Campaign groups be stepping up the fight against male chauvinist advertisement.
The advertising intentness may appear to incur come a foresighted way since the Mad Men era, when a woman’s place was most definitely in the home and the moreover reason to let the wife pop in to the blank space was when it needed a spring clean.
But has it?
Slogans like ‘Don’t worry darling, you didn’t burn the beer’ and ‘Christmas morning she’ll be happier with a Hoover’ may be laughable today, but better-looking businesses atomic number 18 still using sexism to sell everything from breakfast cereals to banking.
Last twelvemonth Christmas advertise manpowerts from Asda and Morrisons attracted complaints for reinforcing sexist gender stereoptypes, portraying mothers doing alone the work to suck up the festive season a success.
Both retailers were cleared by the publicise Standards Authority (ASA); neither advertisement was thought to reinforce shun stereotypes.
I can only presume this means ‘woman altogether in the kitchen’ is a perfectly acceptable stereotype in 2013.
But the blatantly sexist ads of the 50s and 60s, where women cooked, cleaned and still managed to look pretty for their husbands, have given way to more blatantly sexist ads where women, if they are non in the kitchen, are always up for it, and heretofore if they are not, it is probably still ok.
Women are being sexualised and extravagant in the name of consumerism in a way that men just aren’t.
And from glamorising domestic military unit to imitating pornography, advertisers are failing women and young womans today.
Just cook a look at this short clip from American campaign group Missrespresentation for a selection of the worst offenders expire year.
One place you can’t escape the barrage of sex-in-adverts is on the capital of the United Kingdom reassign network, and a new Facebook group has sprung up for commuters to share their experiences of sexist advertising on the city’s tube, rail and bus network.
The group - ‘Anti-sexist advertising on TfL – was created in response to ‘the bombardment of advertisers using sexism and sexualised images of women to sell their wares.’
It encourages commuters to share pictures and spread over the offending ads to Transport for London (TfL) and the ASA.
In response to the group, TfL have claimed all advertisements on the London transport network adhere to the standards dance band by the Advertising Standards Authority and the Committee of Advertising Practice.
The paradox here is that the standards are defined by taste and decency, not the underlying discrimination.
The determinationification of women has become so normalised in our society that sexualised images are no longer seen as indecent and anyone who objects to a girl in a bikini on an underground government note is accused of being a prude.
Campaign group Object, set up to challenge the sexual objectification of women, met with TFL a decade ago to hook the problem of sexist advertising on the London transport network.
Object claims progress has been made since, although the guidelines put in place are not always adhered to.
In a parliamentary debate on sexualised imagery in advertising work year, Object adumbrate the impacts of sexist ads on all members of society:
“As well up as stifling the self-esteem and aspirations of girls, the persistent portrayal of women as objects to be judged negatively, impacts the attitudes of boys and men and the ways in which they are learned to view and treat women and girls.”
“Indeed, emerging evidence suggests the sexual objectification of women and girls is reinforcing the views of umpteen young men that women are always available for sex.”
To score International Women’s Day on 8 March, the London Feminist Network (LFN) set out to identify sexist ads displayed on the TfL network.
Examples included a scantily clad Katy Perry dowery to easy the guilt of eating crisps, a Virgin Atlantic-branded joke dancer and a businessman with a much jr. woman in a bikini, and a blatant euphemism for sex, advertising Pow Wow Now’s conference call service.
In a letter to the transport company, LFN said: “We believe [these advertisements] continue and reinforce negative and harmful attitudes towards women and girls.
“This is an issue of discrimination and harm, as opposed to public morals being offended.”
“These offensive advertisements essential be considered within the context of systematic harassment and violence towards women.
“These adverts contribute to normalizing such behaviours.”
Another project aims to highlight endemic sexism in the British media.
In a similar vein to the effortless Sexism project, Everyday Media Sexism provides a space to share stories, speak out and object to sexism in newspapers, magazines and adverts, online and on television.
Sexism may have changed over the last 60 years or so, but it is still rife today and continues to create barriers to female happiness and success.
As long as the – lazy and unimaginative – media perpetuates the idea that women are objects to be looked at and judged on their looks, we will never be on an tint footing with our male contemporaries.
Materials taken from Womens Views on News
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