Offended by the Outrage

When You Look For Something to Offend You, You Will Find It.

We are living in a day and age where outrage culture is like the soup du jour. It's just the flavor of outrage that changes daily. That’s both good news and bad news. The good news is, I'll never run out of stuff to comment on. The bad news is, I'll never run out of stuff to comment on.

When I first saw people expressing offense at the new Peloton Christmas ad on social media this week, I thought it was a joke. Much as I thought the Mattel card game Uno’s having created a version that changed their red and blue cards to orange and purple because the old colors were "too political" was a tongue-in-cheek piece by the satire site BabylonBee. 

Sadly, neither was the case. The DailyMail reported that because of outrage on social media, Peloton lost an estimated $942 MILLION of its market value share by having nearly 10 percent of its stock drop overnight. All of this was the result of people’s taking to social media and calling the ad sexist, misogynistic even cringeworthy. I never thought I’d live to see the day when an exercise machine would be accused of a #MeToo moment. (Although I did have an episode at a spin class in the early 2000’s that came close.)

In case you missed it because you live under a rock, or have no access to the internet (yet are somehow reading this article), the husband in the ad gives his wife a Peloton exercise bike for Christmas. The ad chronicles her year-long fitness journey, which she displays in selfie videos, the very last of these being a thank-you to him. 

That’s it. Period. Yet the outrage over this simple, sweet ad that’s supposed to be inspirational is real and fierce. But is this outrage well-placed? I say no —for several reasons.

1. The husband gave her a really nice, really expensive present— one that if if he wanted to, he could use as well. (We technically don’t know that he didn’t use it. Maybe he’s not as tech-savvy or doesn’t feel the need to chronicle every tidbit of his life on social media.) Not to mention, you can't share a gym membership or re-sell one when you realize, like everyone else on Jan. 30, you’re not really going to use it. So economically, it’s a far smarter purchase. 
2. Contrary to what the social media trolls say, he’s not subliminally or passive-aggressively telling her she's fat. (Although there is such a thing as “skinny fat” - google it.) It's not like he signed her up for a Weight Watchers or NOOM membership or gave her a gift card for lipo. There wasn’t a tag on the bike that read “Saddle-up, Chunkerina.” We know this because she was actually happy about the gift, as though maybe she’d mentioned wanting it in passing and was not only shocked but thrilled that he had actually heard her and remembered.
3.  It's not like he bought her a stereotypical domestic item from the 50's, like a sewing machine or a bread maker. It’s a super sleek super modern freakin’ exercise bike not a vacuum — which, in 2019, I would deem as sexist and misogynistic and one of the top five worst presents to give the woman in your life unless she specifically asked for it.

The bike was a gift of "I love you." I love you enough to spend $2,500 plus tax, shipping and a monthly subscription on you. I love you, so I want you to stay healthy so we can live a long, happy life together. If people somehow came away from the ad thinking he was being a sexist a-hole, that’s on them.

You want to know what a terrible present is? Let me enlighten you from my own personal experience. I was six months pregnant with my first child. I was miserable because my “daily constitutionals” were getting close to “weekly constitutionals.” So what did my darling husband surprise me with? A gift certificate for a colonic. Truly, one of the crappiest presents a husband could give his wife (pun fully intended. I wish it were a joke)! After my fully merited outrage upon receiving that gift instead of, oh, I don’t know, jewelry, I calmed down and with help from my mother; I realized my husband was merely trying to help. And as the “practical” solution-minded male that he is, that was the best thing he could come up with. Which made it technically a gift from the heart. (Not the head, --clearly.)

I get that everything is open to interpretation, and we are all entitled to our opinions — ‘cause guess what? They’re like bellybuttons — everyone’s got one. But why is it that we must always go for the most negative interpretation possible?! Is everyone turning into my 94 year-old grandmother, who was only happy when she had something to complain about?!

When I was in middle school, and I would come home upset about some middle school-esque transgression — like someone didn’t save a seat for me at the lunch table, or a neighborhood friend didn’t wait to walk home with me — and my mother would say, “Karith, you’re getting upset about the 1's and the 2's. What in the world are you going to do when the 9's and the 10's come along?”

That’s where we are, y’all. We’re spending all of our energy on the 1's and the 2's while we have 9's and the 10's happening all around us. So the question is, is this where we really want to be? I hope the answer is a resounding “NO!”

You know what does deserve our outrage and feelings of offense? The fact that our country is in a complete and utter tailspin, and the people we elected under the assumption that they are responsible adults are all starring in a cluster conference of epic proportions in our nation's capitol, and America is the laughingstock of the world. 

We should be upset that children across this country aren’t getting school lunches if their accounts are in debt. We should be livid that babies are being separated from their parents and put in cages. We should be furious that in over 100 years, our public education system has barely improved (and, in many cases, declined). We should be spending this energy worried about why the obesity rate in this country is at an all-time high. What are we shooting for, folks — to get diagnosed with Type 3 Diabetes?! THAT is the stuff we should be upset about — not a bloody commercial where a woman gets a piece of exercise equipment she’s happy about. It's time to get a grip America!