Sarah Haskins in Target Women: Doofy Husbands

I hope that you can take care of yourself and make your own breakfast.

Adjective form of doofus?

Ouuuch! Sorry honey I will never write on current again. And and you are the most beautiful thing on this side of the Mississippi. Aouuuuch.

You should let her know through direct email or message.

Gender equality is not a privilege for women it's a right for both men and women. Have you noticed how many shows, commercials and movies have women hit, punch, slap, seriously beat up men? Would this be tolerated if the genders reversed? Absolutely not. Violence against any one is wrong and it is not funny.

Work for whom? If there was a commercial where a men hit his girlfriend because she did not give him a Valentine present he wanted. I bet you there would be major uproar from women groups... Yet it's acceptable for a woman to give her boyfriend a black eye.

You'd have to define "works" first. Crack and heroin work if you want to get high. There are just other drawbacks.
These ads work in that they completely play into the stereotype of the poor, smart, mistreated, misunderstood woman being victimized by the big, dumb man. If that's the role you want to play, be my guest. I just think that relationships can be tough and in order for them to work, both sides need to try way harder to understand each other. And posting nasty videos inviting men to fall off the roof...that ain't it.

My suggestion to angry b**ch Sarah Haskins: stop complaining and work on your own issues. Newsflash: MEN AREN'T THE REASON YOU'RE ANGRY. YOU'RE JUST ANGRY. It's true, men seem to speak a different language than women sometimes. Did you know that men feel the same way? If you want to have your life work, learn how to communicate with the other team.

but liliya, it's just *these* men that are bad at it... all other men (real men) *eyeroll* are good at this. But us pretty little ladies don't need to worry ourselves with rational thinking about WHY they portray men like this even if it doesnt make sense... we should just be glad that we even GET the kitchen...lol, don't you know, men make better women than women!

Ugh. I hate advertising.

liliya, it is too bad many women feel this way. I choose to see myself as classy lady who stand up truth and equal respect for differences in men qualities as well as women qualities.

Oooh, now that I'm fully awake I totally see what you are saying above, div. Haha. That is a really interesting perspective to consider as well.

Div, I agree. I also would like to add that "subtle message that a woman can be better than a man" is really not subtle at all it's more like a statement that women are smarter then men, and always in control of the family and husband. I interpret this message as women are controlling and the head has grown so large it may not fit thought the door.

Actually, motherfortruth, I got the idea that the ad is saying exactly the opposite. A woman CANT be smarter than her husband UNLESS he is completely incompetent. She CAN be spectacular if her husband is useless.

It's really a backhanded message here. On a surface level, yes, it's trying to stroke women's egos, but if you dig deeper, you realize that was not at all the hidden meaning. Don't forget that it's most likely MEN who are creating these ads, not women.

--->I'm sorry, I don't think my post above here made any sense.. the flow of thoughts was in my head but i wasn't able to articulate it. my apologies.

Div, Interesting opinion but I have to disagree. Have you seen the commercial where a woman hits her husband on the head for not drinking V8, the meaning here is "drink it stupid man, what would you do with out me". What about the commercial about the woman who gives a man a black eye for giving her a "wrong" gift?

Here's the thing, MFT: the gender inverse of those situations is way more common in real life--women are perceived as less intelligent (again, look at the pay gap) and men are much more often the perpetrators of physical abuse. The target demographic for these commercials is women, and as div stated above,"on the surface, it's trying to stroke women's egos" because they want you to buy the product. However, stuff like "being the one who knew about V8 first" is only a point of contention if you are in an ad for V8, so the husband isn't actually being "stupid" about anything that matters and the woman is given no empowerment, but they want the female watcher to perceive the situation that way because they want women to want the product.

Some people claim that men suffer as much (or MORE) sexism in the way they are portrayed on TV because of this "doofy husband" cliche, but it's not even comparable. In Axe/Karl's Jr. commercials, women are portrayed as idiotic sex objects. In V8 commercials, men are portrayed as the ones who haven't heard of a random vegetable juice product. The "doofy husband" isn't denied agency or even shown as that stupid--he's a logical person who is endearingly scatterbrained or clumsy and makes silly mistakes.

As Haskins points out, it's still pretty ridiculous.

