Exhibit A: Volkswagen Passat, Toss
Although the term "throwing like a girl" isn't officially slang for gay, it might as well be.
Exhibit B: Tide & Downy, The Princess Dress
As Jezebel pointed out: "When Stereotypical American Clown Father appears in a commercial for some housekeeping chemical, it's usually to demonstrate his utter incompetence (dads don't clean, silly! they spill rib juice all over the couch as they slip into a meat stupor over the course of a lazy Sunday afternoon) and promptly exit stage right, a freshly chastised goon." So it is great to see a dad who is not just a competent parent and housekeeper but also one who loves playing with his daughter. Maybe it's the fact that he embraces both the sheriff and princess roles his daughter plays that makes seem possibly be a little bit cowboy and a little bit queen himself.
Exhibit C: Subaru, Cut The Cord
This is the least obvious. There are no specific gay signifiers in the commercial. Still... Well, it pings my gaydar.
Am I reading too much into these? Am I just so used to seeing the TV trope of the heterosexual fathers being bumbling idiots that if a father shows a modicum of competence, I think he must be gay? That would be a sad statement. Maybe it's the absence of wives/mothers in the commercials that raises makes me look twice at them; however, there are like a million commercials of moms and there kids with no dad in the immediate picture, and I don't read them as lesbians. Perhaps the fact that same-sex couples raising children have been so much in the news because of the recent advances in Marriage Equality that I'm beginning to see them in the broader culture.
Finally, I'd just like to say to each of these three dads: If you're single and looking for a co-parent for your adorable child, call me, maybe?
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