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THE DARTMOUTH OPINION
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST PETER LEUTZ ’22
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST RANIYAN ZAMAN ’22
Razor Thin Rage
Yellow Vests, Not-So-White
Gillette’s most recent ad shows how fragile some Americans still are. Gillette, a men’s razors and shaving products brand, recently released an ad that questioned its own slogan this past Monday. In a campaign against toxic masculinity, the commercial asked consumers if “this was really the best a man can get,” calling for them to set a better example for the next generation of men. Adriana Cohen, writing at Real Clear Politics, called the ad a continuation of the “war on men.” As a member of the male community, I do not feel as if I am at war and would like to personally apologize to anyone who actually is at war for the laughably ridiculous comment. In contrast to Cohen and many others, I continue to be a supporter of free speech, and respect Gillette for risking economic consequences to make a statement, continuing the conversation about sexism and sexual assault. It is a conversation that clearly needs to continue given the extreme backlash to an ad that is far from insulting. Cohen was certainly not alone in her outrage with Gillette’s new ad campaign. In fact, the mere two-minute-long commercial left many in a rage. Against the spirit of basic decency pleaded for in the ad, social media exploded with images of Gillette razors in the garbage and pledges to never buy another. Manly. The right, whose favorite activity has been accusing liberals about how easily they are offended, now feels that a call for respectful behavior is an act of war. We now live in a world where a controversy has been drummed after a shaving company asks its viewers to respect women, and one another. This reality is precisely the concern reasonably asserted by Gillette this past Monday. Poetically timed exactly a week before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a holiday dedicated to a man who lived a life of peaceful protest for equality, conservative men across the nation threw down their razors in disgust and marched to the local drug store in search of a new Bic razor, one that represents masculinity that will wait for no woman. Pathetic. Perhaps the longest government shutdown in history has both sides of the aisle on edge, and the Gillette ad is just an opportunity to vent that frustrated energy. However, basic decency and respect shouldn’t be a political
issue — it should be a given. If men are being unfairly blamed for our country’s legacy of sexism and sexual harassment, then who else is to blame? Furthermore, if this culture of sexism and sexual harassment no longer exists, then why do we have a president who quite famously bragged about grabbing women “by the p—y?” It’s time to wake up, fellas. By respecting women, masculinity is empowered not threatened. It is important to note that those opposed to Gillette’s new commercial are a vocal minority. In fact, in a Morning Consult survey of over 2,000 American adults who were shown the ad immediately prior to being surveyed, 71 percent agreed that Gillette “shares their values,” up from 42 percent before seeing the commercial. Clearly, the opposition has been overstated. As a result, the study concluded that the economic repercussions of the Gillette ad will be negligible, and sales will only see a factional falter, if any at all. This result is not far outside the norm. Other major companies have taken a stand on social issues and reaped the rewards. This past fall, Nike released an ad campaign led by Colin Kaepernick. Swooshes were cut out, ripped off and straight-up set ablaze, while Nike’s value increased by $6 billion and the stock price soared. The modern consumer appreciates a company that is willing to take a stand on social issues. Regardless of backlash, Gillette’s new ad campaign followed profit based precedent set by Nike. Sexism is no doubt an outdated ill of society, and getting rid of it should be made a priority. However, this can’t be accomplished when activism is propped up by outdated arguments. For instance, there is no chorus of “boys will be boys” playing on repeat deep in the subconscious thinking of men across America. In fact, the only time I’ve ever heard that phrase is in conversations about sexism. It is points like these that threaten to invalidate entire arguments about the dangers of sexual harassment. Though frustrating that sexism, gender inequities and gender-based violence are not outrageous to everyone, our arguments exposing these issues must be carefully calculated to not just inspire those already on board, but to have the message reach those who need to hear it most.
