I’m sure many of you have seen the Dodge Charger Commercial that aired during the Superbowl. “Man’s Last Stand” was the premise. Men are tired, it seems, of living hollow and meaningless lives with their spouses. They continually allow themselves to be emasculated by their wives, doing things like watching vampire TV shows and carrying lip balm. Separating the recycling is unmanly. Answering the phone when your wife calls at work is unmanly. Two-hour meetings are also unmanly, though I don’t quite understand how that’s the woman’s fault, unless it’s a marathon marriage counseling session. Which the guys at Wieden & Kennedy are all going to need many of to keep their wives from leaving them, because of this commercial.

The angle of this ad is that men allow their sense of self to be stuffed down far inside of them, and it’s their wives’ faults. The only way a man could possibly put up with the bossiness and frivolity of a woman is to drive a super amazing car, like the Dodge Charger. It’s “all worth it” because they get to tear around at top speeds in a big car with a loud engine.

I’ve always thought Dodge Chargers were funny looking cars. I didn’t realize, until I searched for the Superbowl ad on YouTube, that the Charger had been around for a long time and had many incarnations. Like this one, from the 70s. Entirely different but equally offensive (at least they had the sense to pull it back then),  the older ad portrays the man as a bumbling goofball whose car is overtaken by beautiful women as he’s trying to ask his homely girlfriend to marry him. He drives away with the beautiful girls, leaving his would-be fiancée alone on the beach. The 70s message is “a hot car will get you hot women.” The 2010 message is “I only have this hot car because my wife is a bitch.”

The first ad I ever saw for a Charger was talking all tough about man things, and then when they showed the car, I laughed. “It’s a station wagon penis car!” I said. “Finally, someone made a penis car that you can still haul soccer gear and groceries in!” Already, the Charger represented a highly charged, if you will, statement about its driver. Every time I saw one on the road I’d think “Yup. Making up for penis size.” I guess maybe Dodge thought about that, and decided it would more effective to remove the station wagon aspect and market the car to men who’ve had it up to here with their stifling wives. The newest Charger looks more like a souped-up police car. Obviously, someone needs to feel like they’re powerful.

All press is good press, so the saying goes. The feminist blogs are raging; the manly men are starting to stand up for their man rights. The general theme of male anger in this year’s Superbowl ads is discussed at Salon and Time, but not many other outlets I would call “news organizations.” The deeper issue behind the Charger ad and a number of other ones shown during this year’s Superbowl is that men seem to be going insane. And there’s products out there to fix it. Trapped in the corporate world just so you can pay your stupid wife’s credit card bills (God forbid she remind you to put your beer can in the green bin instead of in the trash can. Real men don’t care about the environment, I guess?), sometimes you just want to scream. Why not channel that man-anger into making an extremely large purchase, one that your crazy wife will only allow you to have because you eat fruit with your breakfast and answer her phone calls.

Really, my thoughts on this whole issue are summed up pretty elegantly in Woman’s Last Stand, a video response to the Dodge Superbowl ad. My favorite line is that the woman will be “a lady in the street but a freak in the bed,” total Madonna-whore stuff still alive and well. The filmmaker brings it home with the last line: “You will watch Superbowl commercials that depict men as emasculated and oppressed, and I will feel so fucking sorry for you.” What else can we as women do, when we realize that men see themselves as spineless robots? They’re angry about having to work, they’re angry about being laid off and they’re angry that they have to reach compromises in their relationships. It really is pathetic. It’s easy to get upset with the many men trolling the message boards in support of the Dodge Charger ad, but sisters, just remember – their lives suck worse than yours and the only thing they can do about it is buy a car.

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