Sexism Advertising

Take a look at these pictures.

Image source : http://www.clickliverpool.com/business/business-news/129469-laddish-ads-demeaning-to-women.html

Image source: http://pinkstinks.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/off-side-rule-for-girls/

Okay, so those are WKD beer ads. They recently put up the billboards around England in their campaign for the World Cup 2010 last summer. We might think the ads are funny. But if we carefully look into the words, does it feel a little bit awkward?

Yes, it is demeaning. It is unjust. And it's sexism. How does a beer manufacturer come up with such advertising? And to the shocking part, its in England! Where men and women worship football like its a religion. Sport England’s Active People survey in 2008 tells us that 260,000 women and 1.1 million girls play some form of football in England and that there are 26 million females playing across the world, of which 4.1 million are playing affiliated football (PinkStinks, 2010).

Sexism in the media is overlooked so much but it’s still giving small girls the impression that they will grow up to be house-wives living just to cook, clean and look after their children and husbands (BeyondJane, 2010).

Perera (2010) states that, there's nothing particularly new about advertising that plays on gender stereotypes. Many ads have a sexist and offensive tone or content. Usually this is hidden behind a semblance of subtlety: the nakedness of the female character is loosely connected to the product in question; the gender stereotype is reinforced in an indirect or "knowing" way.  We've largely come to accept these images as part of the landscape of modern life, images women may resent or feel intimidated by in silence but which we also fear will leave us accused of over-reaction if we voice our concerns in public. 

Reference:

- PinkStinks, 2010, 'Offside Rules for Girls', PinkStinks, viewed on 12 November 2010, <http://pinkstinks.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/off-side-rule-for-girls/>

- shhark, 2010, 'Sexism in Advertising', BeyondJane, viewed on 12 November 2010, <http://beyondjane.com/women/sexism-in-advertising/>

- Perera, K 2010, 'Time to kick sexism out of advertising', Guardian.co.uk, viewed on 12 November 2010, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/29/kick-sexism-out-of-advertising>