Halfway Feminism- Male Chauvinists in Trojan Ads

Feminism, which started in the nineteenth century, is increasingly popular due to the fact that our society more and more advocates equal rights for everyone. With the majority of people acknowledging women's rights, the advertising industry also reflects that social mainstream with more references to feminism. The Trojan condom ad exemplifies vividly feminism shown in advertisement with its up-to-date qualities. The ad may tell guys to buy condoms for their girlfriends, but its underlying messages of feminism catches women's attention. Humorous but disgusting depictions in the ad convince women that they can stand up against male chauvinists. The positive messages, however, are compromised by tying women with unrealistic expectations regarding appearance and the need for male-patronized happiness.

The ad presents a funny and repulsive imaginary turmoil on the beach, featuring pigs and ladies. It appears the ad sets these girls up in a cutting jape. Six out of seven bikini-clad girls are constantly under attack of a pack of ten swines-gone-wild. What evokes laughter is a variety of their unprecedented, inappropriate human-like manners to chase after girls. Those include splashing sunscreen on the back, and commenting on the buttocks with pointing fingers. You also find the common insults, such as taking a picture of the female body in sunbathing with the cell phone camera, or sneakily peeking at some girl with a pair of binoculars from the distance, or simply staying too close to women, or chasing after them. The pigs occupy every corner of the beach scene, making them impossible to be avoided. These insalubrious pigs invade the privacy of most girls with unbearable intimacy, no matter what the girls are doing. In fact, all the attacked girls the scene express utter annoyance and upset with this pig infestation in their facial expressions. Most viewers would find such proximity to the vulgar pigs distasteful and disgusting. Only one slim blonde seems to repulse the swine attack, happily side by side with a handsome dark-haired young man.

Underlying the strange humor the ad tries to warn men and women the importance of condoms in their love lives. The human-like behaviors of these pigs suggest they are really not pigs but humans. The narrator explains why they are not. "Evolve. Choose the one who uses a condom every time." The message is that choosing condoms makes a huge difference to men and women. Condoms can turn the guys from despicable pigs into gentlemen. In other words, condoms can wash men of all the bad reputations of inappropriate behaviors towards women and make them the right choice in female eyes. The ad works exactly as a "guilt ad" to them (Solomon 417). Men are caught in the act of obscene sexual harassment to women. The condom was the only way for guilty men to regain innocence and trust in the eyes of women (417). To a woman, the ad concludes that a single condom can put an end to all the inappropriate behaviors to her and, prompt her to the right guy who knows how to treat her as a human being. The world with condoms is drawn completely different from the one without condoms. The world becomes better with condoms because that is where guys can be repackaged as the real gentlemen and women can feel free of pig chauvinists. The ad in the process taps into our "worry about packaging ourselves and everything we do" which we believe to affect how the others view and treat us (Hine 98). In the end, exaggerated scenarios magnify the importance of condoms a thousand times making condoms more socially valuable, not just simply as a protective accessory in sexual relationship.

The ad is designed to urge both male and female customers to purchase condoms as a daily necessity. Men may find it more interesting with the cutting humor presented but those women with spirited feminism will find that the ad content has more to offer. They see women can stop tolerating sexual insults and disrespect and reach out for the happiness in love they deserve.

With no resistance or signs of disapproval from women, the male chauvinists, or in this ad, pigs, would treat the women badly over and over again. There will be plenty more of smutty jokes and sneering look coming from these men. The ad makes this argument effectively by showing that pigs and male chauvinists are basically the same. Such behaviors completely dominate the field making them impossible to ignore and easy to lure attention. The male chauvinists cannot actually love women and at the same time deem them no more than characterless sex toys. These male chauvinists are indeed no better than the real pigs. The advice from the ad can be then readily inferred. Reject male chauvinists and find the one who loves you as a woman, not a sex object. There is no middle ground to circumvent the situation. Her choice either makes a woman happy or agonized. She has it in her rights to choose the right love and she has to do it for her happiness with the spirit of independence.

A woman can choose the right man who truly loves her with respect and responsibility but the real issue is how. The ad content suggests reasonable benchmarks to quickly judge men women should be aware of. For example, the male chauvinists, behave as pigs with inappropriate comments and behaviors. Also, using condoms at least shows the man's care and responsibility for his partner's health. He considers safe sex to protect his girlfriend or possibly wife from sexually transmitted diseases. A condom herein plays the role of "an extension of the self," clue women can read into and glean the character like responsibility of the men of interest (qtd in Kron 114). The two suggestions are not everything a woman need but they are logical and reliable first steps to determine the right man for a long-lasting relationship.

The positive messages reflecting feminism however, are compromised by perpetuating the popular stereotype of woman which appears more comfortable to the majority American audience. She is usually thin and preferably blonde. Even though she can choose her man, the choice is always based on the assumption that she is physically attractive. It creates the impression that unattractive girls cannot get the guys they want and their happiness is out of their control. Furthermore, her blissful fulfillment cannot stray away from picking the perfect man. Her man will shield her from the dangerous male chauvinists on the loose. In the ad, she is drenched in joy at the central spotlight, which is juxtaposed to the surrounding brunettes currently in distress with the piggish male chauvinists. Without her "ideal mate," she will be more vulnerable to disrespect and insult from the male chauvinists and won't find happiness even if she possesses the ideally slender figure and dresses in a skimpy bikini. She alone has no right to decide her happiness and needs a man for help. That is exactly what the suffragist Lucy Stone expressed: "It is very little to me, to have the right to vote, to own property, etcetera, if I may not keep my body, and its uses, in my absolute right" (qtd in Wolf 488). It again shows the sense of underachievement of feminism after all the years of struggling against the default system. We still experience the world in which women are judged "according to a culturally imposed physical standard," and they must "unnaturally compete for resources that men have appropriated for themselves" (488). The women depicted in this ad compete for the limited amount of right men who hold the key to their happiness and respected life. The ad could have showed just women deciding not to have sex with guys who refuse to use condoms. They can decide themselves to avoid the risks of unplanned pregnancy or contracting sexually transmitted diseases. The ad could be designed another way if most readers were comfortable with it. It reflects little on the true ideals of feminism.

Women from the ad content were sent the message of freedom and determination to decide their love life, and maybe their whole life. They can have all the rights of feminism they want given they meet the traditionally patriarchal stereotype of female beauty. We may have to live with some hybrid patriarchal feminism until both men and women defy the default prejudice and take action to assure women's independent choice about their love and life without being scaled on physical beauty. The hard part of that scenario is whether male chauvinists can forgo the current social advantage and give them the chance to speak and act as themselves and for themselves.