Father's Day Adverts Harness the Laziest Kind of Sexism Towards Men

What does it say about women's expectations of male peers if advertisers know they can successfully sell us products by embarrassing a man who might be perfectly happy smelling like roses?

A week away from Father's Day, the adverts and press releases flogging potential presents to wives, partners and children are in full swing.

And with it, brands have initiated yet another gender offend-athon. Only this time, it seems to be women who should be checking themselves.

The first culprit in this line-up is a Moonpig advert spotted on the Victoria line, which bizarrely read: "[A present] for the dad who smells like roses because he keeps using mum's moisturiser. [To find] something a bit more dad, pop over to Moonpig."

Because dads dare not dream of smelling like a floral garden - who do they think they are? Jane Austen? Best invest in some more 'masculine' alternatives stat.

So head over to Moonpig where presumably you'll find toiletries scented like a football stadium or a pint of ale.

The stockists, aptly named 'Man Cave' also kindly taken the time to brand the items in black and brown packaging. You know, just so male friends don't mistake your new bathroom bits for a pregnancy test or god forbid some tampons.

But Moonpig aren't the only ones making hoping to make some painfully gendered sales this Sunday.

In a similar vein, supermarket Morrison's has announced they are launching a new mega 42oz 'Tomahawk' steak for "deserving dads".

They even decided to name the slab of meat after a large Native American axe, because what man doesn't love to think about violent historical weapons when they're doing their shopping?

A Morrison's spokesperson said: "The Tomahawk will offer dads this Father's Day the ultimate carnivore experience."

Afterall what is more manly than eating two week's worth of your recommended red meat intake in a single sitting?

And as for their wives, we hope you've picked out a salad for yourself.

Now in general, society is getting better at calling out and condemning brands when they do similar hideous things to female products.

Lest we forget the BIC "Pens for Her" fiasco, which saw the biro company thoughtfully design a lighter, pink version of their regular pen. You know for those women who'd been struggling to hold it's mighty weight and girth and wanted to draw hearts and kittens with a pastel pen instead.

And whilst there is undoubtedly a long way still to go in the female field, these male gendered adverts demonstrate plainly that women need to check themselves too.

What does it say about women's expectations of male peers if advertisers know they can successfully sell us products by embarrassing a man who might be perfectly happy smelling like roses?

Because quite frankly if celebrating being a good dad in 2016 still necessitates eating the back end of a cow to prove your masculine worth, then that really is a sorry state indeed.

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