Ode to the whipped white male, Mark Morford

[madokie]

Ode to the whipped white male
By Mark Morford

Let me just ask you this: Do you pity the sad n' squishy white guys of America right now?

Do you feel any empathy for their perilous plight, their incessant sexual frustration, their terrible taste in light domestic beer and that tell-tale slumping paunch, as they are slowly crushed under the relentless demands of their wives, the ruthless wail of their kids, the frightening instability of their job status, all overlaid by a thoroughly devastating female empowerment movement that has successfully mocked, derided and shamed every formerly proud dumb-guy thing -- cars, beer, barbecue equipment, porn -- down to a quivering puddle of don't-even-think-about-it?

Perhaps you should. Perhaps you should look on in compassionate wonder at what hath become of this bizarre and lost creature, so commonplace in America as to be a kind of lumpy epidemic, some sort of surprising suicide statistic, so crying out for help and definition and, well, a reason to exist at all.

Verily, if all the vaguely sexist, slightly angry, carefully dimwitted advertising that surrounded the Super Bowl was any indication -- and rest assured, at $2.5 million for 30 seconds, with every moment focus-grouped and milked for maximum effect, that five-hour swath of homoerotic gladiator spectacle is about as dialed in to the modern male id as you can possibly get -- pasty white American guys are under serious duress indeed. ...

(click here to read the rest)

(Full URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/02/12/notes021210.DTL&nl=fix)

[trumad]

1. LOL---

This white guy loves imported beer---has no sexual frustration except when my wife claims a headache... has a good tan---no pasty shit on me... no beer gut--- 3 pack working on a 6...

of course that's because I'm a proud Liberal Democrat.

[HereSince1628]

2. I thought this was going to be a Bill Clinton thread...

Oh, these meds...

[SpiralHawk]

4. "I thought it was going to be a republicon chickenhawk thread." - xCommander AWOL (R)

[-wulf-]

3. bitter

I don't get articles like these. The problem is that in order for the point to be valid, the reader is forced to accept without question several generalizations are that aren't really based on any reality, as the unquestionable truth.

It reads like the rant of a four year old.

[seabeyond]

5. the generalizations are the media and ads... it is talking about how super bowl portray males

the author calls bullshit on it too.

regardless, the super bowl this year was once again attack on females. in between the nudity (not so much this year), it was female emasculating males.

call bullshit on the ads

[SpiralHawk]

6. Morford is spot on describing the thrust of the Superbowl ads

"Their target demographic seems to be much clearer now: He is adrift, emasculated, slightly pissed off..."

The ads were endlessly mysogynistic -- and revealed what has become of the psyche of so many American men poisoned by the endless drumbeat of corporate-republicon media.

Guys need to follow the lead of the Wal*Mart shopper, take hold of a baseball bat and bash the hell out of their TV (corporate mindf*uck machines), then fast the body and mind -- get out into nature not to shoot something, but to sit quietly and listen on Vision Quest -- deal with what is real in nature and in their souls, not 24-7 corporate-republicon materialistic propaganda.

[seabeyond]

7. .

your pictures and post makes me want to jump down and ahhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmm, meditate. lol.

i have been seeing such a strong push of this mentality for the last couple years. the sad thing, lately i have been listening to males on the other side. the ones lonely, the ones happy in marriage and see the reality, not the illusion created.

[Orsino]

8. It's a critique of Super Bowl ads...

...so the generalizations are Madison Avenue's, not Morford's.

[WildEyedLiberal]

16. Did you watch the Super Bowl? It was the message of half the ads

Those "generalizations that aren't really based on any reality" were concocted by several different brainless Super Bowl ads that attempted to portray men as sadsack, downtrodden, henpecked and emasculated by their harpy girlfriends. You're right, the generalizations ARE stupid, but they're not the author's.

[Blue_Tires]

9. ttt

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

10. Wonder why he drops the racism later in the article?

[EFerrari]

11. He is satirizing his own culture. Where is the racism in that?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

12. I just wonder why he drops the "white" men later in the article and refers to men in general.

My guess is shock value to get more people to read the column.

[EFerrari]

14. Maybe, yes. But also to be able to say whatever he wants to

as an insider, aka, "I'm only speaking for myself here, people".

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

18. Doesn't "men" make him an insider? It's good enough later on in the article.

[EFerrari]

19. I understand what you're saying, I think.

What he tried to do is frame himself in a context, "white guy talking about white guy culture" and it should work like a funnel so that you barely notice that he's pushing you as a reader into that viewpoint. Whether he succeeded or not is another matter.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

20. Interesting. I thought he was trying to smack you with a frying pan so you would notice.

I didn't see him barely trying to do anything.

[EFerrari]

13. I have to give this to my broher. He's surrounded by women.

His mom was a single mom, his one sib is me and he has three girls. He's not much of a beer drinker but he'll get a kick out of it. :)

[Paladin]

15. Morford Rules, As Usual. (n/t)

[juno jones]

17. Great article.

Now I'm grabbing my whip and going off to ask DH if in any way my feminism oppresses him. (do I have to add :sarcasm:)

It's not women or feminism at fault, dammit, this is how the MAAAAAN sticks it to hetrosexual white guys. Get used to it. Obviously they saved you for last.

They stereotype us all. It's just that it's either it's getting effing blatant, or more people see thru it. Either way, we're noticing it more. And that, I think, is good.


PS: This hits home a little because my money-crunched employer is balancing my (and about 7 other employees, the only one working full time is my best friend and chef who is there 70 hours a week) income against serveral of his more ostentatious boy-toys. So far the material possessions are winning. As soon as I find something else, I'm gone.