Gillette and the Double-Edged Blade of Shaming

Don’t Let Valid Criticisms Detract from the Message’s Importance

Gillette has recently released a new advertising campaign decrying toxic masculinity, and it’s proving to be surprisingly controversial. By the time my coffee hit the bottom of my cup this morning, I had a social media message from a friend wondering what I and a few of his other friends thought the opposition to such a beneficial message might be.

There were already a substantial number of responses when I logged on to consider the question, and they did an admirable job of outlining some of the potential complaints. Across the internet, I learned, a number of frustrated men were pledging to boycott Gillette in protest.

The frustration with Gillette, it appears, tends to fall into one of two major categories. These criticisms of the corporate equality and sensitivity movement are not exclusive to the Gillette issue, and this isn’t the first time they’ve come up.

THEY’RE USING CRITICISM AND JUDGEMENT TO PREACH SENSITIVITY

One of the problems that has arisen from the social push for widespread acceptance is that it necessitates not accepting those who are not being accepting. In order to correct unacceptable behaviors like bullying, sexual harassment…