After surviving a drunken, violent father who victimised my mother, I know first-hand about the evils of domestic violence and the dangers of toxic masculinity. And I especially don’t need women like Jane Caro and Clementine Ford, in their defence of the misandrous Gillette advertisement, manshaming boys and men.

A scene from Gillette's 'The Best Men Can Be' ad. Credit:Gillette

While the advertisement is a great example of marketing and how transnational companies like Gillette disguise the fact that they only exist to make a profit by virtue-signalling, it does nothing to promote equality and respect between women and men, boys and girls.

By presenting men, with a few exceptions, as violent, misogynist, insensitive and sexist, the ad reinforces a one-dimensional male stereotype championed by second and third-wave feminists.

A caricature, as argued by the American feminist Camille Paglia, that promotes a “peevish, grudging rancour against men” and where “men’s faults, failings, and foibles have been seized on and magnified into gruesome bills of indictment”.