Guns and penises . . . The marketing of death.

[AndyS]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Spazito (a host of the General Discussion forum).

The Sandy Hook lawsuit against Remington hinges on one thing: Do gun manufacturers aim advertising at vulnerable males who feel their masculinity is threatened?

Remington is willing to pay $33 million to keep their marketing information secret. There must be some really nasty shit in those memos, don'ya think?

So, do gun makers advertise to men who might need a little, ah, 'boost'? You be the judge . . .

?w=223&crop=0%2C0px%2C100%2C300px&ssl=1



When they aren't pandering to the misogynic impulse with semi naked women there's always the epitome of testosterone; the Military image of war fighting tough guys.





Then there's the ad to end all ads:



Yet I have it on good authority from any number of gunners that guns are NOT penis substitutes . . .

[Devil Child]

1. I knew my mom was compensating for something when she bought her first AR

Does that mean she has internalized a subconscious desire for a penis? Heavy stuff I’m gonna sit with this a while.

[AndyS]

4. I'm just lookin' at the ads and the lawsuit.

Men who own guns outnumber women who own guns about 5:1.

You can make your own judgement regarding your Mom's penis envy . . .

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Gives new meaning to the term "gun humpers".

[Kingofalldems]

3. Prepare for the gunswarming....

[Devil Child]

5. These threads are mating calls for pro and anti gunners

Enjoy it for what it is.

[Dial H For Hero]

9. I no longer invest any significant effort in countering threads such as this.

When the entire point of an OP is simply to belittle those
with whom one disagrees on the topic, especially when framed in such a juvenile manner, what’s the point?

[Hoyt]

10. LMAO. The point is not to "belittle" gunners. The point is, the gun industry identified you guys

as potential buyers and focused their ads to attract you. It worked.

As I've said before, your user name is fitting for your attraction to gunz, body armor, lethal accessories, etc.

[AndyS]

11. No, the point is to keep the fetish that kills close to 40,000 people in the good ole' USA

at the forefront of consciousness.

These deaths are largely preventable except for about 3% of voters who contribute to the Gun Lobby so they can BUY legislators.

On the other hand if you want to defend the industry's marketing I welcome the input.

[Devil Child]

13. don't kinkshame my ammosexuality

[USALiberal]

14. Lol, not a shock from you! Nice try though! Nt

[radicalleft]

6. OMG...you mean to infer that SEX sells!

Whodathunkit!

[Wounded Bear]

7. Sex sells...pretty much anything...

[stillcool]

8. could be guns or penis

while not every gun-lover is without a penis, most appear to be lacking.

[sop]

12. As a consequence of this pistol/penis psychology, semi-hot chicks fondling guns are becoming

ubiquitous in today's GOP. A horde of skanky pistol packin' mamas like Boebert, Greene, Noem and Cammack have been capitalizing on all this toxic masculinity, manipulating vulnerable Republican male voters and turning their campaigns into massive electoral circle jerks.

[LastDemocratInSC]

15. I've heard that Glock has a new model

The model identifier is PNS X10 DR.

[Zeitghost]

17. I'm still curious how this lawsuit will succeed

When the woman who purchased the firearm (and therefore was the one presumably influenced by this marketing) was not the shooter.

[AndyS]

20. It's not about the one that bought it, but the one that used it and

the toxic marketing of the product and what it is for.

[dweller]

18. bang bang

shoot shoot


✌🏻

[Caliman73]

19. Hamburgers and penises, cars and penises, etc...

Sex has been used to sell any number of products. Saying guns are a "penis substitute" is simplistic and seems only meant to insult people.

You can certainly say that sellers are appealing to a sense of masculinity, and fear about ones ability to defend oneself. That is pretty clear. You can say that that kind of masculinity is toxic. No argument there.

When you reduce the argument against guns and how they are marketed to "penis", you are essentializing men and feeding into an actually sexist (which us men have imposed on ourselves) trope that keeps men siloed into an idea that we have to be big and strong and virile and aggressive.

Just like the clothing industry and the make-up industry target the vulnerabilities of women's self esteem, ALL advertising targets vulnerabilities. We are sold "what we NEED", what we want to become, what we want others to see us as.

Look at a beer commercial. Two average guys (not overly average mind you, just average enough) walking around. They pop a Coors Light and all of a sudden, a party with scantily clad women erupts and they are at the center. What is that selling? Beers and penis?

[fescuerescue]

21. If the message that sex sells products gets out

oo boy.

Next thing you know, they'll be selling beer, cars, makeup, clothes using sex!

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

22. So you're saying we need advertising regulation? n/t

[Spazito]

23. *LOCKING*

Host consensus is this OP doesn't meet the criteria in the SOP for this forum:

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