A Photoshopped CoverGirl ad is currently circulating in an effort to oust NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for his atrocious handling of the Ray Rice incident, and take CoverGirl to task for being an NFL sponsor. Megan MacKay had a different approach to the NFL’s domestic abuse problem.
The Toronto writer and comedian’s other videos include satirical jabs at Nine West’s ridiculous “husband-hunting” shoe campaign and Legos’ female scientist set. Here, she takes Ray Rice and NFL to task via one of YouTube’s most popular platforms: the makeup tutorial. She uses foundation (“it’ll cover up anything just to save face”), eyeliner, and eye shadow to convey the victim-blaming and misogyny around this incident, and spotlight the institutional brokenness of the NFL.
“I really wanted to make this video because it’s frustrating for me to watch abuse victims get sidelined simply because their abuser is famous for something,” MacKay told the Daily Dot. “It’s totally wrong and it normalizes domestic violence in a way that really makes my stomach churn. I’m a comedian, so I decided to contribute to the dialogue in the only way I know how—through comedy.”
Some commenters felt she was making light of domestic abuse—or used the comments section to offer reasons why she’s wrong about Rice, of course—but in three minutes she drives home the point that we can, and should, do better.
“The support has blown me away,” MacKay said. “Before this, most of my views came from my mom and my dog, and though they claim they’re not biased, I’m pretty sure they are. I’ve been meeting so many wonderful people on Twitter and lurking the comments across the Web and, really, 99 percent of the people getting involved are just straight-up lovely. I realized there are way fewer axe murderers on the Internet than I thought. It was a great revelation to have.”
H/T Jezebel | Screengrab via Megan MacKay/YouTube