfortable. But then again... sometimes I'm a bit hypersensitive.

Any comments would be appreciated.

-- Allen

Edit: Clarity

[HEyHEY]

1. Wether gay or straight

A man feeling like a woman...is kinda off.

I think it's just a joke. THese companies don't like to cross political lines, bad PR.

[Maddy McCall]

2. It's the newly rediscovered sales tactic that bigotry passes as humour

My brother is gender dysphoric, and I don't find that funny, not at all.

And let me add that Chevy realizes who its potential customers are, and that this kind of bigotry will appeal to most of them.

[Devlzown]

3. Sounds tacky to me.

I can think of a lot of things the friend could be doing that would make his buddies uncomfortable, other than triggering their homophobia.

[Skittles]

15. actually, it is triggered more by mysogyny than homophobia

really

[Devlzown]

19. That's true.

I have a lot of friends who won't date homophobic guys because they recognize that homophobia is a form of misogyny.

[NicoleM]

4. I can't tell you that

because I would interpret that commercial the same way, and have the same reaction.

[stevedeshazer]

5. Unfortunately,

I think this is targeted towards Chevy's buying demographic, straight white males. And not liberal ones. I view it as the same kind of stigma you mentioned.

This straight white male was offended. The guys in the vehicle were like junior high kids.

I was in the parts business for years. I can't think of a single liberal guy who owns a Chevrolet, but maybe it's because they've produced a crappy product for decades. Just my 2 cents.

And I can't stand Shania Twain, either.

[private_ryan]

6. you should not only be offended

but be outraged.

[terrya]

7. I think the ad is making fun of the homophobic guys.

That guy is singing "I Feel Like a Woman" and the other guys are uncomfortable about that. I think the ad is making fun of them acting so uptight and stupid. I don't think the ad itself is homophobic at all, though I understand why you might have felt that way.

Terry

[MuseRider]

8. Wellllll,

funny you should mention this. I was sitting here this morning thinking about how women are being portrayed by the media these days. I think it may relate. For a while news about women was about jobs and education and seemed to portray us the way we worked so hard to be seen. Now it is all about getting a man, plastic surgery to be more attractive or to fit into your shoes and stripping lessons to lose weight all given by pretty, perky, giggling, seemingly senseless women. I would be sensitive to this and watch it carefully. I do not for one minute think you should question yourself on this. This, as you well know, is how public perceptions are changed. If someone else were in charge in this country it would probably be little more than offensive but these guys do not have any of our best intentions at heart. Keep your eyes open. Not that they make me paranoid or anything..................

[proud patriot]

9. I can't tell you not to be offended

another perspective on the last line could be
"If you ever feel uncomfortable in the Chevy Colorado, it won't be because of a lack of space." the guys who are uncomfortable
are so, because they are stupid bigots ..ha ha !

but I honestly doubt that was the intention of the ad campaign .

One must wonder which group the next ad will target.

[Sir_Shrek]

10. I would think it's more homophobic...

...if the guy was singing "It's Raining Men" or something like that. Something with more overt referencing to being in love with men. "Feel Like A Woman" just doesn't quite cut it for me.

[LatteLib]

11. Maybe their advertising technique will backfire

and make the homophobes afraid they will become gay if they buy a Chevy Colorado. Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants to GM.

[supernova]

14. "Turn gay

Buy a Chevrolet"!

*cough* Sorry.

That commercial does make me wince, but I was hard put to say why, exactly. I think it does play to not only the homophobe audience, but anyone who doesn't even want to appear effeminate (and I'm not gonna rehash THAT all over again).

Hmm. The more I think about it the more sneaky it is. Instead of saying "Buy Me because I'm a great truck (lots of HPW, real tough design, etc.)." the commerical says:

"Buy me so you won't be a girlie man". It sells the truck by speaking to straight guys' insecurities, iow.

Am I off base here?

[LatteLib]

41. I don't think you are off base one bit.

It is counter productive to alienate part of the audience when you are trying to sell a big ticket item like a vehicle. What was the exec at Chevrolet thinking when he gave the OK to this advertisement?Go figure....

[Bertha Venation]

12. enh... I'm not offended

Sounds like good clean fun-poking at homophobia to me. I don't think this can be construed as a gay-bashing commercial.

