Intolerant Democracy
A company (and an ad agency) got a little bold with an ad and the result was one more proof of how a small group of people can make things go their way if they make some noise.
I’m looking at the ad and the only thing that makes me raise my eyebrows just a little is how the children call the “chef” “mum”. A mother is a female parent; a male parent is a father. A child with two male homosexual parents has two fathers, as simple as that. You can argue that one’s biological gender does not always coincide with the gender they feel they are and in that case, if they truly go through all the trouble of making that obvious for enough time, it might be more appropriate to call them according to the gender they feel they are instead of their biological one, but the “chef” looked very manly to me so that’s not the case.
But aside from that perhaps slightly bad choice of words, what’s wrong with it? How many “happy family” ads do you see every day? Why’s this any different? Yes, you have two men instead of a man and a woman… So? I really can’t understand why’s that any different. (I also wonder whether the complaints would have been just as bad if the ad would have featured two women. I highly doubt it…) It’s like something I recently read in Throne of Jade, when Riley found out about women being among the aviators. Temeraire listened to his comments with increasing confusion and eventually said he doesn’t understand why ought it make any difference at all, at which Riley looked “very much as though he had been asked to justify the tide, or the phase of the moon”. I guess I’m like Temeraire (and therefore not human) in that aspect. For me such differences make absolutely no sense, though it’s obvious that for a lot of people (likely most of them actually – which is why we need to come up with something better than democracy as soon as possible) it makes absolutely no sense for these things to be seen as similar. Maybe time will change things… Hopefully… But how much of it do we still have?
You should also take a look at one of the first “problems” listed as being mentioned in the complaints, namely that it made parents have to explain same-sex relationships to their children. (Though the ad could not have been aired during children’s shows because the product is considered unhealthy.) Excuse me, but that’s great! If your child can already understand the concept of relationships then they should also understand the concept of same-sex relationships and it’s your job as a parent to make sure that happens! If an ad makes you no longer be able to delay such a talk with your child then it should be praised and you should be scolded for delaying it until then. But, of course, most parents think they’re Gods when it comes to their children, they have all the answers and can never be wrong. I think laws can be partially blamed for this, but that’s another story…
While I don’t believe them when they say they had something else in mind when they came up with the idea for the ad, it was obviously meant to draw attention, I’m certain they expected viewers to be far more tolerant. They wanted people to talk about it, but not complain so vehemently. But whenever you make the mistake of thinking people are not that bad they strive to prove you wrong.
Still, what this proves is how a small group of determined people can make a difference. Their cause was not a good one, I don’t think intolerance and ignorance can ever be considered good causes, and 200 complaints certainly isn’t that many, but they acted quickly enough and were loud enough to have an impact, which resulted in them having things go their way. A lot of us should learn from that. Always make yourself heard by any means necessary, it’s very hard to make a difference otherwise… Unless you are already in a position of authority, of course, but we’re not talking about those.
