As Usual, Feminist Blogger Amanda Marcotte and Her Followers Are a Lot Smarter Than Me...

Background: In my May 8 blog post "Cadillac Thinks Humiliating Men Is Great Revenge--and Adweek Agrees." I wrote:

"Another female 'revenge' commercial. In the Cadillac commercial 'Khakis' a female boss revels in humiliating and intimidating her male subordinates--and only her male subordinates. Adweek, one of the two leading advertising industry publications, evidently thinks it's great, naming the commercial one of its Best Spots of the Year 2006."

To watch the commercial, check out my blog post at: glennsacks.com/blog/?p=641.

Feminist blogger Amanda Marcotte criticized my criticism of this Cadillac ad in a blog post today. She writes:

"Glenn Sacks thinks the ad is about humiliating men, as well. Not sure what is supposed to be so humiliating—that women with power can be sexy or that a woman got a promotion at all. It’s a definite symptom of one of the disconnects between MRAs and reality. Ads like this are helping their cause by minimizing the situation when a woman in a workplace gets treated like she doesn’t belong, but they are so completely humiliated by the very fact that the ad portrayed the woman having power at all, they don’t even see it."

Read her full blog post at: pandagon.net/2007/05/22/for-what-its-worth-this-ad-doesnt-disturb-my-feelings-about-iggy-pop-at-all/.

As usual, Amanda is far ahead of me, deeply analyzing and rooting out my twisted thinking and unconscious sexism. In my mind, I had reacted against the commercial because the ad applauds women who humiliate men. Were the commercial to applaud a male boss who humiliates his scared female employees, I would find it just as offensive, except that we all know that no commercial of this type exists.

Marcotte writes:

"[For Sacks] Not sure what is supposed to be so humiliating—that women with power can be sexy or that a woman got a promotion at all."

Again, Amanda roots out the deeper evil in my heart. In my mind, the fact that the woman is attractive is irrelevant--were it an unattractive woman humiliating male employees my reaction would be the same. I've no problem with the woman who "got a promotion" or with women in positions of power in general. More power to them, but that doesn't change their responsibility to treat their employees humanely and fairly. The woman boss in the Cadillac commercial does neither.

Marcotte says that we are "completely humiliated by the very fact that the ad portrayed the woman having power at all." No, it's her abuse of power which I find humiliating. I've had male bosses and female bosses and have generally gotten along with both, and have never seen much difference (positive or negative) between the two. But any boss who enjoys humiliating his or her employees deserves a comeuppance (a function labor unions used to fill), not applause.

On another note, much of Amanda's post and the discussion surrounding it concern an article written by Henry Makow Ph.D. a couple weeks after my blog post was written. Makow writes:

"It's part of an ongoing Psychological Operation waged by the London-based central banking cartel designed to destroy heterosexuality and the family. The bankers perceive real men as a threat to their plan for world government tyranny. General Motors and other multinationals are all singing from the banker's homosexual/lesbian songbook."

Read his full article at: www.savethemales.ca/002015.html.

Love me or hate me, I certainly don't want to be lumped in with Makow's views on gays, and anyone even slightly familiar with my work and Makow's knows that we're oceans apart on this and many other issues. I'm supportive of gay rights, though I don't write about it very often. Some examples can be found here: glennsacks.com/blog/?s=gays.