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2019
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Those combating climate change fail to acknowledge the role of class. It was a weekend of protests. While after the first protest, activists urged France to Americans turned out for the third Women’s implement “a real ecological policy, and not a March in three years, France saw thousands few piecemeal fiscal measures.” Raising taxes of Yellow Vest protesters rally for the 10th on major corporations, demonstrators suggest, weekend in a row. (Make of that what you would be a good place to start. Too often, inaction on climate change is will.) The Yellow Vest protests originated in outrage toward a diesel fuel tax that French framed as a denial of science, but it’s not that President Emmanuel Macron — the target simple. A survey conducted by the University of Michigan indicates of the protesters and, in their eyes, the embodiment of the “But environmentalism that even as early as July of last year, gap between the wealthy elite nearly two-thirds of and lower class — says is and policies that lift Americans believe in meant to minimize fossil-fuel the working class man-made climate use. aren’t mutually change. Presumably, a The American right has majority of the Yellow jumped on the protests as an exclusive — in fact, if Vest protesters do. And excuse to remain apathetic climate change goes if apathy resulted from about global war ming, innocuous ignorance weaving an increasingly unacknowledged and about the issue, that popular narrative that unalleviated, then the would in turn suggest suggests that policies to world’s poor will be that educating others remedy climate change will on climate change primarily hurt people at the hurt first and hardest.” would be the solution. bottom. In December, U.S. But if that were the President Donald Trump case, why haven’t we tweeted out support for ending the Paris Agreement in the wake of the seen any changes yet? The truth is that like so Yellow Vest protesters’ violence. Conservative many things, climate change has an overlooked outlets and writers have somehow rebranded class struggle embedded into it that complicates environmentalism as “eco-elitism,” and a efforts to counter it. Environmentally-hostile New York Times opinion piece titled “Is policies often exist to serve corporate interests Environmentalism Just for Rich People?” — who may, at least in American politics, questions environmentalism’s compatibility play a huge role in donations and campaign with looking out for low-income demographics. funding. By allowing them to avoid taxes and But environmentalism and policies that lift not requiring them to adopt environmentallythe working class aren’t mutually exclusive — in friendly policies, Congress favors outsized fact, if climate change goes unacknowledged influences in Washington — at the expense of and unalleviated, then the world’s poor will the environment and low-income populations. be hurt first and hardest. An abundance of It’s a similar story in France. It’s been established by now that the Trump research provides insight into this phenomenon, administration (and from the findings of a World the wing of the GOP Bank report that shows how that it overwhelmingly “climate change will be felt “The truth is that and increasingly earliest and poor severely in like so many things, encroaches upon) often the poor nations of the world climate change has doesn’t get along with that contributed the least to the facts, but in the case problem” to a federal report an overlooked class of climate change, it’s released only last November. struggle embedded likely that this isn’t out Even in America, the report states, climate change will into it that complicates of a lack of knowledge or a misunderstanding. exacerbate existing class efforts to counter it.” Rather, it’s a specific inequalities and endanger and well-thought-out low-income communities who already experience delayed recovery plan to appease big money, and its specificity from natural disasters and high disease rates. and thought is exactly what makes it a hostile Hurricane Harvey hit minorities and low- political gesture. And while education on income communities hardest, ThinkProgress climate change could certainly help the public illustrated in the disaster’s aftermath, since understand the gravity and impact of the issue, those are the types of communities most there’s no reason why Republicans in Congress likely to live in flood-prone areas with weak aren’t already convinced. Macron has, in the infrastructure. It stands to reason that fighting face of France’s continued protests, suspended climate change is not exactly a cause reserved the fuel tax increase and raised the minimum wage. But America isn’t seeing the same for the elite. This is not a lesson that Yellow Vest demands for environmental and economic protesters need to learn, though. Official justice, perhaps because Trump’s working-class documents released by the movement’s rural supporters are more likely to believe the organizers call for ambitious climate action, myth that the two conflict with one another. but in a way that places the financial burden Once again, Trump proves that he doesn’t not on France’s working class, but on the major actually care about the people who voted for corporations that emit the most carbon and him, and once again, the GOP proves that on use the most fossil fuels. Less than a week climate change, it knows; it just doesn’t care.