A recent Guinness ad has been getting a lot of kudos and I want to join in the praise. It involves a set of guys who get together to play a pick-up game of wheelchair basketball and then join each other at a bar to celebrate the game. Lots of people have mentioned that it’s nice to see (1) a lack of objectification of women as a form of male bonding and (2) a nice representation of people with disabilities. Both of those things are great in my book.
But here’s another thing I really liked: their retreat to the bar and their formation once they got there. They sat in a circle.
Why is this neat? Because scholars have found that male and female friendships tend to be different. Male friendships tend to be more “shoulder-to-shoulder” than “face-to-face.” Men are more likely to get together and do stuff: they watch football together, go out and play pool, have poker nights, etc. Women are more likely to spend time just talking, confessing, disclosing, and being supportive of each other’s feelings.
The benefits of friendship are strongly related to self-disclosure. And so men’s friendships — if they don’t involve actual intimacy — often don’t offer the same boost to physical and well-being as women’s friendships. The fact that these guys sit down together at a bar, in a circle, in order to engage in some face-to-face time after their shoulder-to-shoulder time… well, that’s really nice to me.
Thanks to Rebecca H. for submitting the commercial!
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 16
jennifer — September 23, 2013
There are a few surprisingly nice male bonding rituals in Ireland
I've been surprised to learn, the circle conversation is one I hadn't
noticed until you pointed it out here, very true of all ages.It's also common to see men out with their children on a Saturday, it's their time with the kids (possibly originating with 'Mums time off'). I've found men to have longer and deeper friendships in Ireland as well.
Umlud — September 23, 2013
Maybe I'm not understanding this point, but how else would a bunch of people sit down together at a bar to talk with each other? Or are you contending that men don't sit down at a bar to talk with each other? (If the latter is the case, then I've been "doing it wrong" for the pat 19 years!)
Cade DeBois — September 23, 2013
Yes, as a disabled person myself, I am glad for this. It hasn't been a happy time in past few weeks for us disabled folks trying to get heard amid the "hashtag" wars in social media. I am thoroughly amused that a beer commerical can achieve what hundreds of online feminists preaching intersectionality and inclusion can't (and passing mentions of "ableism" don't count--no points if you want to talk about your own or others' privilege yet still treat actual disabled people like we're invisible or not worth the time to listen to).
Thank you Guinness for showing disabled people are people and have the right to share spaces with the rest of humanity. This is apparently a very hard concept for some folks.
Rowan Thomas — September 23, 2013
it's also lovely to see wheelchair use not equated to being unable too walk. Now I'm not sure if the other players are disabled but the majority of wheelchair users can stand or walk if only a little yet we get looked at very strangely if we e.g. stand up to reach for something.
Carol — September 24, 2013
The thing that struck me the most about this ad was that at the end of the game, all but one of the players gets out of the wheelchair and walks out of the gym. The remaining player wheels himself out among them. Maybe I'm missing something obvious in what everyone has said, but I've never seen a commercial where people have put themselves in the same situation as the disabled person in order to have them participate, rather than having them watching from the sidelines. I thought it was great.
The Omnivore — September 26, 2013
I didn't dislike the ad--and I like the idea of handicapped people getting more props in general on TV / media. This, however, is a pretty thought-provoking analysis of it (Note: TLP is pretty provocative): http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2013/09/real_men_want_to_drink_guinnes.html
Doug Terpening — September 26, 2013
Incredible commercial. Makes me love Guiness even more. Thanks for posting this and your comments.
Alison — September 26, 2013
If you want a more in depth look into ads like this and what they say about the male mind you might be interested in this article
http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2013/09/real_men_want_to_drink_guinnes.html
friendlysoviet — October 1, 2013
Actually, I believe its more of an allusion to King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. He and his knights sat at a round table because they wanted to see themselves as equals, which speaks volumes considering the wheelchair-bound friend. So it's probably more about honor and athleticism than it is them being Chatty Cathy's.