Blog 6

I have hated a lot of commercials over the years, but right now the one that irritates me the most is the Danica Patrick Go Daddy commercial that seems to pop up on television about every 2.3 seconds.

The short version is horrible, but Go Daddy promises a longer one on their website. I found it and, surprisingly, I like it a lot better:

Although I was tempted to dismiss this commercial as stereotypical and sexist because the police woman rolls around on a car like a sexually frustrated cat, the portrayal of Danica Patrick tells us a very different story.

The story starts out just like many other commercials geared toward men—a beautiful blonde woman goes from serious to sexually promiscuous after meeting someone she really likes. Just like the police woman in this commercial, the powerful woman immediately starts fawning over the object of her affection. She loses whatever power she has and becomes weak, needy, and eager to please.

The Go Daddy commercial plays with this stereotype by having the police woman perform her gender to a woman, not a man. And not just a woman, but a clearly heterosexual woman, who shows no interest and is, in fact, a little horrified to be in this situation.

For example, juxtaposed with the police woman's pretty ridiculous display of stripping off her clothes and dancing on top of a red convertible are Patrick's embarrassed expression and comments of "You wanna not scratch the car?" and "Did that make your neck hurt?"

Both Patrick and the unnamed police woman are very physically attractive women; the difference is is that Patrick in this commercial advertises GoDaddy.com without demeaning herself with sexual displays. By having her the calm, rational-seeming one (because what woman is really going to randomly strip and start pole-dancing in public?), Go Daddy actually supports the view of gender that women have value in things other than in their appearance. Danica Patrick is introduced by her achievements as a race car driver, and this makes the full Go Daddy commercial more feminist-friendly than I originally expected.

I just wish they would show the full version on t.v.