I hear people complain endlessly about ‘toxic masculinity’, but never once have I heard anyone praise masculinity as a virtue. Masculinity itself is not toxic.
When Gillette ask “Is this the best a man can get?” I think of the men in my life, my gentle, caring, hardworking DH, my wonderful father, my lovely brother, and my answer is “Yes, it is!” Because they don’t bully, they don’t harass or objectify women. They we act like men should act.
Gillette present this behaviour as though it’s commonplace and acceptable in society, and then encourage men to raise their sons to be better than them, as if millions upon millions of men and generation after generation haven’t been decent, honourable human beings.
And this from a razor company? Who are Gillette to pontificate to the public as to what a good man should be? They’re in business to sell products, nothing more. It’s cynical and self-serving. They’re just jumping on a bandwagon and hoping for this kind of publicity.
My problem is with the message itself. ‘Don’t bully, don’t rape’ - who actually disagrees with that, apart from lousy human beings who aren’t going to be swayed by an advert?
If you want to encourage men to be honourable and decent, fine - but don’t treat masculinity itself as some sort of sin no man can escape, as though good and decent men bear the guilt for the actions of their brothers simply because they’re men.