Bumble & Serene Williams Super Bowl Commercial – It’s Not About Equality
Last night my wife and I were watching the Super Bowl featuring the Patriots versus the Rams.
Yes, for those of you wondering, I’ve eased up on my NFL boycott from last year. While I’m still not anywhere close to ever wearing any team apparel (or selling it on eBay in my online store), I’ve been casually watching games this past season, though mainly as TV background noise while I’ve been working. My TV antenna works great for picking up games on the local broadcast channels for free. Neither the NFL or its main sponsors will still (intentionally) get a single penny from me.
Anyway, early in the Super Bowl there was a TV commercial starring tennis champion Serena Williams. I’m definitely not a fan of hers, but being interested in marketing, I still watched the advertisement to see what product they were pushing on us viewers. And the end result was . . . rather confusing.
Serena Williams: Bumble Commercial
What in the hell is Bumble, and what does that have to do with Serena Williams basically telling girls to go out there and be fiercely aggressive in life? As it turns out, the message in the commercial and the product being sold are at two different ends of the spectrum.
Bumble.com – Women are equal but have more power.
Going to the Bumble.com website, it’s quickly noticeable that the social networking website very obviously promotes the message that women should be in control of communication. By being in charge of the conversation, especially in the beginning, you establish dominance over the other person. It’s the same principle as talking “down” to another person, one person screaming louder than another to gain an edge, or somebody being extremely long-winded and just rambling on and on and on as a way of maintaining control of the conversation.
But when you keep looking at the website, you’ll see that they also heavily promote equality as well as being a “safe space” to communicate.
So which way is it? Either everybody is equal, or women are automatically placed in control.
You cannot go around preaching equality and kindness and “leveling the playing field” while also heavily promoting the notion that women should be naturally empowered and the ones in control of the conversation and, thus, whatever relationships are created. That’s not how it works if you want to be taken seriously.
Let’s take a further look at Bumble’s website and try to figure out its conflicting message to the consumers.
Bumble.com – Equality with dating, but women are in control.
Right off the bat we learn that with Bumble’s dating feature, women are the ones who have the power to initiate the conversations. Somehow this “levels the playing field” in the world of online dating. Correct me if I’m wrong, but from what I’ve seen, pretty much every single dating website on the Internet allows both men and women to equally initiate conversations. Then why is it so important to have a website for women to be allowed control of choosing to initiate the conversation? Is it less scary that way?
Oh, that’s right. The magic word was used in the question. It’s all about CONTROL. Not equality between men and women, but controlling and placing one above the other. According to Bumble’s website, women are the ones in control there. The women decide who they want to flirt with and talk to on the website. Men can only sit on the sidelines and wait until they’re contacted by a woman.
On a side note, does it look like a guy is holding the phone in that picture? That makes me wonder if Bumble supports true equality and allowing male-male dating profiles and relationships. If that’s possible, then how are conversations started since the website keeps reminding us over and over again that WOMEN are the ones who get to start conversations, and not men?
Bumble.com – Women required to move first = equality.
Again on Bumble’s website we’re reminded that in their vision of “equality,” it’s the women who are given the power of making the first move and initiating conversations. That’s right. Men and women are equal, but here women are given control and more power.
Bumble.com – Empowerment and control in relationships.
The Bumble website also informs us about the importance of healthy relationships and feeling empowered. It’s kind of odd though that at this place, women are automatically “empowered” simply by being women. They are the ones who are given the power of control, and not each side equally. How does that help develop a “healthy relationship” when one side is given an unfair advantage from the beginning?
Bumble.com – “It’s a movement.”
On the Bumble website they acknowledge that this is basically part of a movement disguised as being part of a push for equality and, in their own words, integrity, kindness, confidence and respect. You can even see it in the picture of the four people. While we know that all four of them are sitting at the same height, by changing the angle of the picture, we can see that the two women are elevated above the two men. It looks like the guys are almost kneeling and bowing to the women, patiently waiting for them to acknowledge their presence.
How is that equality?
How is that integrity?
How is that respect?
How is that kindness?
How does that help women build confidence?
Just because women are in power, are we to just assume that they’ll be kind rulers who will treat everybody with kindness and respect? If you believe that, then you don’t know women. Just like men, women are just as prone to bully, belittle, tease, taunt, and be vicious and cruel in every way possible. They can also rob, steal, cheat, lie, and commit murder.
Looking back at Bumble’s Super Bowl commercial, what kind of message was Serena Williams sending us? It wasn’t one of compassion or kindness. Nor was it a message about respect or equality. She presented a very strong and intimidating female who made it her personal mission in life to go out there and not just defeat, but to crush everybody in her path. Go out there and kick some ass.
Serena’s message was clear — instead of sitting and waiting for a chance, women need to step up and make it happen. And here’s Bumble to help give women that advantage. But does the social media site really do that?
FINAL THOUGHTS
Oh boy. Where do we begin?
As it’s been pointed out numerous times, Bumble’s website sends a hypocritical message of pushing equality yet blatantly giving women a big advantage, simply by being women. This is modern feminism — the current “movement” of not making men and women equal, but rather putting women ahead of men.
And that’s clearly the message I received when visiting Bumble.com. It’s like it’s a “protected” environment created to give women an edge, solely to help them feel better. And in the end, that just hurts women more than it helps them.
Why is it so important to have a dating site where only women can initiate the conversations? To make them “safer”? To help them feel better? So they can be “empowered” by making guys sit and wait until *they* feel like making contact?
How many decent guys do you think are going to willingly put up with that kind of attitude?
Very few, if any. A company that essentially promotes an anti-male attitude is going to run off many of the decent guys that so many women want to marry.
bumble – to blunder awkwardly; muddle; stumble or stagger; speak in a low, stuttering, halting manner
For a place that showcases empowering women and helping to boost their feelings, it’s odd that they chose the name Bumble. Normally, the word bumble is used as a derogatory term to describe something sloppy, or the actions of an imbecile or a buffoon. It’s not a word that’s associated with something strong, powerful or smart. In fact, it’s just the opposite.
Why in the world would a woman choose to be associated with a place whose name, by definition, is something so lowly and demeaning?
On top of that, why would a woman also choose to participate in a social networking website that holds men back and gives women a big advantage? Again, so they can merely feel better?
It seems like Bumble.com is, by definition, an oxymoron. It also contradicts itself. If you want women to be stronger, you don’t put them in a protected environment that gives them a big advantage. That clashes directly with the TV commercial featuring Serena Williams. Instead of being protected, you put women somewhere that gives them equal footing, and making them compete with everybody else, fair and square.
You don’t feel successful by beating a game while in “easy mode.” Anybody can do that. If you truly want to succeed, you’ll have to learn how to play hard and succeed, just like in real life.