Uh oh Fender... Instagram accusations of being misogynistic

usedtobe

Wazmeister said:

Bigsby said:

I reckon, if people continue to become increasingly thin skinned, humourless and desperate to be a victim of some one else's '-ism' at the current rate, we'll have to give up using words within the next 10 or 20 years. Things will quieten down then.

Absolutely spot on. Post of the year.

I think you’re off by about two posts..

grungebob

Well my Mrs  says you all need to get a grip. 

Gassage

brucegill said:

Gassage said:

brucegill said:

Your not allowed to say that Waz. Tut tut. 

Reported for cruelty to the common apostrophe.

I am offended.

That’s just offensive. I’m dyslexic you know! 

I had a mate who was a dyslexic tobogganist. He got pissed with me when I asked him for 200 bensons and some rizla's.

Bigsby

Gassage said:

My handy guide to Fender offences:

• Fender Bender? homophobic.
• Blackface - seriously?
• Brownface- racist
• Silverface- ageist.
• Junior range- nonces.
• Tweed- Elitist.
• Jaguar- offensive to vegans.
• Jazz- Elitist.
• Stack-knobbed- homophopic
• Through-body stringing- alludes to S and M- sexist.
• Male jack- sexist.
• Female jack- also sexist.
• Evil Twins- well, where do we start there?
• Pro- offensive to sex workers.
• Vibroverb- offensive to consonants
• Transformer- transphobic
• Input Transformer- mysoginistic AND transphobic
• Pickup- sexist

Pretty sure Telecaster is safe though.

You missed out: 

Tremolo meaning vibrato.

Fender have always struggled with words. 

NelsonP

I will be more than happy to buy anyone's rejected Fenders at heavily discounted prices, if you can't stand to hold onto them after this latest outrage.

AlexC

At least we know that a Fender Trans Acoustic is neither male nor female. 

zepp76

AlexC said:

At least we know that a Fender Trans Acoustic is neither male nor female. 

That would be non binary.

dindude

Wasn’t funny in the 70’s carry on Films, not really funny now - the worlds moved on people.

Funkfingers

By this logic, Fender would have to rename a bunch of their products. e.g. The Bassperson amplifier.

How long before a good chunk of Muddy Waters' back catalogue is banned for sexism and/or misogyny?

Bigsby

dindude said:

Wasn’t funny in the 70’s carry on Films, 

So what was the success of Carry On films based upon? Educational value? 

Seventies Carry On films may not be funny to audiences now, but they were funny to large audiences back then, let's not rewrite history. Apart from anything else, to do so denies us the opportunity to learn from it.

TeleMaster

Some people add 2+2 and make 5. Just because some people from Brazil feel objectified and complain about it, it doesn’t mean the sky is gonna fall and the world is gonna end. 

ThePrettyDamned

TeleMaster said:

Some people add 2+2 and make 5. Just because some people from Brazil feel objectified and complain about it, it doesn’t mean the sky is gonna fall and the world is gonna end. 

It's an advertising flop in bad taste. I don't know if people are offensive, but it's really stupid and makes the company look dumb. 

I like it when companies are smart. This might not be the end of the world, but it really does make Fender look stupid when they're trying to appeal to a more diverse audience. 

Philly_Q

AlexC said:

I don’t get it. What’s that photograph of two male models in their pants got to do with guitars. Not so much a humour bypass on my part, more a complete lack of understanding. Can someone clarify for me, please?

I assume the two gentlemen in question are "a pair of Brazilians".

Teetonetal

Bigsby said:

I reckon, if people continue to become increasingly thin skinned, humourless and desperate to be a victim of some one else's '-ism' at the current rate, we'll have to give up using words within the next 10 or 20 years. Things will quieten down then.

I'm not sure it's massively offensive, but it's certainly not humorous. It is just old fashioned and well past it's sell by date as a concept. The post is trying to be fun, cheeky and playful and just makes fender look like a tired out of touch company.

In today's environment a marketing professional shouldn't bring that concept anywhere near any company.

digitalscream

You know what? I'd love it if it turned out that Dennis Galuszka was gay.

Just for a bit of variety on the tired old Offence Olympics trope.

DaevidJ

digitalscream said:

You know what? I'd love it if it turned out that Dennis Galuszka was gay.

Just for a bit of variety on the tired old Offence Olympics trope.

