End-It Super Bowl Commercial Bingo

Will you be watching the Super Bowl this Sunday? I will be sort of watching it (probably doing something else while it’s on in the background and my partner and possibly some of his friends watch it), and I’m dreading the commercials. Objectification of women. “To be manly you must do X, Y, Z” messages. General sexism and homophobia. Sadly, the stereotypes and violence-tolerant messages so many marketers use for these commercials contribute to street harassment and  harassment and violence in general, whether we want to acknowledge it or not.

Via the Men’s Anti-Violence Council’s blog, I found out about a bingo sheet for the commercials produced by Riverview Center in Iowa. If you participate, you can enter a drawing for prizes. I’m going to print it out and use it! And then I’ll report back on it next week and use it to channel some of the frustrations I’ll undoubtedly have after viewing the commercials.

Thanks, Riverview Center & MAC!

And, on a related topic, Jackson Katz gives suggestions for how you can make the focus on Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger a teachable moment for boys and young men in light of his two recent sexual assault allegations.