The chapter analyzes homologies in Geico's caveman advertisements and the TV series Cavemen. It discusses how the cavemen were portrayed in two ways: reinforcing gay stereotypes in the ads and racial stereotypes in the series. The ads showed the cavemen as metrosexual, on the border of hetero and homosexual. The series drew parallels between the cavemen and African American stereotypes. It criticized the series for reinscribing tensions between whites and African Americans. Both confounded and reinscribed established cultural categories in their portrayals of cavemen.

1. “So Easy A Caveman
Could Do It.”
Chapter 10, Part 2: Queering the Gecko-
Race, Sexual Orientation, and Marginality
in Geico’s Cavemen
By: Jenna Palladino

2. Homology
O The chapter starts off with a definition of homology, which is a
formal parallel across different objects, actions, modes of
experiences, and so forth (p.276)
O An example of homology is referring to your boss as “a queen”.
In reality she’s not actually a queen, but rather her pattern of
behavior indicates how she acts at work and what that behavior
translates to.
O The chapter focuses on two homologies: dramatistic/narrative
(covered in part 2) and media-centered

3. Rhetorical Homology
O The ideas behind rhetorical homology are grounded in the
works of Kenneth Burke.
O He defines it as experiences and texts follow formal patterns
inherent in language and its systematic use.
O The goal is to have enough similarities among members of the
homologous set to persuade readers on more than just mere
chance.
O Homological criticism may be a way of understanding wide
ranges of texts and experiences.

5. Introduction to Part Two
O I chose to focus my presentation on the second half of the
chapter that addresses homology in the dramatistic/narrative
thinking of Geico’s cavemen.
O The chapter focuses on how cavemen were portrayed in two
ways: a form or pattern underlying popular stereotypes about
femme gay men in the commercials & popular race stereotypes
in the United States in the television series Cavemen.
O This is going to reveal how different manifestations of cavemen
both confound and reinscribe established categories in popular
culture.

7. Caveman & Race: The Series
O In Fall 2007, ABC featured the new television series, Cavemen,
which made quite a buzz among the population.
O The show turned out to be “a major flop” and many people
weren’t impressed the messages it was sending out into the
world.
O Critics agreed that it reinscribed racial stereotypes, particularly
concerning tensions between whites and African Americans.
(pg. 283)
O More specifically on that subject, the stereotyping had to do
with African American males dating white women.

8. O The series became labeled as a “funny commentary about race relations
with a ‘new minority group’”.
O It also was criticized for being ‘sexually superior’ in the sense that the
women dated these men because the men of their own race were unable
to satisfy their needs.
O Drawing the relationship between race stereotyping of African Americans
and whites through the show is seen by the fact that cavemen and Homo
sapiens were cast as two separate racial groups.
O By the women not wanting to bring her caveman boyfriend home to meet
the parents because they won’t approve and how he fears to introduce
her to his roommates is a clear metaphor for race relations in the United
States.
O A clear representation of our culture to try to turn serious aspects into
entertainment or another comedy show to tune into every week.

9. http://youtu.be/N3VGbDnqiAI?t=2m33s
In this YouTube video it starts at a scene where one of the cavemen’s
girlfriend is complaining about how her boyfriend didn’t defend her. You
can see that the other woman in the clip tells her relationships are hard
especially when “two people are as different as the two of you.”
This clip backs the point made in the book about the racial stereotyping the
series portrayed between the cavemen and white women.

10. Caveman & Sexuality: The Ads
O Cavemen were first brought into the scene by Geico in the
advertisements.
O As the series made a spin off of these commercials they took it
in a racial way while the advertisements addressed cavemen in
the way of sexual orientation.
O The ads show the cavemen in not a completely gay way, but
show them as metrosexual. They’re always stylish, cool, and
fashionable.
O Portraying the cavemen in this metrosexual way is how our
culture sexualizes aesthetic preoccupations away from a
heteronormative baseline. (pg. 284)

11. O A prime example of a Geico ad that represents the cavemen on the
borderline of hetero and homosexual is the ad in which the caveman
goes to seek help from a therapist is begins to start lisping more heavily
than in any other previous ads.
O The advertisements tend to appropriate the textual position and turn it
so as to create their own joke.
O This display in the ads can be seen as an essential ingredient of camp, a
major rhetorical strategy of queer communities and another reason
why we should interpret the ads as gay.
O Matias Viegener believes that camp is a style that is allusive, “Its
primary mechanism is the insertion of an old, tired image into a new
context, recycling history’s waste, which is usually a product of an
earlier mode of production that has lost its power to produce viable
cultural meaning.” (pg. 285)

12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQke2_U
Wcpo This YouTube link is to the commercial
previously mentioned in the therapist office.
This ad was
mentioned in the
book of the Geico
cavemen out to lunch,
dressed stylish and in
a fancy restaurant.
(pg. 284)

13. Queering the Gecko
O Queerness is about queer categories and how struggles over
categories of any sort manage social and political power.
O In applying the Geico commercials not only to the cavemen we
must also look at the Gecko. Geckos are not “supposed” to
talk, hold down responsible positions in large companies, wear
glasses, etc.
O By putting the Gecko is association with the cavemen Geico
queers the category of humanity, one way or another, by
making all three of these characters different from the rest of
us.

14. O The queer category of cavemen is further queered by making them, at
formal levels, gay one moment and African American the next.
O Patterns stereotypically attributed to gay men are embedded within
the pattern of an aggrieved but somewhat silly minority of making
them cavemen.
O This same pattern is seen again when an aggrieved but somewhat silly
minority later is made to encompass a pattern stereotypically
attributed to African Americans.
O By combining these patterns and ideas together Geico has created a
merging of categories that threaten some amount of toxicity.
O Queer Theory was developed as a way to question hegemony.
Although Geico may not have set out with the intention to
disempower anyone, they still need to consider the effects of their
queer categories of humanity and what effects may come as a result.
(pg. 287)

15. Conclusion
O What I took away from this chapter is that we
still live in a culture where we chose to not think
before we do. The Geico commercials are an
excellent representation of trying to bring back
racial stereotypes in slick, not as obvious way.
O Our culture is all about what will make the next
big statement and less about who will be
offended or hurt by what we’re putting out
there.

16. Sources
O Brummett, B. (2006). Rhetoric in popular culture. Thousand
Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications.
O Google Images
O YouTube