Comments

• The Scoot says :

  I wish Escalade Jackson the very best in everything, and I commend him for lighting a candle instead of cursing the darkness.

  March 24th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
• withoutscene says :

  and they’re XL because he’s 6′10″

  Eh, not just because of his height, but his weight too. I find advertisements like this so sociologically interesting, especially since I study gender, sexuality, and fat/body size. I’m trying to picture a large woman marketed in the same way and it just doesn’t work because of the cultural messages we receive about gender, sexuality, and the body.

  to spare you of my endless academic musings.

  March 24th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
• withoutscene says :

  er, that should have been, “I’ll spare you…”

  March 24th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
• Lux Alptraum says :

  Don’t spare us!!! We love this stuff!

  I actually have to agree with you here. Men — especially black men — can be advertised as sex symbols, or in connection with a sexual product, regardless of body type. Women… not so much (though using a larger woman to advertise an XL condom would probably be problematic in other ways, too).

  March 24th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
• withoutscene says :

  This ad just communicates so much about masculinity and sexuality (virility)…gender, race, even class. And his body is central in the presentation of all of those things. Often fat men are feminized and their sexual abilities questioned, but this man’s body is presented as physically powerful and dominating, characteristics central to masculinity and hegemony/patriarchy.

  As a friend of mine pointed out, he is connected to the AIDS epidemic though his brother, so “he’s not tainted by the disease. he’s not gay, he’s not an iv drug user, he’s responsible when he fucks around.” Otherwise the connection to AIDS could fuck up their marketing of his masculinity entirely. And yet it is STILL in fine print.

  March 24th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
• The Scoot says :

  Sometimes, when one analyzes, one marginalizes. Escalade Jackson lost his brother to a scourge, and was presented with a way to stop such a thing from happening to other people.

  He took that opportunity. Slicing and dicing by weight, height, gender, and sexuality takes away from his wish to spread information and hope instead of fear and pain.

  Or at least, that’s how I see it. Simplify! Simplify!…

  March 24th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
• withoutscene says :

  @THE SCOOT

  I think I get what you’re saying, and I wasn’t trying to cheapen any important efforts he’s making.

  My admittedly cursory analysis was of the ad (and what it communicates in general from a particular point of view), not about him personally.

  March 25th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
• 2cute4words says :

  THIS AD SPEAKS TO ME. IM IN AWE OF THIS MAN AND HAVE BEEN FOR A WHILE. IM NOT GENERALLY INTO BIG MEN. BUT HIS SELF CONFIDENCE IS CONTAGIOUS, IN THE HOOD WE CALL IT SWAGGER. . I LIVE IN NY AND SEE HIM OUT OFTEN. GOOD TO SEE A DIFFERENT BODY TYPE PUSHED RATHER THAN JUST THE TYPICAL. KUDOS TO ONE CONDOMS AND ESCALADE

  March 26th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
• KY The Jelly Man says :

  I think the ad is Bananas!

  Big Troy is my DUDE and I know the kind of shorties that be out there on them B-Ball players.

  W/o Scene your perspective is validated in our overly hyped and “beautified” world.
  But it’s too academic when a person is doing something so primal as …… Fu#@ing.

  March 26th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
• USC2009 says :

  > he is connected to the AIDS epidemic though his brother, so “he’s not tainted by the
  > disease. he’s not gay, he’s not an iv drug user, he’s responsible when he fucks around.”

  EVERYONE is tainted by the disease… not just gay men and IV drug users. Kudos to him for NOT being either and still taking it upon himself to speak out. The world needs more of that, regardless of their body type.

  March 28th, 2008 at 1:55 pm

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