Even if he was it makes no difference to the fact Fender put it out there and a person from Brazil was offended... This type of humour should have been consigned to the bin ages ago anyway.

prowla

There are people who just going around looking for things to get indignant about. 

I think the Carry On films are great. 

Last week at work at work a gay colleague said he really loves me in a meeting, to which I replied that I felt so gratified and all of us laughed. 

I’d hate to be in a world of grey where everybody is too scared to open their mouths in case they inadvertently say something which somebody might (deliberately) misconstrue. 

There are some things which are acknowledged to be offensive, but the PC thing can be taken too far. 

In my opinion, the Fender ad was pretty crap, but not worthy of a furore if affected indignation. 

digitalscream

DaevidJ said:

digitalscream said:

You know what? I'd love it if it turned out that Dennis Galuszka was gay.

Just for a bit of variety on the tired old Offence Olympics trope.

Even if he was it makes no difference to the fact Fender put it out there and a person from Brazil was offended... This type of humour should have been consigned to the bin ages ago anyway.

Meh. Innuendo isn't offensive, except to those who want to be offended.

This whole thing reminds me of the time when, not so long ago, a local coffee shop was trying to advertise to the local mums on their Facebook page and talked about hot Italians, and everybody got so offended the shop had to close.

Except nobody did, and it didn't, because it's not actually that offensive to real people because everyone, Italians included, can laugh along with it.

Or maybe it was the photo of the male Italian model that did it, not sure.

DaevidJ

digitalscream said:

DaevidJ said:

digitalscream said:

You know what? I'd love it if it turned out that Dennis Galuszka was gay.

Just for a bit of variety on the tired old Offence Olympics trope.

Even if he was it makes no difference to the fact Fender put it out there and a person from Brazil was offended... This type of humour should have been consigned to the bin ages ago anyway.

Meh. Innuendo isn't offensive, except to those who want to be offended.

This whole thing reminds me of the time when, not so long ago, a local coffee shop was trying to advertise to the local mums on their Facebook page and talked about hot Italians, and everybody got so offended the shop had to close.

Except nobody did, and it didn't, because it's not actually that offensive to real people because everyone, Italians included, can laugh along with it.

Or maybe it was the photo of the male Italian model that did it, not sure.

Heh i don't think you or i get to make the call tbh in this instance on what is or is not offensive. In Fenders case recognising that they have a playerbase that is not just white dudes damage limitation is probably good for them. This is though very small news in comparison to other controversies. It just comes as a surprise that their PR didn't twig... Then again not everything probably goes through their PR...

digitalscream

DaevidJ said:

digitalscream said:

DaevidJ said:

digitalscream said:

You know what? I'd love it if it turned out that Dennis Galuszka was gay.

Just for a bit of variety on the tired old Offence Olympics trope.

Even if he was it makes no difference to the fact Fender put it out there and a person from Brazil was offended... This type of humour should have been consigned to the bin ages ago anyway.

Meh. Innuendo isn't offensive, except to those who want to be offended.

This whole thing reminds me of the time when, not so long ago, a local coffee shop was trying to advertise to the local mums on their Facebook page and talked about hot Italians, and everybody got so offended the shop had to close.

Except nobody did, and it didn't, because it's not actually that offensive to real people because everyone, Italians included, can laugh along with it.

Or maybe it was the photo of the male Italian model that did it, not sure.

Heh i don't think you or i get to make the call tbh in this instance on what is or is not offensive. In Fenders case recognising that they have a playerbase that is not just white dudes damage limitation is probably good for them. This is though very small news in comparison to other controversies. It just comes as a surprise that their PR didn't twig... Then again not everything probably goes through their PR...

Hang on...I thought you said it was being born in Brazil that made it offensive? What's being white or male got to do with it? Plenty of white, male people born in Brazil every day.

Or...maybe it's not actually that offensive, in exactly the same way that I wasn't offended by the coffee shop's post to a bunch of thirsty mums (in both meanings of the word), despite being both male and of Italian heritage.

The thing is, in order to find this sexist and offensive, you have to make a bunch of assumptions, not least that it's about women. To people who find Brazilian women attractive, sure - that works. To people who find Brazilian men attractive...the post also works. Its phrasing is actually equal-opportunity that way. On that basis, it also strongly implies that Brazilians are...attractive. OK.

So...the only conclusion I can draw is that the gender and ethnicity of the person who posted it is a key requirement for finding it offensive. That's not particularly appealing.