I commented here once before, about not just having polarized female characters. Over the winter break I decided -why not see if others think the same? I created a petition on change.com and would like you and your friends to sign.
Please email back, because the link doesn’t work right here. I promise I’m legit.
-Thanks

Only if you buy the idea that make-up and heels are somehow a natural component of being female as opposed to yet another ridiculous beauty mandate that women are expected to labour under for their entire lives.

Yes, the green m&m has been “the female” for years. It’s 2012 and the creators are only smart enough now to make the exact opposite girl? How smart do you really have to be to think of different archetypes?
I know there are only a few main colors but why is it so hard to think of several types of women? Like: the purple emo/adventure …anything type of girl. Or maybe make a painter character then a white m&m with specked colors (like for easter?)
I don’t even care as long as it’s more than just two simple opposites.

So it’s positive that a female character is shown being sexually harrassed, and simply looking bored by it?

Frankly, if an actual human did that you should call the police. But little cartoons like this are part of the insidious trickle effect – don’t complain, don’t “over-react”, hey can’t we laugh about this, culture. That’s the ‘nuance” I am getting.

Yes, brown M&M as a character gets to start the commercial telling a story from her ‘professional’ life, she starts out poised and confident and coded as conventionally attractive. She ends up harassed by a human male and another M&M, and the whole thing hinges on the titillation factor of her ‘clothes’ being flesh coloured.

Way to go with positive female imagery….

Take another look at the commercial, this time without assuming that her heels means she exists for the pleasure of the male gaze. The bespectacled M&M woman is explaining, with a tone of disdain, that she brushed off the advances of “the prime minister,” establishing herself as a professional. She resists being reduced to sexual object, and when the green M&M tries to sexualize her, she resists that, too: “Only a fool would actually think I’d show up naked.” She’s wearing heels, she’s got the eyelashes, she’s confident, and she’s self-assured. She’s not accepting male attention as validation; she doesn’t need it.

I think you’re absolutely right to explore the way the M&M characters represent women, but I think you’re neglecting some pretty significant nuances, here.