Gillette are a company which make razors and razor-adjacent products primarily for dudes. And while I too am a dude I am arguably not in their demographic, what with my luxuriant beard and all.
But they’ve just released an ad – sorry, a short film – which addresses toxic masculinity. And, surprisingly, it’s pretty goddamn great.
It’s thoughtful. It’s moving. It’s made by a shaving company but actually says something unexpectedly insightful about manhood and society.
What’s more, its customer base is the exact people who should be getting the message that society isn’t putting up with certain things so much now and that it’s time to stop doing them.
Now, you’re reading this site. You’ve been on the internet before. And thus, you know what happened next.
Pictured: the comments, all the time.
WAAAAH!
…and so on.
Yep, a bunch of (mainly but not exclusively) men have been so, so very threatened by the mere suggestion that men can be a bit nicer to women and also each other that they GOT VERY ANGRY IN ALL CAPS on the internet. Although a quick scan of YouTube shows there’s a LOT of cut and paste so maybe it’s one very, very insecure dude with a lot of time on his hands.
Now, it’s worth pointing out that these terribly upset men, who are all about men being tough and strong and powerful and not doing weak things like “breaking up fights” or “calling out abuse”, aren’t exactly serving their own cause by throwing a petulant little tanty about an ad that merely suggested dudes could stand to be more conscious of the example they’re setting.
In fact, those dudes seem really “triggered”. You know, rather like those “SJW snowflakes” they keep going on about.
Honestly, you’re not exactly selling your take on manhood, fellas. It seems a bit… well, fragile.
https://twitter.com/SonOfGodAndMan/status/1084959679762055168