Super Bowl XLIX Commercial

While watching the Super Bowl with some friends, I came across a lot of possible topics to inspire this week’s gender journal. However, one commercial really stood out between the flurry of funny and thought-provoking advertisements. Always’ “Like A Girl” commercial really made an impression on me and even managed to capture the attention of some of my sports-crazed friends.

The basic content of the commercial asks post-adolescent girls, women, and even a man to do certain things “like a girl” (i.e. throw like a girl, fight like a girl, etc).  Next they contrasted the reactions of older girls, men (and a young boy) to the responses of younger girls when asked to demonstrate these actions “like a girl.” The differences were obvious, the girls aged about 10 years old and under ran, fought, and threw like they normally would, while the older participants displayed weak, comical interpretations of the actions. The message Always was trying to present came across pretty straightforward. Being a brand that markets primarily to women, they point out that using “like a girl” as an insult has an increasingly negative connotation over time for girls as they grow up and then consequently link that to a drop in girls’ self esteem during puberty. However, I think there are more observations to make relating to gender roles for girls and boys in this commercial.

Something that I found notable about the video is that all of the participants who interpreted “like a girl” to mean weak, silly actions were all adolescent and older except for one young boy. This young boy who could not be more than 10 years old still had the negative interpretation of “like a girl” despite his young age. This seems like it would be contradictory to the goal message of the advertisement that “like a girl” becomes an insult after puberty, yet they still include this charming little guy in the commercial to help prove their point.

What conclusions can we draw from his reaction? To me, this suggests that not only does society create a hostile environment for girls as they grow up, but boys are also victim to the gendering process and it begins for them at an even younger age. The young boy’s female counter parts still viewed “like a girl” to be a positive or neutral statement while his interpretation of the phrase as an insult was obvious. He must have heard phrases like this from older men, on sports teams, etc. The pressure on young boys to be masculine (and consequently not “like a girl”) is equally as damaging to their self-esteem. I love that Always strives to celebrate femininity in this advertisement, but I wish they would have acknowledged that boys suffer just as much as girls in interpreting and asserting their gender as they grow up.