Make no mistake about it, Progressive Game is godamn clever. You almost have to respect it if it weren't so incredible insidious.

Yesterday I'm at the gym, getting in my cardio on the treadmill, and an American Cancer Society ad catches my eye... and even watching it muted, as I was rocking out hard to some Motorhead, the point of the ad was crystal clear and equally as enraging.

Instinctively, I nearly remarked aloud something like "COME FUCKING ON" or "BULLSHIT," but thankfully bit my tongue in time... I mean, just think, a white male making a nasty remark about a commercial in support of people with women with cancer... my goodness, I'd look like a tremendous prick.

And that's the genius behind Progressive Game- they preemptively shame you into not being able to be critical by shaping their agenda in something that exists beyond criticism; homosexuality, race, children, trans, and, in this case, cancer.

Of course I don't like cancer... I've had family members who have survived cancer. It sucks, and I feel sympathy for anyone who is fighting the disease. But, lets look beyond the surface shape the Progressive message is taking, and lets look at what the commercial is really saying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMahTqJOQCc (it's thirty seconds, watch it)

The first thing you'll notice is the word COURAGE. COURAGE. COURAGE is repeated as many times as possible in a thirty second TV spot. But whose courage are we talking about it? The girl with cancer is in it for less than ten seconds...

COURAGE. Yes, you're suppose to think it's about the courageous girl with cancer who lost her hair and is still going to prom.. that's a cute idea, but that isn't quite it, is it?

COURAGE. The bulk of the spot focuses on a handsome young Daniel LaRusso looking guy in a tuxedo approaching a front door to summon his prom-date. He looks nervous, so you think his date is some hot cheerleader, but no, the date turns out to be a bald girl with cancer.

The ad's repetition of the word "courage" refers primarily to the young man- his courage, in this regard, is in flouting traditional beauty standards and taking an ugly girl to the prom (regardless of the reasoning for why she looks the way she does).

I'm not imposing this reading on the ad- this is what they're saying: the girl is ugly, and he's courageous for not caring. If I'm not supposed to think the girl is ugly, why is the kid courageous?

Would this ad have ever have been made if the genders here were reversed? Take some cute girl-next-door looking girl showing up at a sick kids house; COURAGE. Would that ad have been made?

Of course not!

Because whomever made the ad INHERENTLY understands that an ad needs to resonate with the viewer! An ad just about CANCER awareness, or the courage it takes to fight cancer, is boring- especially when slotted during the daytime; TV made for women's feelies.

The idea is that this handsome young guy is showing COURAGE by disregarding traditional beauty standards, at his own loss, and that he's courageous (also see: "a real man"), for "doing the right thing" (at his own expense, of course), and still acting like a sickly bald woman is beautiful.

And if you disagree, you should feel the opposite of COURAGE, you should feel shame.

Again, it's a sweet idea, but it'd never happen if the genders were reversed... and why?

Because there are NO EXPECTATIONS on female behavior; COURAGE, define here by operating at a loss for the sake of women, is the EXPECTATION of a "good man" while women get to come along for the ride...

Not convinced? Ask yourself this, wouldn't the message of the ad be even sweeter if a COURAGEOUS guy with cancer showed up at the door and it was something like solidarity, or the two of them against the world?

Nah, guy's with cancer are icky.

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