Attitudes are changing. Seems to me more folks are becoming comfortable w/ queers & queerness. (My fingertips to god's ears -- how else will hate crimes stop?)

[mac56]

13. Remember the old "Nut & Honey" commercials?

A 1987 commercial for Kellogg's Nut & Honey Crunch breakfast cereal featured cowboys at a chuck wagon asking the elderly male cook, "What's for breakfast?"

Cook replied, "Nuttin', honey." Whereupon the cowboys all brandished their guns at him.

At the time, Kellogg's took some heat from gay activists about the homophobia suggested in this ad. Kellogg's replied that it wasn't the "honey" part of the cook's comment that made the cowboys upset - it was the "nuttin'" part.

[mac56]

16. On the plus side, Wendy's had a positive ad not long ago.

(Paraphrasing from memory.)

Two guys were sitting at a Wendy's table, eating salads and discussing the good qualities of each.

Eventually one of the guys says to the other, "Two guys sitting here talking about salads. Don't you think that's a little..." and he waggles his fingers.

The other guy scowls at him and says, "Grow up, man."

I loved it!

[kayell]

17. You should be offended, its a homophobic ad AND

its misogynistic. As usual, the very worst thing for a man to want is to become more like a woman.

[chiburb]

18. Sounds offensive to me, but...

I would write to GM and ask. Just tell them you aren't sure where they're coming from or how you should, as a gay man, take the inference. I suspect they'll trip over themselves trying to assuage your fears about their intentions.

[jimbo fett]

20. Well, look at their target audience. Hardly the type to be concerned with

offending others (especially gay).

I fiind it distasteful but I wouldn't lose sleep over it. Car commercials have a life span of a fly. By the time you could orchestrate a movement against it, it would be off the air anyway.

[TXlib]

21. I think you are justified in feeling uncomfortable.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

22. Looks like you've started a trend with DU's REAL MEN

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=641459

[arwalden]

24. Well It's About Time, By Golly!

I don't want to be the ONLY person around has not inspired a good copycat thread. LOL

-- Allen

[Kamika]

28. *gone

delete

[pdx_prog]

23. really....

I find it no more offensive than watching endless (puke) re-runs of Will and Grace. Everyone needs to lighten up.....it's just a commercial.....no underlying messages, just a commercial.

[corporatewhore]

25. well i have had an experience like this when i told myclassmates

sometimes i feel more like a man and i got the wierdest looks and and the scooching away from me Gender aint linear!!!

[thingfish]

26. Utterly harmless

Relax! Don't do it! Let your body whatever.

[RandomKoolzip]

27. I'm offended because I have to hear that fuckin' horrible song....

in the ad.

[Kamika]

29. You ought not to be offended

there, you can thank me now

[mlawson]

30. The commercial mixes up two separate concepts.

What has the guy 'feeling like a woman' have to do with him being percived as homosexual?? I am homosexual, and have been attracted to other guys since I was a child, but I have never 'felt like a woman'.

But yet, the producers of this offensive commercial have done just that, mixing up transgender and homosexuality, which are totally separate issues. So this thing just adds to public (and very popular) misconceptions. Of course it should be removed from the air, and properly disposed of; it should offend gays and transgendered persons equally.

And of course, it winks and nods at bigotry. It needs to GO.

[foreigncorrespondent]

31. Allen, I wish I could tell you...

..not to be offended, my friend, but I would have had the exact same reaction as you.

[Kamika]

32. The add doesn't poke fun at any group

It just shows an uncomfortable scene where some straight guys and suddenly one feels like a woman(not really gay per say) They think their friend is either gay or just really really weird and they get scared and umcomfortable.

Then it says like this car has so much space so lack of space wont make you uncomfortable, and then they decide to show an uncomfortable scene which is the one you described.


Thats all


EDIT: This post was supposed to be a stand alone, not an answer.. but DU is too slow right now for me to fix that :p

[foreigncorrespondent]

33. Kamika...

...that is yur opinion, but your opinion isn't mine, nor does it appear, that your opinion isn't Allen's either.

I believe the commercial is poking fun at the gay community.

I am also sick to death of television commercials and shows exploiting gay lives for their dollar values.

[chicaloca]

37. I find it offensive

"They think their friend is either gay or just really really weird and they get scared and umcomfortable."

