Gillette on Detoxifying Masculinity

Gillette’s short film, “The Best Men Can Be,” has about 726,000 likes and 1.4 million dislikes on YouTube. Why the drastic discrepancy between likes and dislikes? Scrolling down through the comments section, you will find a series of comments, made mostly by men, declaring a boycott on Gillette – simply put, #boycottGillette. The irony of it all: Gillette’s ad intended to critique the very men that are in opposition to the message of the campaign – the men who deny toxic masculinity and gender inequality.

Toxic masculinity is a set of behaviors and beliefs that promote emotional suppression, toughness, violence, sexual dominance, and the weakness of femininity, perpetuated by the society we live in. This video addresses the concept as seen in American culture. It is an open letter to American males of all ages, challenging them to do better, to be better – it asks them to defy behavioral pressures imposed by society’s idea of masculinity. Gillette’s solution in countering toxic masculinity? To raise better boys so that they grow up to be better men.

The #MeToo movement is a reckoning across our country; people of all genders have been standing up and standing their ground declaring rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and the mistreatment of women is no longer accepted. “The Best Men Can Be” asks men to stop being bystanders to everyday sexism, as commonly seen in the form of catcalling or telling women to smile. At one point in the clip, a man starts to follow a woman walking down the street but is quickly intervened by another man passing by. Watching the scene took me back to a night in New York when I was coming home from work on Canal street. As I was walking, a group of boys around my age started to follow me. One of the boys, in an effort to try to get me to turn around, laughing, yelled “Hey! You dropped something!” I picked up my pace, not daring to turn around, and clicked on my last call, so that appearing preoccupied might deter the five or six boys following me. The fear I felt in that moment is something I will never forget. To be walking home in the dark and feel unsafe is a feeling all too many women know. While microaggressions like that may seem small, understanding, stopping, and preventing them are integral to preventing the aforementioned acts of violence. It asks fathers and older men to be role models for the younger generations of boys – if they act the right way towards women, then these boys can have a better understanding of what growing up to be “the best men they can be” really means.

Terry Crews, former NFL player, actor, and now activist, is featured in this campaign as an example of how men can recognize their own toxic behaviors and change for the better. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, he came forward with his own story of sexual assault, making himself vulnerable to the public and defying the expectation that men must remain tough in the face of pain and weakness. Crews has also been quite vocal about his own behaviors that were very much informed by toxic masculinity starting at a very young age. It took his own wife leaving him to force him to reflect on his own life and how the choices he made affected the woman he loved. As Crews demonstrates, by taking responsibility and understanding that toxic masculinity and sexism really do exist, men can not only treat women with the respect they deserve, but also become better upstanders when they see other men making women feel unsafe or uncomfortable. It reminds us that feminism isn’t just about women – we should all be on the same team here.

By Lola Proctor

NYU Student, cool connoisseur and undercover revolutionary.