I didn't mean to start a huge debate here, but I live around people who think Sotomayor's nomination is evidence that the modern US is SEXIST AGAINST MEN and use of the collective term "members of congress" instead of "congressmen" shows that AMERICA HATES MEN, so it is a personal pet peeve of mine when people lose perspective.

Look,
*when people do statistical analysis regarding the pay gap, they take into account things like time taken off and adjust for it, so your "mother who stays at home to watch a kid" argument is a strawman. These statistics compare men and women of equal levels of skill and experience, trust.
*people are NOT hiring incompetent women for positions that require physical strength, so that's a strawman too.
*"Domestic violence against men on the rise" =/= "the numbers for male victims are greater than for female," and NONE of the links cited numbers. Yeah it's sad, I don't think ANYONE should be victim of domestic abuse. Women still face more of it, though.

You post links to websites with names like "False Rape," and all of your references are linking to stuff YOU'VE posted on this site. Not to mention, that False Rape page? It's a total fucking lie--the false reportage rate for rape is at about 2%, no greater or smaller than that for the average crime. Your sources are either nonexistent or not trustworthy.

I'm not gonna argue with some loon who clearly has a creepy anti-woman agenda--you go play with the crazy conspiracy theorists on the rest of the website and leave Infomania pages alone, thanks.

liliya, I am interested in intelligent discussion and I obviously did not find you interesting as you are spreading misandry.
You support the commercials that promote violence against men, and you have ignorant view of domestic violence reality. Here a little reality for you.

http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/42/15/31-a
Psychiatr News August 3, 2007
Volume 42, Number 15, page 31
© 2007 American Psychiatric Association
Clinical & Research News
Men Shouldn't Be Overlooked as Victims of Partner Violence
Joan Arehart-Treichel
“…of the 24 percent of relationships that had been violent, half had been reciprocal and half had not. Although more men than women (53 percent versus 49 percent) had experienced nonreciprocal violent relationships, more women than men (52 percent versus 47 percent) had taken part in ones involving reciprocal violence.
Regarding perpetration of violence, more women than men (25 percent versus 11 percent) were responsible. In fact, 71 percent of the instigators in nonreciprocal partner violence were women. This finding surprised Whitaker and his colleagues, they admitted in their study report. “

MotherForTruth, I read the study you posted, and you're absolutely right that according to this study, women were violent more frequently than men in relationships with nonreciprocal intimate partner violence (IPV).

But let's take a closer look at the research. One of the categories for IPV, for example, was slapping. A violent gesture, yes, but usually not an injurious one. In fact, the same study you cited states that violence causing injury was more common when men perpetrated it.

Still, I do applaud your efforts to make sure men and women are regarded fairly with regards to this subject; too often men are stereotyped as aggressors when this is not always this case.

nicole_b, Please read the story here and you will see the truth behind many domestic violence arrests. http://current.com/items/90584787_no-one-believed-me.htm

Bingo

I completely agree with you. I don't think that treating men like competent human beings = husband worship.

However, my mother--and I was referring to her specifically and not these commercials or the concept of gender equality--most certainly DOES have a case of husband worship. As a contrast to the women in these commercials whose husbands can do no right, my father can do no wrong.

But, hey, it's her relationship. I treat my partners and the other men in my life (including dear old dad) as people who have strengths and weakness. This means sometimes they shine and sometimes they fuck up. 'Cause they are people.

Ah, he should have done a test patch. Women are smart enough to know to do that with hair dye!

and, to boot, they're making these damned ads!

The doofy husband is something that has existed in the media for a long, long, long, time.

Fred Flinstone, Archie Bunker, Homer Simpson...

I think I know where they come from.

I think it should be called the "Douchey" husband.

The type of "cool guys" (aka douchebags) portrayed in those other commercials playing football and driving fast cars were just as incapable of making breakfast as they "become" when they become a dad. I mean, most college guys are incapable of doing their own laundry, or keeping up with their own bodily hygiene. Febreeze takes care of both of those things for 80% of males in college.

Then one day, their condom pops a leak, and then they've got to try their best to keep the state from taking the kids away from their incompetent watch.

They've been living like hibernating bears for the past 25 years! You can't just unlearn that...