I watch the superbowl nearabout every year and watch a lot of football and baseball during the regular seasons. The men I watch with are never amused by these commercials, except in the "good God people can be total creeps!" type of way. I'm surprised at the level of supposed outrage in defense of these commercials (and I believe my "panties in a twist" meter is dinging in at 3 and my "shave your armpits ugly feminist" at 2 - classy arguments, folks, classy), mostly because the men I know really don't like this type of advertising either. I think at this point the expectation to be funny in a particular way has completely killed the actual funny. I'd think, if you were going to get all mad and defensive about a commercial, you'd choose an actually funny one to champion. Even sorta sexist commercials can be funny sometimes. These really weren't.

And while hubby and I have plenty of fun looking at attractive women together (one advantage of bisexuality, that), most of the women in these adds aren't really all that attractive. They mostly have the look of boobies on sticks. The men who are occasionally trotted out to look hawt tend to be equally bleh looking. This has always seemed strange to me. It makes me wonder if people in advertising are really asexual folks trying to guess at what the rest of us think is sexy. (I do agree, by the way, that the nasty-lime-beer commercial was not about an unwilling woman, and her outfit said "summer is fun" not "I'm a sexual object" which, incidently, made her more actually sexy). So those of you who are suggesting that the problem is women not appreciating men liking attractive women ... I guess that depends on what you mean by attractive. And by liking.

These commercials don't turn me on and they don't turn any men I know on. I just honestly don't think these commercials have much to do with sex or sexuality or sexual fantasy (those godaddy commercials -- so not sexy!) so much as a way of letting us know who gets to be in the tree house (boyz who laugh at the boobz and dumb girlz) and who doesn't (rest of us). It bugs me because I like, you know, the game of football, not the ritual of overhyped patriotic warrior masculinity, and I find that the hype sucks a lot of the joy and fun out of the actual sport. I wish the advertisers would pay attention to those of us down here standing around the roots wishing the treehouse boyz would quiet down a bit so we could hear the play-by-play.

Since I don't drink beer, I rarely feel like I actually want to stop buying a product during these adds (I wish I was wealthy enough to refuse to buy a BMW because of the retro misogynist potato head add but alas, my boycott is by default, not principle). When a company just goes all out with the nastiness, though, I stop wanting to give them money to make more nasty commercials. Hence godaddy is on my "switch to another product" list. Because, yuck.

And to respond to a few posts -- yes, feminists do in fact pay attention to the dreck advertising that is aimed at women. The flower commercial was one that was aimed at women, though not at our money (it was about women telling men not to send them flowers in a box). It pushed buttons that were intended to make women respond. And it was terrible. But hey, at least they are kinda sorta advertising to women during sporting events now. Badly. I guess I should be at least a little bit glad about that. Now we can have uptight white housewives cleaning bathtubs during the superbowl too! Yay?

And yes, feminists notice that sexism is bad for men and depicts them in roles that are as constraining and bad for them as they do women. Ladies, we should all tattoo that on our foreheads so nice guys can be sure we're thinking about their feelings too. Kthx.

And I am electing to read the "Kate Harding shouldn't write about commercials she finds objectionable because of the First Amendment" post as self-parody, just to retain my faith in the power of self awareness.