Yes, but to me, that illustrates exactly what _is_ wrong with the commercial. _Why_ should people be afraid of gay/transgendered people? Are gay people the bogeyman? Imagine a commercial with a bunch of white people in a car who find out that one of their friends in the car(who looks white) is mixed race and they start inching away from him. Even Chevy wouldn't be stupid enough to try something like that (okay, so they'd probably try a more subtle racist message...I shouldn't give them that much credit.) It pisses me off because it sends a message to people that it's okay to be afraid of gay people or men who have feminine qualities.

[foreigncorrespondent]

38. That is exactly right, chicaloca.

It is government sanctioned discrimination.

[Sapphocrat]

40. Fascinating...

...that proximity to a perceived homosexual is an effective marketing tool for those ignorant enough to believe a few more inches' personal space will prevent "normal" people like themselves from catching something undesirable.

There is obviously much work to be done in the education of those oblivious to their own level of "gay panic."

[GoddessOfGuinness]

34. I wrote a fairly lengthy response

right before DU went into down time; so I lost every word I wrote! :cry:

Allen, I don't believe the creators of that commercial (and others like it) intended to insult you. They just wanted their product to appear more appealing to redneck men.

The trouble is that the commercials ARE offensive, because they illustrate the ignorance of Mainstream Americans.

Be offended...it may be the only hope we have of evolving from our present pathetic state.

[arwalden]

35. Oh... I AGREE! --- I don't think that was their INTENT either...

I do think that they were being incredibly insensitive and unaware how their "cleverness" would be perceived.

Why couldn't he have been singing ANY old song and singing it POORLY, out of key, and with hilariously misunderstood lyrics? His friends could have still had the same "get-away-from-me-you-out-of-tune-freak" reaction... and it still would have had the cute/funny message that they had likely intended to convey.

-- Allen

[GoddessOfGuinness]

47. precisely...

It goes somewhat beyond insensitivity, too...The writers clearly felt that this sort of humor would sell more of their product than any other kind; and surely there's SOMEONE in the company who oversees the advertising dept, to make sure they aren't spewing out offensive material.

Though it might be like talking to cinderblocks, I think a letter or e-mail of complaint is in order. I'll be happy to send them my opinion...

[private_ryan]

36. if "they illustrate the ignorance of Mainstream Americans"

shouldn't Americans who aren't homophobes be the offended ones (if we all follow the "I'm offended" route? After all the ad is suggesting that people are homophobes. The ad it's not blaming the "gay" guy; it's making fun of the ones who moved away because they thought he was gay. But don't let the fact get in the way of your argument.

Anyway, you have the right to feel however you want about it. Call your senator, congressman, councilman, lose sleep over it... I doubt most people see this as homophobic, and for those who see it as such, too bad. You got freepers who still think the media has liberal bias, and see bias on every story. Whose fault is it?


edit: added some stuff

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

39. Wow thanks for the higher consciousness!

I can just about see ground level now.

Did you have to stay up all night to dream up that justification?

[Sapphocrat]

42. Here we go again...

Re: "for those who see it as such, too bad":

PR, you can't tell somebody not to be offended just because you don't perceive the offense. Just like I, as a white woman, could never (or should never) tell a black man, "Aw, that Stepin Fetchit character is funny! You're offended? Too bad. Get over it."

If a member of a minority group says, "I am offended," then that's a pretty big clue something is wrong. Don't think it's up to the one who's been offended to get over it; it's up to the one who's doing the offending to examine why a thing caused offense.

I used to think Mexican-American groups were utterly ridiculous (and hypersensitive) when they demanded that the singing, moustachioed, sombrero-wearing, heavily-accented, animated Frito Bandito character be removed as the mascot for Frito-Lay. Now that I'm not nine years old anymore, I see exactly why they were offended.

[private_ryan]

44. here we go again

so, if one of the 10-20 milion US gays is offended, it must homophobic and wrong, right? It can't be anything else, can it?http://www.storyarts.org/library/aesops/stories/boy.html
I'm done with this thread so If I don't reply, don't wonder why.

[foreigncorrespondent]

45. PR, the trouble is...

...it isn't just one queer who is offended by it.

On edit: PR, don't you think the story of The BOy who cried Wolf is better suited to a thread about Bush* and Iraq's so called WoMD?

[Sapphocrat]

48. You really make me shake my head in wonder...

Not that you're going to give me the satisfaction of letting me know you read this reply, but seldom do I expect satisfaction of any sort when you and I lock horns on this issue.

