In a week in which I was described as everything from ugly, to jealous, to Hitler (I’m sure Nazi is just around the corner), and in which my fellow activists were also attacked for our campaign against the Lingerie Football League, some words of wisdom from the Women’s Media Center. Couldn’t have put it better myself.
…So what’s the solution? Zip our lips and refuse to engage with the lowlifes who joke about rape, commodify the female body, and portray women as morons?
Much as I sometimes would like to, I don’t believe that’s the answer. Taking the high road can’t mean simply ignoring what’s going on in our culture.
Sexism and misogyny have become joke-worthy subjects in such an insidious way that people are now failing to even identify them any more. Imagine if racist or anti-semitic ads were popping up online every other day and were defended by those calling protesters “oversensitive,” labeling any objections “political correctness gone mad’ and telling them to “get over it.” Would we be told just to turn a blind eye and not give such companies the oxygen of publicity? More likely, we’d be calling for the heads of the responsible marketing executives on a plate.
Sexists’ favored method of shutting down feminists is to call them humorless, and accuse the men who support them of being emasculated and brainwashed. Well, it’s time to stand up and say that there’s nothing deficient about not having your laughter button pressed by the degradation of women. Anyone offended by misogyny needs to keep speaking out about it, even if it runs the risk of giving the perpetrator free advertising. Plus, there is such a thing as bad publicity-or Rush Limbaugh wouldn’t have shed 50+ advertising sponsors after recent online outrage at his misogyny.
Reputations can certainly be tarnished, and refusing to keep quiet about sexist advertising can achieve that. Read full article here
May 25th, 2012 at 7:20 am
These misogynistic advertisements made and/or commissioned by powerful men proves yet again how easy it is to dehumanise a group and of course the group in question are women who comprise majority of the human race. Males are the minority but they have always maintained they are superior to women so that is why male dehumanisation of women is just so ‘humorous’ because we women aren’t human are we?
Imagine if men were the ones bombarded with images claiming they are so stupid they can’t even find the car door! There would be an uproar but then we don’t live in a society which dehumanises men – no instead we live in a society wherein male hatred/male contempt for women is condoned and excused.
Why? Because the more women gain their fundamental rights the more frightened male supremacists become and dehumanising women is the easiest method of maintaining male domination over women. Sure these men understand what is happening but as long as men are not the ones being targetted everything is fine – that is everything is fine because only when men are dehumanised does it become ‘a real issue!’
May 25th, 2012 at 9:27 pm
Hi Melinda
I’m interested in your thoughts on the Fly Buys ad which has Dawn French groping Curtis Stone’s chest and making sexually suggestive comments to and about Curtis.
I am also interested in your thoughts on the Philladelphia Cream Cheese ad which has Jane Hall making sexually suggestive comments about the 2 men in the ad before smacking them on the behind.
Kind regards
Andrew
May 27th, 2012 at 3:02 pm
Hi Andrew, I haven’t seen either. Of course it is sitll primarily women who are objectified in advertising. But ‘turning the tables’ is hardly the answer and I don’t support equal opportunity objectification.
June 10th, 2012 at 10:53 am
Andrew, the issue isn’t about how fighting for women’s rights removes those of men. The issue is that blatantly and consistently, women are being demeaned by advertisers to make a quick buck. Essentially, our bodies are being sold for sex without our consent. Yes, it happens to men as well – RARELY – but neither are okay.
And whilst turning the tables isn’t the answer, cognitively doing so can help you understand how it feels for women being bombarded by this rubbish day in and day out. Imagine if the Belvedere Vodka ad suggested it could be used to, for example, allow a woman to easily commit some sort of penetrative rape on a vulnerable man. Would it have ever aired?
No. I bet the idea turns your stomach, and rightly so because rape is unacceptable. But this ad aired, Andrew, because in our society, if it’s a woman being victimised – it’s sexy and totally okay.
I don’t think that’s okay. That doesn’t make me a hypocrite. If you think it’s unacceptable that in two ads women have made suggestive comments, so that excuses the ads Melinda’s discussed in this article – than you are a hypocrite.