Peanut Butter & Power Tools

I’ve been holding a particular rant in for some time, feeling that I wouldn’t be able to articulate what I want to say well enough to avoid getting slammed by my readers or make it interesting, but damn it, I have to get it out.

You know that Jif peanut butter commercial in which the dad is sitting on the couch minding his own business, making himself a peanut butter sammich? It goes something like this:

Daughter: What’re you doing, Dad?
Dad (patting the space beside him on the sofa): Sit down. There’s plenty of room.
Dad generously proceeds to make his daughter and himself a sammich using one slice of bread for each. As she begins to eat hers open-faced, Daughter looks at Dad to see that he’s folding his bread in half.
Daughter (looking smugly judgmental): Why did you fold yours like that?
Dad: Well, when I was a kid, this is how my dad did it, and I wanted to do everything just like he did.
Daughter: That’s silly. (She turns her back to him and folds her sammich)

Hey. Maybe Dad needed a little peace and quiet, a little alone time with his obviously pleasant memories of his deceased father. This chit of a girl comes in and judges him, and with a bitchy attitude at that. If it’s so silly, then give Dad back the damn sammich and leave him alone. Talk about ungrateful.

Of course, the daughter folds her sammich in half as well, but like the bitchy little sneak she is, she turns her back so Dad can’t see. The unspoken message is sent out to little girls all over the country: It’s ok to judge your father. You’re better than he is anyway, and you obviously know more about how a sammich should be eaten. And whatever you do, don’t let him think for a moment that he has a good idea once in a while.

If it was just this one commercial I wouldn’t care that much, but I’ve seen this message over and over again.

“That’s not how Mommy does it!”
“Mommy puts the glasses over here!”
“You’re not the the one that’s still growing, Dad!”

Ever notice that it’s never sons dissing their fathers or their mothers, or daughters dissing their mothers? Our television media is packed full of messages teaching our kids that all husbands and fathers are The Dumb White Guy. One commercial finally succeeded in emasculating the male entirely. A couple is in a home improvement store and Hubby can’t seem to hammer a nail (or something simple like that), so Wifey-Poo picks up a power tool and “does the job the right way,” gloating all the while. Now, that one really pissed me off. In commercial after commercial the male is portrayed as a hapless, helpless nincompoop. My question is, if he’s such an idiot, then why did you marry him? What’s up with you?

I’m not saying the Dumb White Guy doesn’t exist; I do live in Oklahoma after all (ducking), but if the tables were turned and it was a man showing a woman up in her little stereotyped scenario, or sons dissing their mothers, the fur would be flying.

Oh, pipe down. I’m an old feminist from the 70s and I’m well-aware of how women have been treated by the media. What I’m saying is, turn about is not fair play, it’s just more of the same old crap. Reverse discrimination is still discrimination and it needs to be canned if we’re ever going to teach our children how to do things better than we have done.

I’m not even going to get started on my opinions about what a lot of very visible young women these days are doing to set us all back fifty years. That’s an entirely different post for another time, which will probably be called, “What the Fuck Happened to the Women’s Movement?” But tonight, I’m standing up for the guys.