I feel like one of two women I know who watched the KMart Jingle Bells commercial and was embarrassed and hated every second I had to endure it. It was like a train wreck. I wanted to look away and yet I found myself starting at the sight of these ridiculous men showing off their pelvic thrusts.
For feminists, this commercial is one to rejoice over. I mean, what woman doesn't like the idea of men being objectified and laughed over. If you are one of those women who was actually aroused by the commercial, I suggest you drink a glass of wine and ask yourself why feeling power over a man and actually laughing at him turns you on?
About now you probably are rolling your eyes at me and think I'm some self-righteous twit who needs to a good time shown to her. Folks, I have had three children with my husband. Trust me, I know what a good time is, and I don't find men shaking their 'junk' that arousing or even remotely funny.
Feminists have been demanding equality for decades. Well, women, you got it. We have allowed the media to objectify us for decades and have raged against it. In fact, a recent viral video that I truly loved by Jae Tracie called 'How to Twerk (not what you think)' had women all over facebook and YouTube rejoicing at her message. She was very clear in the video that if you were going to twerk, you should throw out your self-respect, your self-worth, and be prepared to invite the kind of man who only wants skanky women. So where am I going with this? Well this video certainly made women very PROUD to be respectable women who want to portray themselves as women deserving of the respect of others. However this cute little KMart commercial was praised by the SAME women who praised this video by Jae Tracie. How did I arrive at this conclusion? You guessed it--simple--I see my friends on facebook praising Tracie's video and turning around and praising the KMart ad. Where is the outrage over the KMart ad? Feminists--you got equality alright. You want to revert back to men objectifying women? LET'S DO THIS! Let's objectify men but guess what!? It works both ways. It's time to let the men objectify us again--they already do it in the media, so why not support the objectification of women and all make videos of us twerking in nothing but our underwear?
Don't like my sarcasm? How is it that over my nearly 1000 facebook friends, only ONE had a negative comment about the KMart ad? And before you decide that I'm some silly prude who is old and boring, trust me, I'm not. I could share plenty of stupid things I've done and am ashamed of. I've been there and done that. What I'm aggravated is that if the KMart video is acceptable, then we as women need to be okay with the equality of men and women which would include women being objectified. And don't even get me started on the Magic Mike craziness.
I stared at those silly men and was embarrassed. Why? Because I only have eyes for my HUSBAND. I'm not going to sit next to him and disrespect him by finding those men shaking their 'junk' as cute and a turn-on. It's anything BUT that to me. Was it creative? Sure. Am I being overreactive? Maybe you think so. But if women want to be treated equally as men, well, this video that we've rejoiced over gives liberty to objectify women too in the name of equal rights and equal treatment. Treat the men like meat and treat the women like meat. Equal.
This is the double-standard that is so ingrained in our society. I heard a female barista flippantly say in front of many customers at Starbucks recently something that I was embarrassed to hear. She was talking to a male barista and said loudly for all to hear, "Oh sorry--you're a guy. You can't do two things at once." I was horrified by her public sexism. She then joked, "Oh come on. You know women can't drive. So there. We're even." Seriously? It's okay for HER to demean a man but if HE had said exactly what she had said, she could file harassment charges and he would be raked across the coals for his sexist comment.
Women--we are contributing to this problem. I am. You are. If we support men dancing around and shaking their junk for a FAMILY ad, we should expect the same treatment. I saw a clip of a talk show this morning (Bethenny) while I was working out and there was a group of men in Santa Claus boxer shorts. That was it. You know what they looked like to me? Court Jesters. Except there is one distinction between the court jesters of Medieval times and the jokers I saw on TV this morning. The Medieval court jesters entertained based on their BRAIN, their wit, their intellect. They were well-respected for their ability to even be confidants to some of the noblemen. They were elaborately dressed, not scantily clad. Their entire purpose was entertainment through the use of INTELLECT. The men on the KMart commercial and the men on Bethenny this morning did not use their brain to attract attention. No, they merely used the physical appearance, not too different from a female baboon showing its swollen rear to attract her mate (not too unlike a recent celebrity on the MTV awards). So there you have it. We have reduced our ability to attract to that of base animals. Why bother with the intellect we've been given, the ability to reason, which sets us apart from animals, when we can just shake our junk and twerk our booties? And hey, it's all equal then. Equality. Ah yes, we've achieved so much.
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