so simple even a man can do it.....

[chelle792]

That is a direct quote from an advert on telly. I wish I knew which one it was but I was in the kitchen at the time. I'm pretty sure it was on about cooking sausages or something.

But seriously, what the hell? Surely that highlights what is wrong with society!

[whemovedmypopcorn]

Eurgh. Like men can't fry a sausage. You see similar for washing up liquid or even changing nappies. I'm always shocked men don't complain about these adverts. My husband is a perfectly capable human.

[vesuvia]

Why do the men who make these adverts think they are acceptable?

[ChunkyPickle]

It was Oven Pride (I googled) who previously used the slogan - and it really did get the men mobilised to complain thank goodness.


For some reason the comments on the article I saw still blamed 'the feminists' who didn't make the advert, wouldn't have approved of the advert, and weren't the subject or target market of the advert (beyond being women I suppose)..

[ApocalypseThen]

Yeah, like it's not great, but I don't really understand why we're supposed to be all that outraged in the feminism section. Is it because feminism is rubbish if it's not about men and their woes?

[MsJuniper]

Surely the infantilisation of men is a feminist issue? It ties in completely with the patriarchal idea that only women can complete household tasks and therefore should be utilising their skills as much as possible? It's not about men's rights... It's all part of the same problem.

[partialderivative]

Is this the ad with Ronnie Corbett that is shown on day time telly?

For meals that just basically need heating up (so even a man could do it!)

I hate them, but advertisers have a target audience... guess who that is?

Horrible adverts all over day time telly

[BakingCookiesAndShit]

Not sure why feminists need to do anything but when it comes on.

If it upsets or annoys men, they have the power to get it changed all by themselves.

[partialderivative]

Not sure why feminists need to do anything but when it comes on.

No need to do anything.

I am not taking offence, just a bit of head tilting myself

[Childrenofthestones]

There is a long history of these adverts.
There was a recent computer magazine one where the wife, rolling her eyes , says the same thing about her gormless looking husband.

Even worse though In 2001 a mobile phone was advert was aired many times staring Wycliffe Jean. The jist of it was that he ended up in prison because he broke a contract with a woman.
The advert ended with a scene where he is in the showers with a group of other men, all learing at him. One enormous bald guy dropped the soap and said to WJ, " Pick it up"
Cut to a close crop of WJs face sweating and looking terrified.
The joke of course being he was about to get gang raped.
The same year this was aired there was a large jump in the number of male prisoner suicides in the uk. In the region of 38%.iirc.
A large proportion of prison suicides is down to weaker men not able to defend themselves against repeated physical or sexual assaults.
Sadly they see suicide as the only way out of their situation.
A complaint was made ( by a gay rights group iirc) and the advertising ombudsman found in favour of the advertising company. Essentialy saying it was donein humourand therefor ok.
All that was.missing was them saying " Oh lighten up ffs"

Can yoy ever imagine this advert even getting made, let alone aired and then approved by an ombudsman if it was a woman about to getgang raped for our entertainment.

[chelle792]

I might be missing something but I don't understand why it might not be a feminist issue? Surely by saying simple cooking is for men then it can add to the convenient excuse I'm a man, I can't cook. Let the women do it

partial you're right, it was some sort of reheating product

[LosingNemo]

Totally agree with the points above about it being a feminist issue because it implies cooking is the woman's job.
However, surely feminism is about equality and therefore thinks that both men and women should be treated equally. There is far too much of this 'incapable man' stuff about. I have a son and it bothers me, maybe not as much as the body image stuff bothers me about my daughter, but I want both of my children to be taught they are capable human beings.

[MrNoseybonk]

This type of ad are insulting to men, but probably not very damaging.
They are probably more damaging to women because they perpetuate the idea that cooking, cleaning, etc. is a job for women, not men.
And in turn, legitimises the claims of men that they are too useless to do these tasks.
So, can't see why feminists wouldn't be opposed to these ads.

[BakingCookiesAndShit]

Most humble apologies.

To me, only misogynists think that only women can cook and that men are too stupid to do that. Must start thinking more like a misogynist in order to see how men being thought too stupid to do something is a feminist issue, obvs....

[Interdasty]

Why do the men who make these adverts think they are acceptable?

That's a very good question! My guess is that it's related to 2 things :

1. Men are socialized to always be tough and never complain : don't cry, don't show emotion, don't admit any pain, only go to doctor when head is about to fall off, kill yourself instead of talking about your demons etc

1. Men do not identify with other men as a group, not the way women do, anyway. They tend to see themselves as islands, not part of a ''continent''. Women's in-group bias is 5 times higher than men's.

www.apa.org/monitor/dec04/women.aspx

Also, the US is the worst at these commercials and media portrayals, you can literally find hours of it on youtube. Men being humiliated, kicked, punched, made to sleep with the dog on the floor, pretty much anything you can think of... and of course many of these ads are shown during the breaks of the endless streams of sitcoms where the husband is a complete idiot who can barely tie his own shoes.

I like this Bill Maher quote:

''“The wife is always brilliant and ethereal and right about everything … and the husband is always a dumb fuck, lucky to have found her. The only smart men on television are Frasier and his brother, both of whom are gayer than Little Richard’s underpants.”''

