Everything is political
When a Gillette ad implored men to be decent, the backlash was swift
Last month, Gillette, the major shaving brand owned by Procter and Gamble, released a commercial online calling on men to be decent to women and to each other. It said fathers shouldn’t excuse their sons’ bullying and other bad behavior by using tropes like “boys will be boys.”
Then lots of men freaked out, mostly online.
The episode was strange, but not unexpected. The ad was explicitly political at a time when anything remotely partisan is attacked.
And, as seems to happen a lot these days, a set of complainers emerged. These whiners’ mantra seems to be: “Why does
have to be political?”
With Gillette, they were angry that a shaving brand (a shaving brand!) made a social statement. “Don’t tell me how to raise my boys,” said one Fox News contributor. “I can raise them just fine, thanks. I’ll use your razor to shave my face. That’s all I really want from Gillette.”
He added: “Since when did capitalism become about companies preaching to us?”
A similar complaint was made when NFL players kneeled during the national anthem (“Politics? Before a football game?!”).
There’s also an annual whine-fest when actors make political speeches at the Oscars (“These rich actors are preaching to me? What gives them the right?!”)
Grimly, similar critics have emerged after each recent mass shooting (“How can we talk about gun control when families are grieving?!”).
These folks seem to agree that there are times and places where political issues should be discussed, and certain people and institutions who should be allowed to discuss them. Everyone else: Please shut it.
My response to these complaints is one that many undergraduate humanities majors will recognize: Everything political; there are no non-political spaces. So to say “please do not talk politics right now” is to say nothing.
The academic Stanley Fish has described the “everything is political” idea succinctly (even though he’s critical of the phrase): “Everything is political in the sense that any action we take or decision we make or conclusion we reach rests on assumptions, norms, and values not everyone would affirm. That is, everything we do is rooted in a contestable point of origin; and since the realm of the contestable is the realm of politics, everything is political.”
Given that, it’s not unreasonable to say that virtually all of Gillette’s ads have been political — including ones that haven’t provoked backlash. Gillette’s ads (and other brands’ ads, for that matter) promote sets of attitudes and values. And to promote attitudes and values — even if they reinforce what society expects — is political.
For example, a 1989 Gillette commercial I found online is a montage of American men doing what we expect: getting married; kicking butt at sports; flirting with ladies on the street; teaching their sons various things, like how to comb their hair; participating in military service; doing well in capitalism (several of the characters in the commercial work on Wall Street; one cheers after, presumably, closing a deal on the phone). Spliced throughout are clips of sexy men shaving with Gillette razors. A jingle plays in the background: “On so many faces, it’s plain to see; we [Gillette] give you all we have to give, for all a man can be!”
But “all a man can be,” the ad suggests, is handsome, athletic and business-oriented; a family man with a nice-looking wife. Consider who’s not represented: gay men, transgender men, single men, childless men, men in open marriages or relationships, men of color (there are a few in the commercial, but white men are centered). Also absent are artists, intellectuals, men who are socially active, or anyone who might resemble a lefty activist. (I don’t think they’d fit in with a pro-Wall Street, pro-military crowd.)
The 1989 ad is not explicitly political, but it does send a message about what the ideal man is. And like the Fox News contributor, I might ask about it: Who the heck is Gillette to tell me what a man can be?
The “stop being political” cry is a very handy rhetorical move for conservatives, which is why they tend to use it more than liberals. When liberals and leftists advocate for change, conservatives can tar them as “political” — people trying to alter traditions, which conservatives position as apolitical. But opposing change is every bit as political as proposing change. And no one should get special points for claiming to be above it all.
The episode was strange, but not unexpected. The ad was explicitly political at a time when anything remotely partisan is attacked.
Tim Sandoval (tsandoval4343@gmail.com) is a writer living in Baltimore.