Real men don’t like books.
Real men are not thoughtful.
Real men are idiots.
[Women in a book club are discussing a book in a living room.]
WOMAN 1: …so much passion…
[Other women agree. MAN, in a “Marmots” jersey, walks through.]
MAN: Have a nice book club! I’ll be at the game. [MAN spots beers in a bucket of ice on the table and stops.] Whoa. Here…we…go. [MAN sits between two of the women and begins passing out beers.] So what’s the story?
WOMAN 1: We were discussing the relationship of two women…
MAN: Two women?
WOMAN 1: …who are thrust together by war…
MAN: Ooh, thrusting. Okay, I’m with you.
WOMAN 1: …a war neither of them understands.
MAN: Awesome! Good times! [MAN takes copy of Little Women out of WOMAN 1’s hand and uses it for a coaster.] I love book club. [MAN singles out WOMAN 2, sitting across from him.] I’d like to hear you read some words.
NARRATOR: It’s a sure sign of a good time. The just right taste of Bud Light. Here we go.
WOMAN 3: So then do you like Little Women?
MAN: Yeah, I’m not too picky.
—Bud Light Superbowl ad, 2010; see Noel Murray, “The Highs and Lows of This Year’s Superbowl Ads”, The Onion A.V. Club, February 8, 2010 (available at http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-highs-and-lows-of-this-years-super-bowl-ads,37983/) (“But you’re not being hard enough on the ‘book club’ ad, which continues Budweiser’s long history of depicting anything even remotely cultural as wimpy chick stuff, largely intolerable unless there’s plenty of cold beer around. In fact, I’m pretty sure that the general response to this year’s Super Bowl commercials will be mild-to-strong disgust over how anti-woman so many of them were. I know it’s the norm for ads during sporting events to play up how ‘man time’ is sacred and ‘woman time’ is lame, but I’ve rarely seen that theme take such a hostile turn.”).
