Super Bowl Ads - Why do they hate women?

Did anybody notice the anti-female nature of the Super Bowl commercials this year? The television critics couldn't ignore it - some of their comments:

As Time's James Poniewozik put it,
"Wow, Super Bowl ad men really hate Super Bowl ad women this year, don't they? ... Why would CBS turn down a Super Bowl ad from a gay-dating service, then run a bunch of ads with the message that men can't stand to be around women?"

Or Seth Stevenson in Slate:
"Is it me, or was this year's dose of casual misogyny a little rawer and angrier than usual? Are men feeling especially threatened by the fragile economy and by the fact that the vast majority of job losses have afflicted traditionally male, working-class strongholds like manufacturing and construction?"

USA Today offered a simpler view
"Some odd trends surfaced this year, including the recurring theme of men of all kinds as buffoons or as wimps. Dockers had men marching in their underwear singing, "I wear no pants." And FLO TV showed an utterly spineless guy whose girlfriend takes him to the shopping mall on the day of the Big Game."

and the Washington Post's Tom Shales noticed something off:
"An oddly recurring theme had to do with men asserting their masculinity, or attempting to assert it, as well as the perpetual male fear of emasculation."

I always have my little notepad out - judging for myself the Super Bowl ads - it's fun, and as a 20+ year marketing person, I look for the creativity, personality, positioning - as well as the trends they are foreshadowing for the year. To my surprise, I was unimpressed (well trying to be polite here) at the number of ads that ignored the fact that 50% of the viewers were women. And this was the most watched Super Bowl ever - in the world, not jut the US. How do we justify as marketers this lack of respect for women?

Oh well, next year I'm sure the trend will be reversed, we will have strong women in strong relationships (hmmm, will the men still be wimps)?? At least the trend of advertising spineless men and bitchy women got us talking. So until next year - enjoy the ads. (btw - my favorite was the Slug Bug ad from Volkswagon - humor and bringing back fad from the past)