This Dodge Charger ad is probably one of the most blatantly misogynistic ads that aired in this year's Super Bowl. It shows a series of men with blank faces accompanied by a voiceover expressing their grievances against women. Because the whole ad is just dripping with resentment against women, I will dissect it line by line.
"I will get up and walk the dog at 6:30 am. I will eat some fruit as part of my breakfast. I will shave, I will clean the sink after I shave."
Oh no! He has to do chores like walking the dog and cleaning the sink after he shaves! But he's a man and he shouldn't be doing these chores because they're for women! And he has to eat fruits?! Oh, the horror! Eating fruits is for girls. He should clearly be eating manly food like meat instead.
"I will be at work at 8am. I will sit through 2 hr meetings. I will say yes when you want me to say yes. I will be quiet when you don't want to hear me say no."
It's not really clear what working and sitting through boring meetings has to do with anything in the ad. Most people have to work, and it's certainly not something that's special to men. The second part about not speaking up when the woman doesn't want them to seems like an actual legitimate complaint. Too bad it's surrounded by lines drowning in a sea of entitlement and whining.
"I will take your call. I will listen to your opinion of my friends. I will listen to your friends' opinions of my friends. I will be civil to your mother."
Saying "I will be civil to your mother" instead of saying "I will be civil to your father/parents" is not a coincidence. It goes along with the ad's running theme of men and women not getting along. At this point, I'm just left wondering why men are in relationships with women if this ad is anything to go by. If men and women can't get along and just hate everything about each other, what's the point in entering heterosexual relationships? Have these men ever thought of just being in relationships with other men? Somehow I doubt it. I suspect that these are the same men who would react to 2 men in a romantic relationship with disgust.
"I will put the seat down. I will separate the recycling. I will carry your lip balm. I will watch your vampire tv shows with you. I will take my socks off before getting into bed. I will put my underwear in the basket."
This is another part where the men in the ad complain about doing basic household chores like separating the recycling and leaving their dirty underwear in the appropriate place. This relies on the idea that men are such slobs and women are so controlling for asking them to pick up after themselves. The part about watching vampire TV shows is clearly meant to be emasculating since men aren't supposed to be interested in that "girly" stuff. And perhaps the most ridiculous line of all...
"And because I do this..
(shots of a Dodge car speeding past the highway)
I will drive the car I want to drive. Charger. Man's last stand."
The idea that driving a Dodge Charger will help men regain their masculinity is so laughable that I don't know how anyone can take it seriously.
The whole ad is just rife with men's fear of being emasculated by their girlfriends/wives. I've seen this ad multiple times now since I had to transcribe it and each time I can't help but roll my eyes. The men complaining about doing some household work is just dripping with privilege since recent statistics show that women still overwhelmingly spend more time doing household chores than men do. In the study cited above, women with no children spend an average of 10 hrs/week of household work before marriage and 17 hrs/week of household chores after marriage. Compare this to men doing an average of 8 hrs/week before marriage and 7 hrs/week after marriage. The fact that the men in the ad are complaining about household work completely ignore the fact that women do much more than them. If they hate it, then what do they think women feel? Another aspect of the ad that stands out is the men's fear of emasculation. They fear losing their manliness if they don't stick to their rigid gender roles.
We live in a society where women make 75.5 cents for every dollar that a man earns (and this is even worse for women of color), where women make up 18% of the House of Representatives and 18% in the Senate when they make up half of the population, where a woman has won the Academy Award for Best Director once out of 83 winners, where there's a bias that favors white men when it comes to customer satisfaction, and so many other forms of male privilege. The men complaining in the ad just come across as petty and extremely entitled. Naming the ad "Man's Last Stand" makes it seem as if men have always been pushed around and have finally had enough. Perhaps if they actually stop being so self-absorbed and pay attention to their surroundings they'll find out that being a man isn't so hard after all.
This is an interesting YouTube video made by some women in response to the Dodge Charger ad:
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