I was watching TV the other day (big surprise, I know) and one of the commercials grabbed my attention because Robert Gant from Queer as Folk was in this new Volkswagen commercial. I tried to find a copy of it but was unable to. The ad is quite clever and features him and a girl riding in a car, with Gant saying something clever like, "I think we are in a car commercial." Basically, what is implied in the ad is that Gant and this female are a couple. This kinda bothered me (personally) a little bit because Gant is an out and proud homosexual actor. Now, I don't think this means that he should only play gay roles, but when you pair this with the infamous Brooke Shields's Routan commercials, I was struck by this trend of heterosexism in the Volkswagen commercials.
Now, if you watch the Routan documentary in its entirety, you do see two women together handling a baby. Does this mean that they are a couple? Well, two women with a baby is striking different from the male-female couples that are seen holding a newborn and shopping at the car lot. Besides this one potential lesbian couple, every couple featured that is producing children for this Routan is a heterosexual couple. I was just struck by the absences of gay parents in this ad. I thought that we, as a society, were growing up, but I guess not everyone is okay with same-sex parenting. And by the way, why are people more willing to accept a lesbian couple having children but not a gay male couple having children. Just some food for thought. (Thanks, YouTube, for the video.)
Some Brainstorming on Strength
9 years ago
Posts
2 comments:
You raise such good points. These ads are pissing me off, too. I find praise for the population growth to be unsettling. And I think your reading of the heterosexism is spot on; thanks for posting this.
Also, the fact that Babies, German Engineering, having babies for German Engineering (and volkswagen for that matter), all scream, NAZIS!
Post a Comment