T O P I C R E V I E W
capn36k
Member # 34666
posted 07-15-2007 06:56 PM
Has anyone else been a bit put off by the burger king commercials that have come around in the past year or so? The "I am man, let's go eat meat" campaign has SO many things wrong with it... many of which have been addressed on other websites. But what I didn't see anyone take notice to yet was that...the commercials say, to me anyway, if you want to eat a hamburger you have to be masculine. At first there were no females in the commercials at all...which told me "Men can eat hamburgers, women can't". In the next commercial there was a woman eating a hamburger, and I was happier that they were incorporating women into the ads, but she had a mustache. I kept waiting and waiting for the outrage of concerned citizens to appear on the news. I was expecting something within a week of the commercials. But nothing happened. No one made that huge a deal out of it, at least not around my home. I've noticed some blog posts about people who were upset, but besides that there was nothing major. These commercials are having an affect on people. My ten year old sister refused to order a bacon cheeseburger, her favorite sandwich, because "only boys can eat that". So is this acceptable in today's society? Society has come a long way from the stereotypical 1950's gender roles, and while we aren't /quite/ there yet, we're pretty darn close. An ad campaign such as the ones Burger King puts out just sets us back half a decade; to the commercials with women waiting at the door with a martini and steak all set for her husband. And another thing...next time I see something that upsets me like this, how can I go about doing something to bring attention to the matter? [ 07-15-2007, 06:59 PM: Message edited by: capn36k ]
Heather
Member # 3
posted 07-15-2007 07:05 PM
I'm vegan, and I also opt out of a lot of mass media, so I gotta say, stuff like this isn't a big concern of mine and part of why I choose to opt out of both meat-eating and mass media. There is a LONG history in the feminist movement, believe it or not, addressing the idea that meat-eating all by itself isn't aligned with feminism (and is part of institutionalized sexism/patriarchy) because feminism is all about anti-oppression, not just per men and women, but in terms of all classes, including animals, and some of that is in response to this exact mentality, which is hardly anything new at all: not even close. "The Sexual Politics of Meat" by Carol Adams is the cornerstone premise on these ideas: given your reaction to those ads, you might find it of interest. But suffice it to say, as a vegan, I'm never going to be too bummed when someone for any reason doesn't want to eat an animal. Not to say I support this mentality that meat-eating is essential to uphold masculinity -- I'm not -- but I'm pretty outraged at the mass marketing of any meat-eating (especially with fast food and such which utilizes factory farming, which is beyond insanely cruel), so I tend not to get any more infuriated at one way of doing that than I do the next.