Like a Girl

My favorite Super Bowl commercial was Always' "Like a Girl" spot, featuring boys and girls doing things "like a girl" and how different it looked.


Big Kid didn't like it.

"That was sexist," he said.

"No, it wasn't. It was fighting against sexism!" 

"Did they even warn these kids what was up? Or was it like 'hey, little Billy, you're going to be in a commercial! We're going to ask you to run and throw like a girl, you do that the way popular culture does and then we'll go ahead and show millions of people and make you look sexist. And roll!"

"Right, but the fact that popular culture thinks girls suck at things is the message."

"So, better trick a little boy into looking like a jerk to get that message across, right? I doubt he thinks girls suck, he just didn't know what they were looking for and was trying to give it to them. I mean, I know most girls can probably throw as good or better than I can, but if they asked me to throw like a girl, I wouldn't throw like I normally do because I wouldn't think that's what they were looking for." 

"Girls were doing things badly 'like a girl' too, though."

"Right but they are girls, so they don't look like total jerks doing that."

"Okay, but isn't it a bummer that doing something like a girl means doing something worse than you normally would?"

"That does suck. It also sucks that they tricked the boys. They don't need to make boys look bad to make girls look good."

"Okay, let's just agree not to say 'like a girl' anymore. I think that was the point."

"And that's a point I can agree with, but I don't like the commercial."

I still liked it.