Check the Score

I was perusing Twitter one evening, as is my wont, when a friend from UT said, "Seen the ads where Good credit Scores are supermodel-ish men & the bad Score's fat & ugly? I wonder what'd happen if they were girls." 


Well, to begin with, the ladies on The View would spit out their coffee in indignation. People would be (correctly) outraged. The company would have to apologize in a serious hurry. It would become one of those infamous moments that women could point to for years about how sexism is still rampant. (I agree that it is, but that's not the point of this post.)

This is the first ad in the series. The bad score
digs earwax out of his ear. Source.

In fact, the more I think about it, I can't really think of any other way that ad could be socially acceptable. Age? What, two young people and one old one? Or two adults and one child? Another firestorm. So why is it okay to have two tall and muscular men vs. one short, fat, and/or ugly one?


Now, don't get me wrong: I enjoy looking at good-looking people. I'm happily married and have no desire to ogle other men-- in fact, by today's standards, I'm almost disgustingly happily married-- yet I still watch with rapt attention during Rafa Nadal's changeovers, just in case. Why? Because he's nice to look at.


But does that make the credit score advert okay, or fun, or harmless? I'm not sure that it is. Sometimes Chad will complain about societal double standards that favour women, and I tease him that I know it's hard that women get the breaks sometimes. But should I be okay with that? No. I'm not. As long as we entertain double standards in our culture, we invite friction between people, and most of it could be avoided if we just embraced that our differences don't have to make us unequal.


Have you seen the ads? Do you agree or disagree with the concept?