so a lot of people have been talking about this new Gillette commercial that
is focused on toxic masculinity now you guys have probably seen this commercial
because it's playing absolutely everywhere and everybody's talking about
it right now but it basically features a lot of scenarios where there's guys
doing really crappy stuff and it has this message about how the culture needs
to change and then towards the end of the video it shows a bunch of guys
correcting other guys and really I'm trying to get them not to do those
things but also really emphasizing that message that right now kids are watching
little children are watching what the adults are doing and sort of your
behaviors gonna impact that next generation so this video has garnered a
lot of controversy it has gotten support from some folks it's being absolutely
trashed and vilified by others and I was actually just watching YouTube and I
watched a guy that I used to really like his videos and watched fairly regularly
Wranglerstar and he just posted a video about his point of view on it and I
gotta say I'm really disappointed here is take on the whole thing now now there
are a lot of really good reasons to be skeptical about this Gillette commercial
there's so many good reasons to be skeptical about a large corporation
practically animal that is using a major topical issue to garner attention and an
attempt to sell more products because at the end of the day whether you like the
message or you despise the message that you're less putting out there right now
the message is ultimate goal and ultimate measure of success is did it
help them sell more razor blades and now I know I might be a little bit cynical
because I used to work in the advertising industry but I really would
push you all to recognize the fact that corporations are driven by profit is
absolutely their ultimate goal particularly publicly traded
corporations they are driven to act in the benefit of their shareholders as
their primary concern that means that you know Gillette or the parent company
Procter gamble they are essentially trying to use the
issue to draw attention to their brand and in doing that draw potentially
favorability to their brand and drive sales forever and that that is a fact
but that issue alone wasn't enough to make me want to flip on the camera and
record this and post it it was really Wrangler stars awful awful take on the
subject that inspired me to do this you know Wranglerstar really got into
this idea of you know they are saying masculinity is toxic and oh look at this
ad they're you know trying to position things that men have been doing for
years as toxic and awful and they're saying masculinity in general is awful
and actually that's not what the message of the commercial was if you actually
wash it you actually pay attention you know recognize that there is a
difference between saying that there is toxic masculinity versus saying
masculinity is toxic there's two different things
toxic masculinity is a real thing it is a real problem and it's something that's
been going on for a lot of time and the fact that we as a society are just
starting to grapple with it I think is important to know and I personally hope
that it brings about some good change but it does make me say how insecure are
you to say that when you hear toxic masculinity you're hearing that idea
that masculinity is toxic there I mean there are plenty of things about
masculinity that are great and I hope still long continue but you know sexual
harassment sexual abuse bullying you know that type of a stuff isn't good and
so why would you want that to be an element of masculinity in the first
place and so if this whole rant about toxic masculinity wasn't enough to make
me say wait a minute why am I subscribing to this guy on YouTube you
know Wranglerstar then proceeded to make the whole commercial about race and
an assault on the white man and he even goes to that tire tire Lynam oh I've
worked with people of lots of different backgrounds and you know this softens
like I work with Chinese people and I work with Filipino people and I work
with people from Africa of anybody like how are you using that
as your definer of you not being a racist in fact I would argue that people
who are using that as their definer of not being racist are most likely a
racist most likely most likely now the commercial goes through a number of
different scenarios showing a number of different men both acting badly and
doing the right thing and correcting those who are acting badly it shows them
coming from a number of economic backgrounds and it shows them coming
from a number of racial backgrounds but for whatever reason the one scene where
there's a black guy who corrects the bad actions of a white guy and says hey dude
you shouldn't be doing that that was the scene that that absolutely
triggered Wranglerstar made him feel like he was under assault that term
snowflake gets kicked around an awful lot but you know what I've gotta say I
think it might actually be appropriate here look as a white guy I would like to
say to Wrangler star another white guy that we have historically the United
States of America is white guys been in a position of power and while we've been
on this trajectory as a society towards greater racial and gender equality or
far from there and I believe you should be using your position of privilege to
help those who may not have a voice and you shouldn't be using it to try to
preserve some sort of crumbling status Club look nobody likes to be scolded and
nobody likes to be called out for not doing the right thing but Wranglerstar
sorry I gotta say I don't think you did the right thing here I don't think your
message is helping us as a collective Society in fact I think it's hurting us
and making it more divisive you come from a position of power like it or not
you have more than a million subscribers on YouTube there are a lot of people who
listen to what you say on a regular basis and if you use that platform and
you use that voice to to try to drive greater wedge amongst people in society
I gotta say shame on you dude come on you better than that I mean the only
reason I'm even making this video because I feel this connection in Kenya
with you from watching your videos over the years and I I actually found you to
be one of those people that really motivated me to get up off the couch and
change my life and move out to the middle of nowhere and try to start a
farm and and you using your voice in this way it just disappoints me it
doesn't it doesn't bring good to the world and so I really wish you'd get
back to showing me which $9 axe on Amazon actually works the best and and
get out of this mindset where everybody's against you as the white man
in society it's kind of ridiculous and I just think it makes you look foolish if
you want to have a conversation about this - I'd be happy to and I'm not
talking you know doing it over comments or whatever I'm talking about having a
real conversation because it just as a fan it disappoints me and I know you'll
probably write me off and I write this off and you probably wouldn't even see
this video and you're a couple of your fans will see it call me some dumb
social justice warrior but believe me I'm furthest thing from it I'm just a
guy who's out here trying to say to you man you gotta use your platform for good
you've got to use your platform to make this world a better place and I think in
the message you're really starting to spread more and more about this weird
persecution complex that you have you're not doing that and in fact I think
you're making the worst place it disappoints me