Day 53 – The Gender Gap Part IV

“A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature.”

~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

198.1 lbs

I’m a reasonably manly guy. Broad shouldered and square jawed, I served 8 years in the army and only rarely have an emo moment – with that in mind, I have a confession.

I like yogurt.

*whew* there, I said it. And ya know what? I’m not alone. I know a few Lance Armstrong types who compete in cycling events, and Schwarzenegger wannabes who could probably lift my house, and they, too, enjoy yogurt despite having dangly bits.

So why have advertisers decided that yogurt is only for women? Seriously – every frakkin’ yogurt commercial I see is either Jamie lee Curtis telling you how a certain brand of yogurt can help make you poop, or some cute chick jumping on an invisible trampline while CGI of oversized yogurt splashes across the background.

Now I’ve nothing against bounding barefoot beauties. Heck, I’ve nothing against Jamie Lee Curtis. Any woman who can mix her comedic timing from A Fish Called Wanda with that sultry dance she did in True Lies deserves every accolade she receives and more. Which is why seeing her hawking yogurt as though it were the only laxative known to mankind is a bit disheartening.

It gets worse: not only are women apparently the only ones marketers deem worthy of devouring curdled milk, they like to pretend that men are too stupid to even be able to read the label.

Jim’s selective vision caused him to starve to death by age 37.

Jeez. that’s as bad as the fact that, in 2010, they still make cleaning product commercials where the only person shown doing any cleaning is a “happy housewife”. What frakkin’ Leave It To Beaver alternate dimension do these advertising geniuses live in, anyhow?

Men and women do have a lot of physical differences, even aside from the obvious innie and outie thing. Pound for pound, men have more muscle whereas women have more body fat (which is why men in general get less drunk off the same volume of alcohol). Men and women respond to exercise differently. Men tend to be stronger, but women tend to have more endurance. And so on.

But this whole media portrayal of fat, oafish men being the norm while women must fit into a barbie mold is beyond stale. It’s moldy. Girls shouldn’t have to aspire to a 36-24-36, 5’7″ body type any more than men should be told it’s acceptable to be 100 lbs overweight and a complete idiot. Both are harmful stereotypes, both can damage a person’s self esteem, and both can cause physical harm when one aspires to living up to them.

While the claims that anorexia is extremely rare in males are greatly exaggerated, young women are more likely to starve themselves to attain a certain look. Do we really want girls damaging themselves for fashion? It’s bad enough that some women get their feet surgically altered to fit fashionable shoes, rather than demand fashionable shoes that fit female feet but damaging internal organs and immune systems through starvation just to fit into trendy clothing is beyond the pale.

Jabba was inconsolable when he discovered Ralph Kramden had beaten him to it.

And for men, having the fat, jolly husband who still lands a trophy wife as the sitcom “role model” reinforces that it’s acceptable to damage your health and risk a heart attack daily – you’ll still get the prom queen as your love slave, she’ll put up with the most idiotic crap from you, and every problem the two of you encounter will wrap up nicely in 22 minutes or less.

At the risk of having my captain Obvious cape blow embarrassingly into my face, this overlooks a few real-world facts; first, trophy wives aren’t that common. Certainly not as common as fat men. Supply and demand alone points out the disconnect right there. Second, there are real health concerns with being overweight and obese, including a drop in testosterone, higher risk of heart disease and heart attack, and so on.

These stereotypes aren’t based on reality. they don’t even sit at the same table in the cafeteria as reality. Even the probiotic yogurt, invisible to men but adored by women for its poop inducing properties and not because of flavour, apparently,  isn’t really that good for you; it has sugar or HFCS added to it as a sweetener (especially in the “low fat” versions) which, even in the tiny “look, we’re low calorie!” packages adds up over time to a lot of empty calorie and a lot of processing done by your liver on a non-natural ingredient.

Can’t we just stop all this stereotyping before someone gets hurt? Oh, wait…