THE BEST A MAN CAN GET

By Michael Ricci

Recently Gillette released a commercial for it's shaving gel  in which it addressed serious issues like toxic masculinity, sexual harassment and the #metoo movement. The commercial is now receiving a ton of backlash online with people calling it a "disgrace" and swearing to never use Gillette products ever again.

To be clear - Gillette’s slogan since the 1980s has been the famous  "the best a man can get”, and their commercial is 100% taking that slogan and using it in terms of the #metoo movement. Personally, I say, good for you! However, mens rights activists along with famed pot stirrer Piers Morgan and others have tweeted that they will never use Gillette's razors again, whilst the ad has racked up almost 100k dislikes on youtube, and many have said that it is extremely insulting to men and ‘emasculates them’. 

Okay, I don't know about you, but I for one don’t think we all saw the same commercial - and before you form an opinion, please make sure to watch the ad first. 

This commercial showed that Gillette's slogan “the best a man can get", which they have been using for the last 30 years, actually holds irony and has for the last few decades, due to the overwhelming stories that have come out of women sexual harassment, and that regardless of that slogan being so apart of our lexicon - SOME men haven’t listened to what their statement actually means. That it had nothing to do with just the best choice of shaver, but an overall character trait, that the things that have come out in the news regarding COUNTLESS men harassing and acting inappropriate, is NOT the best a man could be.

The stance of many who have been attacking Gillette is that it “reflects many false suppositions” - I'm sorry, but this is just another layer of denial for many who refuse to acknowledge what has happened, and is still currently happening to women all over the world. It has NOTHING to do with not letting 'boys be boys', or 'men be men' or any other BS, it is simply about having men being GENTLEMEN, and Gillette's slogan is meant to embody many traits a men should carry with them on a daily basis.

But many people unfortunately have missed the point.

There was no bashing in the advert, there was no gender shaming, it was simply stating that there have been many, many, many, many, many instances in the last few decades where MEN COULD HAVE DONE BETTER. This is not saying that ALL men have participated in these heinous acts towards women, but it is saying that there have been enough stories, women, and PROOF of this behaviour that they as a company that represents MEN, have decided to address it. Sure, you could say keep these big companies out of our lives, and politics, but this issue is SO MUCH MORE than politics, and its worrying that people are still waving that flag. 

Women’s harassment, rape, and molestation, is not a political issue. It is a human issue. So all the naysayers spare the “get your politics off my shave gel” I beg you to read, LISTEN, and watch closer. I promise you nobody is trying to steal away your masculinity, or make you less than a man, if anything - we are trying to empower and educate. 

So my message for all the men out there who have been outraged with this commercial: be confident with your masculinity, be confident with who you are as a man, because I’m here to let you know this - empowering women, or being on the sidelines with them, does not make you a woman or any less of a man, it makes you a REAL MAN.

I for one applaud Gillette, and implore other companies, other MALE dominated companies to come forward and start speaking up, don’t let this very small but loud majority scare you from making a statement regarding issues that matter.