Post #3975: Rant of the Day: The Infamous Gillette Ad

I deliberately sidestepped this cultural kerfuffle and waited for some of the dust to settle before offering an opinion. Let me first say objectively, if Gillette intended to stoke controversy to buy free publicity, like Nike did in putting controversial washed-up former backup quarter Kaepernick its face, it succeeded, and it may even get a short-term sympathy sales boost from leftist consumers, but when you engage in a perceived politically correct message in a politically divided America, you can alienate up to half of more of your product's target market. You lose control over your message, never mind your core product promotion. Writers like Mona Charen are quite right in pointing out there are some positive elements in the ad like setting a good example or intervening in physical altercations. And there isn't a call for Statist intervention; it's more of an appeal to fix the culture.

But let me say as a past consumer of Gillette products,  I'm not favorably impressed by the ad, and I think Gillette can't count on my purchases over the coming month.

Why do I dislike it? First of all, I dislike victimization rhetoric. I am not in the state of denial that some boys/men are sexually/and physically aggressive and violate the unalienable rights of other people.  As a high school nerd, I myself was relentlessly bullied by another Air Force dependent (until one day I snapped and fought back, bloodying his nose). It's been a few decades since then; I am skeptical that the problem has grown worse. In fact, we have seen a decline of violence over the past generation. Certainly there are some exceptions; for example, Chicago and Baltimore have some awful statistics, and even some victims are too many. I don't want to argue that some  violence is inevitable, that "boys will be boys". But I would argue that these issues are far more transparent in the Internet age and there have been some high-profile perpetrators, including 80's father figure Bill Cosby, the Catholic Church and Penn State notorious sex abuse scandals, not to mention political (e.g., Weiner) and corporate (e.g., CBS and Fox) sex scandals.

And I would argue the current politically correct culture has created its own share of victims. I think I've had to go through (along with colleagues) typically annual sexual harassment training, even though I've never had supervisory authority over a female worker. I've never dated a current or former colleague or student. I've never engaged in sexually suggestive behavior of any kind, and I've never pursued a woman who wasn't interested. (In fact, my first date and girlfriend was a gorgeous older coed who asked me out. Like many other guys, I don't particularly like rejection; I can still recall some woman (who wasn't my type and I had literally zero romantic interest in) who made it clear she wouldn't date me in a million years

So in the most recent sexual harassment training, we saw some clip of some Asian guy who was the target of romantic interest by some Asian female colleague who left him a note suggesting they get together, her place or his; he ditches her note in the trash, and when she comes back, she finds her love note in the trash and is pissed. Next thing he knows, he's called into their boss' office, where he's told his spurned colleague has launched a retaliatory sexual harassment charge (no basis in reality) and he specifically told his employment is at risk.

Now this doesn't parallel my experience although I remember once being creeped out by a senior female professor next door who seemed to be interested in me, not mutual. (There are a couple of incidents that come to mind but beyond the scope of this commentary.) But there was one element in common: libelous, false complaints were made. I had attempted to ask out a colleague nearly 3 months earlier and then to a lunch in a building cafeteria on my birthday. In the case of the first meeting, I explicitly told her if I wasn't her type, I wouldn't ask again. (She had a boyfriend who hadn't committed to her yet, but she wanted "to keep [her] options open".). There was no interim contact of any kind. When I got back to my desk, I found a predated letter where she claimed that she was tired of my pursuing her, refusing to take 'no' for an answer, and if I approached her one more time, she would go to HR. This was a total fabrication. I didn't have her personal contact information, the only time I saw her was at work or company social events (e.g., company Xmas party).  I don't even recall passing her in the hallway at work. She did work in the next row of cubicles but I never went there because I was working on tech issues and she was a junior account analyst. I still don't know why she did what she did--maybe she was hoping for a Christmas engagement? (I mentioned this incident a few weeks back.)

I think the #MeToo movement completely loses me when they suggest self-declared "victims" are owed to be believed. I don't deny there are legitimate victims; in fact, I have myself intervened on behalf of women screaming for help (I've described in past posts). But if and when you declare due process is part of victimization, it's tyranny, not justice.

Not to mention victimization is not simply a male-on-female phenomenon. I almost lost my oldest niece to a suicide attempt when high school "mean girls" targeted her appearance.

I can't speak for everyone, but a lot to how I grew up to be a man had to do with the example of my Dad, how he treated Mom and my sisters. A lot had to deal with my moral development growing up Roman Catholic, my belief in universal unalienable rights. We've had a breakdown in urban black families; in fact, some 40% of births nationwide are illegitimate (a consequence of the sexual revolution). Some of that is in part a consequence of bad public policy (e.g., perverse incentives in welfare programs). Nothing in the Gillette ad even hints of these nuances.

I'm not going to accept some male-collective guilt trip. I do what I can to live my life honorably, by my conscience and by my God. I encourage my nephews and nieces to do the same.