Sarah Haskins in Target Women: Doofy Husbands

sarah, you are brilliant.

Thank you so much Sarah,as usual you " slay me"!!!
Finally, I have pointed this aspect of advertising to many people In my life and now it is solidified by,"the Sarah Haskins show"
thanks for being fair;)

Ha i love you sarah!!

I hate what these commercials do. People try to claim that this trope is sexist against men and way more offensive than the average portrayal of women when it's just more of the status quo: men are just regular happy-go-lucky guys and women are terrible and ruin all the fun.

The (e.g.) civil engineering husband who comes home and is baffled by household labor is considered endearingly scatterbrained. He's got faults like anyone, but he's an intelligent man with a high-paying job. The stay-at-home mother who is unemployed but "street smart" (kitchen smart, whatever) doesn't get real respect no matter how well she can handle an air freshener. When she's annoyed by her husband's incompetence in the house, people think she's just being bitchy.

The portrayal of the woman in this type of couple is *always* less flattering than the man. Men can start complaining about how they're perceived as doofy and incompetent when they're the ones making 80% of what the other gender makes in the same positions.

Hilarious.
But I just have to point out ... the 8 dead spots thing? The dead spots wouldn't show up for a day or more after you sprayed. So, snarkfail there. Any wife should know that. Just saying.

THE DOOFY HUSBAND EPISODE EXISTS!

I read about it in an interview once, but I didn't think it actually existed...

Great to see this issue come to light.
Diminish men as stupid, clumsy, lazy, useless etc.... will not make women look smart, classy, someone who should be noticed, respected or loved. In fact it makes women look really bad, and if this “smart”, “know all”, “elegant”, “classy” woman married such a man what does this say about her?

This is my mother's personal pet peeve. I remember not being allowed to watch The Simpsons and Roseanne because the husbands were portrayed as idiots.

Not that my mother is a crazy progressive gender-equality-ist; she just has a serious case of husband worship.

It is not about husband worship it's about mutual respect.
Would it be tolerated if a man treated his wife the way he is treated in these commercials? I am sure there would be major uproar by women organizations. Gender equality is not a privilege for women it's a right for men and women.

the way I see it, motherfortruth, is that the men in these commercials aren't there to serve their wives. What they're there for is to show women that they can be better than men. However, this is not done in such a way to portray both husband and wife as succesful.

The real hidden story in this, imo, is the subtle message that a woman can be better than a man, but only because the man is too dumb to be smarter than her.

Close but no cigar, div. The real "subtle message" is that a woman can be better than a man, as long as it's in a field that is utterly trivial. Men are assumed to be better at every single professional field, smarter, more capable, more athletic, less emotional, more rational... oh, but when it comes to cooking and cleaning, women are the BEST. don't you see? that's why they belong in the kitchen!

Has it ocured to anyone that these themes are repeated in commercials BECAUSE THEY WORK?

Awesome, I love you Sarah Haskins. I've been talking about this forever. I've figured out commercial etiquette. Rule 1: You can only show men being stupid. Rule 2: Said man can not be a Black man acting stupid, unless there is at least one woman, one Asian, or another Black dude around...

Hey I don' t understand why this is getting so blown into this mega debate about reverse sexism!
It started out as a response to the point that Sarah made ( commercials tend to make " married" men look like dumb asses
and I agree!!

Awesome and so true! It's not just commercials, but the Doofy Husband can be found on pretty much every sitcom as well! Hilarious and poignant as always!

hilarious, this might have been one of the best target women yet!

I heard a rumor that it's Sarah's birthday today. Happy Birthday Sarah!

Commercials like these perpetuate the notion that once you get married your husband will turn into an idiot and will eventually get fat and lazy. It's a crappy marketing tactic.

Well, me chance for getting me a wifey to take care of me seem good... but apparently, she's f@%^#d!

What about American wives? Dont they get lazy, Fat, complacent and Fat, pushing into the verge of asexuality the poor NASCAR guys? Hahahaha.

"Honey my clock is ticking and I lost 15 pounds...."

Marriage (when done for the exactly wrong reasons) is fraud people! Have fun

"spent 5 yrs. trying to land this guy, motherf@#ker can't even cook breakfast!"

seriously I LOL'd!!

Genius.

Mina29, that's the best comment yet!!!
Thank you,seriously, fuc...n' genius:)

The "doofy husband" is the "mook" all grown up. If you haven't heard of the mook, it's a media theory term to describe the idiots on shows like "Jackass." Young males who embarrass themselves as entertainment for other young people. And it totally works! The young idiot male sells Mountain Dew and Judd Apatow films, while the grown idiot male sells Dawn and Yoplait.