Or, 3 Reasons Why This Ad and Thousands Like It Are Responsible for That Twitch In My Left Eye
1. It promotes the assumption that all women don’t like sports.
Look, girls just don’t get the same encouragement to watch and play sports when they’re young as boys do. It’s a handicap being barred from the Almighty Boys’ Club from birth—otherwise we might be more likely to ref games and rattle off stats and call plays or pitches like naturals. As it is, ladies generally have a lot of catching up to do. And, God help us, we have a lot of condescending shitheads around to snicker when we use the wrong term or ask a dumb question. But despite all this, some of us ACTUALLY ENJOY SPORTS. Ok? Is there any way we can, like, circulate that memo nationally, or something?
2. It promotes the assumption that all women only want to talk about their feelings.
Note the way she throws out those ominous phrases: “I feel like” and “I’m oversensitive” and “It’s just that you and I…”. Har har, ladies are so crazy, am I right, fellas? She hauled this poor dude to some fancy restaurant so they can endlessly discuss her emotions. What a drag. Women suck.
3. It promotes the assumption that all men don’t care about their relationships.
Sexism goes both ways, people. Ads try to pigeonhole women as the cleaners, the dieters, the shoppers, the sex kittens or the moms. But ads also try to cast men as the beer-drinkers, the truck-drivers, the idiots, the sports fans, and the jerks. Those assumptions are just as inaccurate as the stereotypes promoted about women—and they’re just as damaging.
Reasons Why 
I hate this commercial too! I agree with all 3 points. It’s also annoying because it promotes the assumption that women aren’t cool with their husbands watching sports at all. I never complain when KC has games on or watches sports center, even if I don’t happen to be interested. It doesn’t bother me! And if he checked his phone at dinner, I’d probably not jump all over him about it! What’s the big deal?
I KNOW. Although I have to say I complain when Tyler turns on golf. But that’s not because I hate sports or hate that he watches sports a lot. Golf is just…it’s just too much.
I think its a great commercial. It is funny and effective. It’s not promoting gender roles, its merely using gender stereotypes (which exist due to natural physiological differences between men and women) to promote the speed of the wireless connection on that phone.
That being said, we should applaud the fact that it shows that two black people can afford a fancy restaurant. How far we’ve come!
I think we disagree on the fundamental point: I believe traditional gender roles are a result of our culture’s twisted values, not anything biological or genetic. We expect men and women to behave a certain way because we’ve all been socialized to those (unfair and inaccurate) norms. That’s why commercials like this are not only annoying, but harmful. Thinking like “all men are so-and-so” and “all women are such-and-such” is a hindrance to equality and respect between the sexes. Also, it’s just bad for your brain. Generalizations are easy and lazy and absorbing them all the time from mass media is detrimental to the mind, just like eating junk food all the time is unhealthy for your body. For instance, you say are pleased to see commercials showing black people eating at a fancy restaurant. To me that indicates that you may have absorbed some stereotypes about African-Americans and their level of wealth and culture, and perhaps you are not closely examining why you think that or how that stereotype might be inaccurate. In short, I firmly believe that stereotypes are BAD. Exploiting them (and thus more firmly entrenching them in the minds of the public) to sell products is BAD.