Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Media Moment: Battle of the Sexes

I saw this commercial on TV a while back and I remember thinking, "Wow. That looks bad." There really isn't much explanation to do. Viewing it tells all. It's called "Battle of the Sexes" and guys answer questions about haircuts while girls answer questions about cars. The motto of the game is: "You'll never understand them, so you might as well defeat them."

Does a game like this bother anyone? Should it bother anyone? Is it a horrible concept/sexist game to begin with?


3 comments:

  1. This game bothers me, because it is basically saying that there are distinct differences between men and women. I think it should bother people but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't bother most. We live in a society that splits up genders uncontrollably. Men are “supposed” to do certain activities while women are “supposed” to do others. We are bombarded with images that reinforce this every day ( for example: commercials, ads, TV shows). Anyone who steps outside of their gender “norms” might be looked at differently. The fact that the commercial says, “You'll never understand them, so you might as well defeat them,” really bothers me. I think this only furthers the idea that women and men cannot be looked at equally or under the same context. I think it is a bad concept to begin with because, who is to say that one question is gender related to males over females or vice versa?

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  2. Yeah, this game really bothers me as well. For the reasons that Sarah said, and also the questions for the game are essential and degrading. The questions say that the only thing women know about are haircuts and clothes, while men only know about cars and tools. In the beginning of the commercial when they show the women fixing a car and playing sports, it was supposed to be funny? Is it really seen as funny for women to do these things? Who approved this commercial? It a degrading representation of both women and men.

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  3. *I meant to write essentialist and degrading in the second sentence. oops!

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