White Males: Society’s Village Idiot
A few months back a friend texted me, “you ever notice how white males are the only group of people you’re allowed to offend in commercials?”
“Hmm… not really. What do you mean?”
“I mean that anytime a commercial calls for a character to look, say or do something really stupid or come across as out-of-touch, a step behind, unappreciated by or taken advantage of by others, it’s always a white guy who plays that role.”
“Hmm… I can’t say I really noticed that, but I’ll make it a point to pay attention from now on.”
Since watching commercials with a more careful eye to see if my friend’s claim is correct, I’ve found that not only is he right, but he’s right to the point of it just being hilarious. One afternoon while watching the same game, we went back and forth texting each other pointing out all of the situations in which his theory was spot-on.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. Watch these two Corona commercials. It’ll only take about a minute and really help illustrate my point:
Can you believe that?
Both commercials follow the exact same premise: a couple, sitting on the beach together enjoying their Coronas, deal with an attractive person walking by.
In the first commercial, a woman in a bikini passes by. The man takes a lingering gaze at her. What does his partner do? Squirt lime juice (acid) in his eye.
In the second commercial, it’s the exact same thing only reversed. A man with a sculpted six-pack walks by. The woman enjoys a very long gaze (much longer than the man’s gaze in the first commercial). To retaliate, her partner shakes her unopened beer, but when she turns to grab another beer, she grabs the untampered one and hands him the bottle opener as if to suggest he should be made to have alcohol explode all over his face.
So when the man looks at an attractive member of the opposite sex, he gets acid in his eye. When the woman does it, she gets to be glorified and come off as sassy and so intuitive that it makes you wonder if she has eyes in the back of her head. How else did she know he shook up her beer while she was staring at Fabio?
Even though each of these commercials follow an identical premise that just gets reversed between the sexes, it is the man who comes off looking bad in both cases.
Now both of these commercials are stupid. No one should get so bothered by their partner enjoying a glare at an attractive member of the opposite sex that they engage in such childish retaliatory behavior. But that’s not the point. The point is, why is it that white males are the only people allowed to be deplored en masse by marketing?
If you think I’m exaggerating, just start paying closer attention to commercials. When there’s a hero in a commercial, it could be a man, a woman, white, black, Asian, whatever. Doesn’t matter. But when there’s a putz in a commercial, it’s always a white guy. Anytime there’s someone painted to look like a complete clueless screwup who desperately needs the help of the product being advertised, you can bet that screwup will be a white male.
I’m not sure how much I’m actually bothered by this and how much I just find it to be fascinating. It seems like white males are the only people in our society that are allowed to be systematically ripped on by marketers.
I remember a few weeks before the 2008 Presidential election, I was talking to a female friend of mine who said she was voting for Obama because it was just time for a change. “Well what do you mean?” I asked. She responded, “well I’m not voting for McCain… look where white men have gotten us.”
I was flabbergasted! I had no idea how she could even formulate such a ridiculous viewpoint! While totally ignoring how preposterous it is to allow race to be the primary basis for your voting decision I told her, “we live in the most prosperous and wealthy nation in the history of the world and, like it or not, much of the work done to get us here was done by white males. If it weren’t for that work, you might be working in a field right now instead of spewing ridiculous political opinions while you wait for your friends to text you what trendy bar to meet them at later.” She called me a “jerk” or something like the child that she and most people turn into anytime someone disagrees with their absurd viewpoints and went about her day.
This deprecate-the-white-man mentality that our culture seems to suggest is perfectly acceptable just really puzzles me. I don’t think it offends me as a white male as much as it just offends me because it’s senseless. When a wealthy white man suggests that he’s worried increasing tax rates and government spending might sabotage his earning potential, his concerns get ridiculed as those of a greedy fat cat. Rarely do you see anyone show gratitude for the opportunities and value wealthy people have created for the world. We have a President that vilifies and taxes the wealthy every chance he gets and then scratches his head wondering why the unemployment rate keeps going up.
And just to clarify, there are a lot of wealthy (or formerly wealthy) people out there that I have zero compassion or respect for. Morons like the ones who ran Enron into the ground or the Goldman execs who were selling junk securities to people and telling them that John Paulson was long on them when in reality they were helping Paulson short them all might be part of the reason why this country is on a witch-hunt against high-earning people. Maybe that’s why every clownish role in a commercial is given to a white guy. Maybe they deserve it. Truthfully, I don’t know what the reason is, I just know that I find it deeply fascinating.
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