[MephistophelesApprentice]

As Interdasty implies, the reason men don't protest about adverts like this is that when they do it gets mocked as "male tears" or for possessing "fragile male egos". Worse, you can end up described as an MRA for raising issues of male portrayal, or accused of distracting from womens issues.

[ChunkyPickle]

Do they? Do they get mocked more than women who protest? Do they get rape/murder threats?

If someone comes onto a feminist site and insists that the women talk about an issue controlled by, and entirely about men, then of course they'll get accused of distracting from women's issues - because that's exactly what they're doing.

Except of course - as you can see above, that's not what's happened - everyone here's agreed that they are terrible, and that men should complain, and that they support them in it.....

Sounds like excuses to me.

[Interdasty]

Yes, MA.

As for those who asked if this is a feminist issue: it's not. Feminism is about women, not men. It's about improving women's situation, the same way a union works for its members. So the level of priority for men's abysmal image in the media is about as high as getting more women into sewage or refuse work and increasing the number of female prison inmates or rough sleepers. Some side effects may help men here and there but it isn't feminism's job to do that.

[LurcioAgain]

I'm with Mr NoseyBonk - it is a feminist issue, because it perpetuates the idea that there should be a divide in activities between the sexes because the ability to do housework requires 2 X chromosomes, and poor men can't do it (but they can do all the hard stuff like rocket science and running the country, which require Y chromosomes).

It's also a feminist issue because I think it's an utterly cynical ploy by an advertising industry run primarily by men - it means that when women complain about ads being sexist they can say "no they're not, we're just poking harmless fun at stereotypes, look we do it to men too so it can't be bad..." (Just like the diet coke ad supposedly undoes the harm of all that advertising which objectifies women because look, one man in one ad got objectified once).

[Interdasty]

''Do they? Do they get mocked more than women who protest? Do they get rape/murder threats?''

The few times MRA/MRM/MGW or whatever they call themselves have tried to have a conference or even talk about any men related issues in uni's they were met with very abusive, loud, intimidating protests. You can find the videos on YT, just search ''MRA protest'' and plenty of examples will pop-up. Even inside the buildings they were yelling at speakers, shouting so no one else hears them, starting the fire alarms etc. It's scary to see anyone behave like this, especially students who are our future intellectuals and leaders...

[Interdasty]

Lucio, I doubt it's anything as machiavellian as that. It's all about money. These ads are mostly ''consumed'' by women. Women are the majority of TV viewers and especially the programs these ads are shown on. Most women like to see themselves as better than men, at least at some things and in some ways. The ads simply reinforce those beliefs, makes women feel better about themselves and so the products sell better. The same way you make a man spend his money on beer, cars... by making him better about himself ''as a man''.

And speaking women thinking they are better , it starts very early :

''Girls believe they are cleverer, better behaved and try harder than boys from the age of four, research suggests.

By the age of eight, boys had also adopted these perceptions, the study from the University of Kent found''

www.bbc.com/news/education-11151143

[ChunkyPickle]

OK - Women who spoke out against misogyny have had similar responses.

We're talking here about complaining about an advert. Writing a tweet, an email, or a letter - and in my experience, men speaking out this way get a lot of support, and perhaps some of the more angry women talking about male tears. Women who speak out this way get much more abuse and many threats.

Neither is acceptable - personal attacks aren't at all, but there is definitely a difference in response depending on who's doing the complaining.

I agree though - it's a feminist issue not because the man is being ridiculed, but because he's being infantilised, and that isn't something that does women any good at all. I am not the oracle of how long a microwave meal takes to cook (although I do have mad skillz when it comes to zapping them in the right order so that the 10 dish indian from Tescos all ends up at the table at the same time and all hot - but that's mental arithmetic, not cooking.)

[LassUnparalleled]

If someone comes onto a feminist site and insists that the women talk about an issue controlled by, and entirely about men, then of course they'll get accused of distracting from women's issues - because that's exactly what they're doing

Well firstly do you know the sex of the ad agency creatives who came up with this?

Secondly was the OP demanding feminists do anything about it or was she just pointing out another example of sterotyped

[LassUnparalleled]

of lazy, gender stereotyping? It's not a major incident but I'm not clear why an advert which is promoting lazy stereotyping is not a feminist issue (assuming promoting lazy stereotyping is an issue which bothers you) just because it portrays a man adversely.

[YonicScrewdriver]

"The only smart men on television are Frasier and his brother,"

You might like the quote, but it's a load of old shit, isn't it?

Ross, Chandler, Mr Big, Rupert Giles, Fox Mulder - all smart, straight men in programmes made at approx the same time as Frasier. Martin Crane in Frasier is pretty smart too.

And both Frasier and Niles are straight and have long term relationships with women - that whoever you are quoting calls them gay is homophobia in action. And what's a major source of homophobia? Sing it with me in two part harmony - "PAT-REEE-ARRRCH-YYYY"

Are we done?

[ErrolTheDragon]

Feminism is about women, not men.
That might be the case if we actually did come from and live on different planets. Feminism is about many things - equality (which is by definition about women and men), relationships between them....

This sort of ad does a disservice to men and to women, for all of the reasons given upthread. But I guess for most, more at a rather than a level.