I don’t think those commercials are made by people who identify as “feminists” though, or are really trying to convey a feminist message.
Conversations about advertising I’ve had in feminist spaces see that as almost parentification. (Huge, under discussed issue with eldest daughters especially) Boys get to be children, girls are expected to be hyper competent.
A big issue is also that everyone in the broader conversation about feminism is operating under their own private definition of what feminism is. That’s why we have people who consider themselves “feminists” for “protecting women’s bathrooms” while also platforming Nazis, or people who consider crass commercial pandering to be representative of an ideology.
The conversation is in stasis, because “feminism” to some is the blue haired woman shouting at a protest, or pussy hats, or female supremacy, or 4B, or libfem, or radfem, or influenced by queer theory (or lesbians who can’t stand the term “queer.”) It’s a family of ideologies, not a single one - but people are often argue against one specific ideology (or even trollish misrepresentations) when arguing against “feminism” in general.
mm I mean it’s hard to pin down specifics but that whole decade, most shows had the guy being an unbelievable idiot causing problems while the girls solved the problems, movies were the same, commercials were probably the last to follow. Maybe not exactly feminism, but the goal was to show women are as competent and sometimes moreso than men, which is a big tenant of feminism, even if it was done super poorly.
I’m not defending their use of feminism, but it seems like common media and messaging for basically two decades definitely did have quite a bit of “anti men pro woman” feeling. Regardless of the actual intent or “real” values of feminism, what many people received was “feminism believes men are stupid/hateful.” I don’t think it’s a coincidence so many people think that’s what feminism is. Likely just a failure of messaging, but I think that’s where their definition is coming from.
I don’t think those commercials are made by people who identify as “feminists” though, or are really trying to convey a feminist message.
Conversations about advertising I’ve had in feminist spaces see that as almost parentification. (Huge, under discussed issue with eldest daughters especially) Boys get to be children, girls are expected to be hyper competent.
A big issue is also that everyone in the broader conversation about feminism is operating under their own private definition of what feminism is. That’s why we have people who consider themselves “feminists” for “protecting women’s bathrooms” while also platforming Nazis, or people who consider crass commercial pandering to be representative of an ideology.
The conversation is in stasis, because “feminism” to some is the blue haired woman shouting at a protest, or pussy hats, or female supremacy, or 4B, or libfem, or radfem, or influenced by queer theory (or lesbians who can’t stand the term “queer.”) It’s a family of ideologies, not a single one - but people are often argue against one specific ideology (or even trollish misrepresentations) when arguing against “feminism” in general.
mm I mean it’s hard to pin down specifics but that whole decade, most shows had the guy being an unbelievable idiot causing problems while the girls solved the problems, movies were the same, commercials were probably the last to follow. Maybe not exactly feminism, but the goal was to show women are as competent and sometimes moreso than men, which is a big tenant of feminism, even if it was done super poorly.
I’m not defending their use of feminism, but it seems like common media and messaging for basically two decades definitely did have quite a bit of “anti men pro woman” feeling. Regardless of the actual intent or “real” values of feminism, what many people received was “feminism believes men are stupid/hateful.” I don’t think it’s a coincidence so many people think that’s what feminism is. Likely just a failure of messaging, but I think that’s where their definition is coming from.