Men, listen up! Gillette is taking a stance against toxic masculinity

The reason I’m writing about this, however, is not because of how good the ad is or how emotional it got me, but because of the general public’s reaction to the advert which has really left me confused.

As I said, it’s almost seven o’clock in the evening of the 15th of January 2019 and this ad has been up on YouTube for approximately 48 hours. It is a brilliant ad. It’s brilliantly shot, well cast, big budget editing, and all that- and the message is very, very clear.

Gillette is taking a stance against toxic masculinity.

The kind of masculinity which is not only incredibly uncomfortable for women, but which has also been very publicly addressed and unambiguously condemned by the #metoo movement over the past year or two. Those really uncomfortable “manly” moments where men wolf-whistle women who walk on past them on the streets, or ‘playful’ sexual abuse in the workplace, or how some fathers will let their sons beat up other boys because “boys will be boys”. And this Gillette advert addresses all of that head on.

If you look at the huge number of views, which at the time of writing stands at about 3.9-million views in only 48 hours, one would think that was the most remarkable thing. But, that isn’t the part that freaks me out about this advert. What for me is freaky about all of this is that it’s liked 75,000 times, but disliked 320,000 times (over 400% more dislikes than approvals).

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This prompted me to go onto social media to see what the discontent was about.

What I was dumbfounded to discover was #BoycottGillette. Men are appalled by the advert, saying that it attacks masculinity, and that this almost two-minute advert is just feminist propaganda and that they can’t take one more minute of the abuse!

My jaw dropped, mouth agape as I puzzled over this visceral response. I just can’t get my head around why men are so upset by this advert. Why they are so threatened by it when it seeks only to address parts of masculinity which are hurtful to women or children, and those who are on the receiving end of bullying or overly “boyish” behaviour.

Their rationale for this is that Gillette, for over two decades, has always been “The Best a Man Can Get”. It’s a MANLY brand. It’s a MAN’S brand for MANLY MEN. And they have changed that narrative now and it’s alienated them.

Okay… is that going to stop you from using a quality brand or is the message so alien to you that you couldn’t see yourself using this razor again because it’s too closely related to something feminine? What is so wrong with a feminist narrative?

I am sitting, searching my being for where this outrage lives in me as a man. Why can’t I feel the anger and rage? Nope. Nothing.

I can conceive how some men might not approve of the message, but to be outraged by it?

I have watched the ad now several times. I have read the comments and I am still dumbfounded! As not only a man in 2019, but also as a father of a daughter who must live in this toxic environment, I am upset by the response.

I can’t comprehend for a second how this ad is even in the slightest way offensive. It punches me in my gut that the conversation around this problem (not only of masculinity, but of toxic masculinity), it would seem, isn’t even in the ballpark of being recognised, let alone seriously addressed. It is not even in the carpark of the ballpark!

This immediate and almost universal reaction shows me that men – “so called men” to quote Charlize Theron from over a decade ago – can fight and punch and kick just about anything but their violent nature.

I say, congratulations, Gillette. And I say to hell with you “manly” men who cannot handle a little bit of feminism.

Main Image Courtesy of Gilette/Twitter