Assvertising

It is a generally accepted bit of conventional wisdom that women are more likely to: A) Seek medical care, including routine preventative tests; and B) Talk to their friends about intimate subjects like preventative tests, bonding over horror stories of embarrassing pap smears or boob-crushing mammograms. There are studies to back up this conventional wisdom: Women are more likely to do these things.

And though evo-psych fans will almost certainly provide some cis-centric, biological determinist, gender binaryriffic explanation about how that's woven into our DNA because caveladies had to hunter-gather garbanzo beans for some elaborate prehistoric cervix ritual or whatever, it's probably more likely to be attributable to the fact that most female people are socialized to be caregivers, encouraged to seek and accept help (including medical care), exhorted to express a wide spectrum of emotion, and allowed casual intimacies with other female people—which is pretty much the diametrical opposite of how most male people are socialized.

All of which I note as a preface to my insightful commentary about the below advert: This advert is a stupid, sexist mess.


[Transcript below. H/T to Copyranter.]

[Four men—two black men (Vida Blue and Rosey Grier), one white man, and a man who may be Latino, but I'm not certain, so I will refer to him as the mustachioed man—who are in their 50s or 60s are sitting in a conservatively-appointed living room, working on knitting or needlepoint projects while quiet string music plays.]

Rosey Grier: How'd that prostate exam go today?

White Man: Very well, thank you for asking. [turns to mustachioed man] Hey, aren't you due for one pretty soon?

Mustachioed Man: I guess.

Vida Blue: Whoa, there, big guy.

Mustachioed Man: I'll get around to it sooner or later.

Grier: Sooner or later? One in six are diagnosed with prostate cancer.

[They all look at Mustachioed Man in silence.]

Mustachioed Man: All right! I'll do it!

Blue: [pats Mustachioed Man's leg] That's all we wanted to hear.

[A fifth man walks in, wearing an apron and carrying a tray with tea service and cookies.]

Fifth Man: Dessert is served.

[The men mumble appreciatively.]

Text Onscreen, done as if needlepointed: Why cant [sic] men express themselves more like women? Talk to your friends about prostate cancer. Prostate Cancer Foundation. www.pcf.org.

[Assvertising: Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106.]