Satire in Tide Commercials

This commercial for Tide Detergent has been getting a decent amount of air time on television and has a bit of internet backlash.  The comments on the video on  You Tube are mixed, but for the most part, they are negative.  It has more than four times the amount of "dislikes" than "likes".  The argument revolves around whether or not Tide is pushing heteronormal and cisgendered norms.  At the surface it does look like the commercial could be poking fun at the little kid, who only wears "hoodies and cargo shorts" and likes making typically-boy structures with blocks.

After watching it a few times, I think that Tide is actually poking fun at the mother and Tide is being supportive of a dirty and fun childhood and not of the prim and proper feminine life the mom has.  At the same time, however, I don't trust that the majority of Americans who watch this commercial will understand that and will think the small child is in the wrong.

The commercial itself is still for a laundry detergent and the major character in the commercial is a woman and the primary audience is women.  At the core, there is still a sexist problem with the typically-feminine role of doing the laundry, even if it is for a gender-variant child.  There is another commercial by Tide in this campaign about a middle-aged man buying designer jeans and is being made fun of, but at the end, the person doing the laundry (using Tide Coldwater, of course) is his wife.  Satire only works if the entire problem is explored and everyone is in on the joke.

Transgender Community and Cosmetic Surgery

When looking at the concept of cosmetic surgery, it is so normalized in our culture as Americans.  Face lifts, breast enhancements, rhinoplasty, and weekly botox injections are all accepted in our society.  When an individual is unhappy with their outward appearance, modern medical technology can fix it.  A group of people that greatly benefit from plastic surgery is transgender and transsexual individuals.  Biology makes unfortunate mistakes and luckily there are surgical options that can help individuals to feel as comfortable as they can with their bodies.  The trans community exists and society is slow to catch on.

Celebrities, like Heidi Montag, are of course given flack for having dozens of cosmetic surgeries and completely altering her image, but for the most part, celebrities are praised with getting bigger and better jobs after altering their appearance.

Heidi Montag before and after cosmetic surgery procedures.

How this relates to transgender individuals, is that before any transition starts to occur, intense therapy is required.  Yes, of course changing a way of thinking, looking, and sometimes behaving is a lot to take on, but in a case like Montag's, it can absolutely be compared.  There is privilege when it comes to being cis-gender and wanting plastic surgery. Insurance companies sometimes help to pay for cosmetic surgeries, but it is rare for a transwoman to have insurance money to help pay for a breast enhancement or any other surgery which would help define an individual's gender/sex, which can be argued as an health issue.

Katelynn Cusanelli of MTV's The Real World: Brooklyn, is an example of a trans individual who has been accepted by the younger, MTV generation.

In the article "Television and the Domestication of Cosmetic Surgery" by Sue Tait, she reflects on what I think is going on with society and the feeling toward cosmetic surgery when she says, "responses to cosmetic surgery are overwhelmed by a post-feminism which asserts our right to shape ourselves.  The individual's choice to transform their body is uncoupled..."  Ultimately it comes down to choice and the younger generation more often understands that trans issues and solutions are not usually choices, but what is necessary.

UFC and Men of Color

Violence is an obvious appeal of the UFC.  A lot of men find entertainment value in seeing two men beat each other to a pulp until a victor appears, but specifically men of color are targeted toward violent entertainment.  Specifically Black and Latino men are represented in the UFC as especially ferocious fighters.  These minority groups are also the groups that see the most real-life violence and experience disproportionate legal consequences for it.  Bigger ratios of Black and Latino men make up our prison population than other races, and most crimes stem from gang violence or are drug-related.  On the home page of the UFC's website, almost all the featured fighters are men of color.

www.ufc.com as of 10/10/11

 Usually I would praise the fact that people of color are being represented, but the UFC is perpetuating stereotypes that non-white males are exceptionally more violent and it is somehow engrained in their culture to be violent, mostly toward one another. 

Another thing worth noting is the advertisement for the United States Marie Corps in the background, featuring a Black male.  I personally feel that this is broadcasting to young black men saying that they are allowed to be violent, but as long as their targets are enemies of the state.  Yes, the military is a great way for working class men of color to stop the cycle of criminal violence and rise above their current status, but the option is to still fight, be physical, and maybe even kill. 

The video clip is a trailer for a fight between Tito Ortiz and Rashad Evens, a Latino man and a black man, respectively. They compare their skills and ultimately want to be known as the best fighter in the UFC.  Two half-naked men want to pound each other until submission and "bust [the opponent's] ass".  I won't even get into the queer undertones of the UFC, but it should be noted that some of the toughest communities to be queer are the Black and Latino communities.  The UFC glorifies a standard of manhood for young men of color, which makes it harder for men in the real world to deviate from set gender roles, including lack of violent behavior and varying sexuality.

Bluring the American Man in Fashion: Andrej Pejic

Andrej Pejic, a 20 year old male-bodied model, is redefining the gender boundaries in the world of high fashion modeling.  He is known for his unique androgyny that the fashion world has never seen before.  Pejic has consistently modeled both menswear and womenswear for the past couple of years and is stunning in anything he wears.  I first saw him when he was chosen as the face of Marc by Marc Jacobs and thought the model was just another extremely thin blonde hair, blue eyed woman.

Pejic's biggest campaign for Marc Jacobs as both man and woman. Nymag.com

 This is the first time in fashion where a model is really allowed to excel in both women's and men's modeling and it is unprecedented.  Male models are usually the epitome of what young girls crush over, the ultimate in manhood.  Muscles, chiseled jaws, short hair cuts, and broad shoulders mark what men should look like, but Pejic defies all of that.  Harriet Quick, a Vogue editor, said about Pejic, "For the past decade, fashion has concentrated on the alpha male and alpha female stereotype. Now it’s all about questioning sexuality and blurring the boundaries. Andrej is reflecting our times – he’s what’s out there; he’s reflecting culture" (The Telegrah).  The idea of sexuality and gender as just free-flowing spaces is embodied by Pejic and it is attention grabbing, to say the least. 

As Marilyn Monroe for Lovecat in Fall 2011.

Revealing his male-bodied chest for Vida! Moda.  vincent-ko.com

Anything out of the usual and makes people ask questions about what is expected from a man or a woman is worth a look.
 

I know how she does it.

This past week I went and saw the film I Don't Know How She Does It with my mother.  I was grumbling the entire time because I knew I would be analyzing the film from a feminist's prospective the entire time, which can honestly be exhausting. 

Basically a white, upper-class business women with a husband and two children struggles with finding enough time to "do it all".  This character demonstrated that even with a supportive partner, who also had an affluent job, and a full-time nanny, it is still hard to find the balance between work and home.  The entire time watching this, though I couldn't help but think of the single mothers who have two jobs and no nanny and they barely scrape by to feed their children.  It's almost laughable that these two types of women could be compared.  A big plot point is that this mom didn't have enough time after her business trips to make something for her daughter's bake sale.  I thought about the moms who couldn't afford to get ingredients for a bake sale.

I will honestly agree that this film was a great representation of a certain type of working mother, one that rarely exists in reality.  There was a lot of good points raised about women in the white-collared workplace that were somewhat executed, but the film felt very second wave-y in some capacities, which is unfortunate.  The LA Times says, "The story lacks the wit to actually say something about double standards or gender politics in a crummy economy." (LA Times)   It is too fantastical.  My mother, who will love SJP forever, even thought that it was far-reaching and couldn't relate to having the problem of having children in private school and a nanny, but still feeling inadequate.  'I Don't Know...' tries, but just doesn't have a voice.