Contact Dockers over their Sexist, Anti-Feminine Ad Campaign

Update: glaad awarded levis today.. Why! Powell station in sf now reads welcome to manfranciaco Contact Dockers at 1-866-290-6064. This advertisement is seen in print and on billboards in San Francisco. To suggest that men should "wear the pants" is offensive to women and anyone who doesn't live in the last century. The advertisement also tears down men for their involvement in anything that society may find too feminine for their rigid gender roles such as eating at the salad bar or sipping lattes. This "joke" is tired and offensive.

GoodAsYou even reports that Focus on the Family is hailing this campaign as a victory for their support of traditional gender roles. Dockers is owned by the same company as Levis, which has historically been a gay-friendly company. I guess they just advertise to their target markets without any real commitment to equality.

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Comment by simon arrowman on December 12, 2009 at 11:55am: These words as many will tell you Paul are the bottom section of the discrimination pyramid, which at its peak results in murder, a person can be pushed into doing something that they do not wish to do by peers, when they do not acquiesce they they will then be verbally abused, which in turn leads to minor physical abuse, which can then lead to violent attacks and then if things continue unchecked murder can ensue. All these things start with words, words can kill.

Comment by simon arrowman on December 12, 2009 at 11:57am: Just because we have a harsh reality of consumerism doesn't mean we have to accept it, where would the black lobby be today with the view that 'we cannot change things'

Comment by Mark Daniel Snyder on December 12, 2009 at 1:17pm: paul making a quick phone call is really easy to do it doesn't mean we aren't still keeping the big picture in mind and fighting the larger battles, my life is dedicated to fighting the larger battles so don't for once belittle me by suggesting otherwise. and again you've taken a swipe at feminists - that needs to stop - as a member of queertoday you should consider yourself a part of that movement not separate from it.

Comment by Mark Daniel Snyder on December 13, 2009 at 3:00am: It takes about 2 minutes to call dockers and probably about 6 or 7 to write all that, I would imagine. It took me about 8 minutes to throw up the blog post and call dockers, that doesn't mean it's some sort of priority campaign of the LGBTQ rights movement. Calls to congress should especially be about ENDA and Healthcare right now and we have of course sent out many action alerts and blogs about those issues.

Also, i want to ad that I live in San Francisco and these ads are literally on like 70 percent on the bus stops - it's obnoxious. What message does that send to women and queer people and children, and society in general that men should "wear the pants" and act according to their gender role stereotypes? What impact could that be having on everyone that has to wait for the bust next do these ads every day? I think it's worthin thinking about, and it's worth making a 2 minute phone call about.

Comment by Mark Daniel Snyder on December 14, 2009 at 3:38am: theres nothing wrong with being butch and proud of it from bears to leather guys and beyond. that's different than saying all men should "wear the pants" aka be in charge and the dominant person in a relationship or in society. i encourage you to see beyond a binary concept of gender and sexuality

Comment by Jamiego on December 14, 2009 at 7:01am: Hear, hear, Mr Freeze

Comment by Sparkplug on December 15, 2009 at 5:46pm: Mark Daniel Snyder, I would die to support your right to be a sissy. I would even LIVE for your right to wear a skirt, after all, I myself wear a kilt about 1/2 the time. You are reading this ad as literally as the most idiot Christians read their bible, literally. The salad bar is a metaphor. So is the latte. So are the pants. (That little old lady is not a metaphor, however. She's real and she needs the help of an adult man or woman to get through her day.) Read THROUGH the metaphors, re-think the real message behind this ad, and consider its social message seriously.

Have fun with Lady GaGa. She's a metaphor, too.

Comment by Mark Daniel Snyder on December 16, 2009 at 6:50pm: I encourage everyone to read our "about us" mission very closely.

1. Builds community among queers;

2. Expands community dialogue and strengthens relationships among queer movements and allied movements for social, economic, racial and environmental justice;

3. Urges mainstream LGBT rights groups to respond to perspectives of marginalized communities and promote a broader social justice organizing strategy;

4. Supports and creates media campaigns and protests to bring queer left perspectives into the public sphere.

Comment by Mark Daniel Snyder on December 16, 2009 at 8:38pm: Sparkplug - the only thing they are metaphores for is things that are considered effeminate. Come on - you know this ad is all over the place and most people who see it take it as validation for males to "wear the pants" in society and relationships. It's just sexist flat out. There's no irony.

Comment by Mark Daniel Snyder on December 16, 2009 at 8:47pm: Many of your comments are longer than my original post asking people to take a few minutes to call dockers. A few of you have spent a lot of time criticizing this post, or disagreeing with the need to call dockers, so maybe you should re-evaluate your priorities too. At QueerTOday we blog about stuff that's going on in the media and we call people out on their shit - big or small. We also keep the big picture in mind and we DO take off our gloves and get our hands dirty. In fact QueerToday has organized some of the largest protests the right has seen.

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