It's not as black and white as you make it out to be, PR. You know this. I just wish you were willing to admit that it's not one queer getting all freaked out over nothing.

Look at the number of times this issue has come up on DU. Is it one person whining about the same damned thing all the time? You might be very tempted to accuse me of being that one person, but I'm not the only, nor the first, nor will I be the last.

So what does it mean when you come back with the very same response, every single time? Are the queers of DU one giant, lumped-together anomaly?

DU may not be the real world, but that's primarily because it lacks the far-right viewpoint (and thank God for that). It is, however, a microcosm of the far-left-to-center world. Are you telling me that every left-leaning queer is hypersensitive, imagining things, desperately seeking any excuse to be offended so we can cry "Victim!" all the time?

We're sick to death of being victims. What you seem to miss is that we're not victimizing ourselves to fill some pathological desire -- but we are highly aware of every perceived slight, and with damned good reason. If you had sandpaper rubbed over every inch of your body every day of your life, you'd be as aware of the touch of a feather as you were a punch in the nose.

What you don't seem to understand is that if we don't stop to figure out whether that "feather" was meant to tickle or to torture, next time we might not see the punch coming.

And you want to give us two in the arm for flinching. You don't see why we flinch?

Allen asked for a reality check, and you didn't like all the answers you heard.

Why, PR? Why do you get so pissed off about this issue? Why is it always our fault for being "too sensitive"?

Why can't you accept the fact that sometimes, even just sometimes, it's their fault? And maybe, just maybe, you share a teeny, tiny bit of that responsibility, for refusing to take our hurt seriously.

We'll get over it when it stops.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

51. Your "Frito Bandito" comment spoke volumes...

But did your revelation come with age, or experience?
I'm thinking now of some of the earliest white civil rights supporters...young Jews who understood what it was like to be the subject of jokes and ostracized by mainstream society.

It's hard for people who haven't been treated that way to understand how anyone could object to a "joke".

[GoddessOfGuinness]

50. Thanks for the Aesop's link

I've been looking for one.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

49. As a matter of fact,

I think it does portray them in an insulting light. But there are a lot of people out there who would not recognize the insult because they're too caught up in their own ignorant notion of what "normal" people are like.

While I certainly won't lose sleep over the homophobic quotient of society; that doesn't mean that I won't continue to do what I can to educate them. And the "humor" offered by the commercial only serves to reinforce their uninformed upbringing.

[TrogL]

43. blatantly homophobic

Is that on Canadian TV? If so I'll do something about it.

[Dogmudgeon]

46. It's a rip on Toby Keith's über-macho Ford commercials

Last year, right before he became Daddy Bushwhore, Toby Keith did a few commercials for Ford pickup trucks, showing him leaving a construction work site (without a spot of dirt on him) with his guitar, singing, "I'm a Ford Truck man ... that's all I drive ..." etc. It came complete with menacing grimmaces, shots of the macho truck splashing through mud puddles, a big old honkin' Stetson hat, and "The Keithmeister" strummin' on his GUIT-tar, flags a-wavin'.

Most pickup trucks are sold with machismo. This ad makes fun of it.

Are you right to be offended? Well, it depends on how you're looking at it. I think most gay people have every right to be offended by the crass stereotyping of gays on TV, and that's just for starters. I find stereotyping in general offensive -- Blacks, Italian-Americans, Jews, and the "humorous" humiliation ads directed at family men. This commercial itself may not have gone there, but it certainly cranked the attention level up.

By way of comparison, think about the classic Alka-Seltzer ad, with the "Italian" guy making a commercial for meatballs. There he sat, for take after take, eating more and more meatballs, expected to utter "That's a spicy meat-a ball!" and getting sicker and sicker. Alka-Seltzer came to the rescue and he delivered the line perfectly. It was hilarious, it used I-A stereotypes, and it mocked the industry that promoted those same stereotypes.

And what about all those macho dudes who got pickup trucks to affirm their masculinity? Well, a little "homosexual panic" may be good for the soul.

Finally, Randy Newman unleashed a firestorm with his song "Short People". It was an indictment of bigotry in general. And it seemed to be fine with him -- anything that would expose bigotry to the ridicule it deserves.

--bkl
(edited for awkward grammar)