Women have been getting a right kick in just recently.
Jokes.
We have been suppressed since time began, but it’s like we have back in time just recently. Back to a time where it was OK to make jokes at the expense of women and treat them as the weaker sex. All the hard work that comes from fighting for equal right, equality, and feminist movements…. all ignored and stamped over.
My last blog highlighted the fact that a 17-year-old girls’ kickers were held up and used in a court case about rape. Not, as one would imagine, as evidence to put the offender in prison, but waved around to say that if women wear fancy little knickers with lacy bits then obviously, they are asking for sex and can’t really complain if a man has sex with her.
Within days if that being splashed across the news this happens. Fancy Little Knickers
A memeber of FiLiA, saw it and posted it on her social media. Which means that a whole load of feminists also saw it. Including me.
So here is the thing, M&S is a family brand. My mum never shopped there, way out of price range, and I only shop there for “Special bits”. They are a respected chain, I think. Yet, they are saying that a “Must have” are:
For Men: “Outfits to impress”
For Women: “Fancy little knickers”.
For real, are we sexualising women in such a way that shops like M&S feel no way to splash this across the shop front! Is that the level we are on?
I wonder what kind of thinking went into this advertisement. I mean, its Christmas, so we know that a team of people would have gotten together and thought of something catchy to get people spending money. Something that would make people say…” A must have, I want that”.
Was it an all-male or all female team? Did everyone involve think that it was a good idea?
My spider senses tell me no. Everyone involved in this cannot have thought it was a good idea. Surly someone must have thought…. No, I don’t like this. But someone did like it, and someone followed it through and that someone needs to speak out and tell us why its ok to continue to objectify women in such a way.
I hate to keep brining it back to this, but what am I supposed to tell my daughter? I can show her and tell her and explain to her as she grows that she is not a sexual object. I can do my best to keep her away from people that promote this and shield her a as much as I can from music videos and films that objectify women.
But all that would be undone by a simple trip the high street. In fact, we have a marks and spencer’s just 10 minutes from our house. My daughter, who Is currently being assed for ASD and takes things extremely literally, if she saw this tomorrow as we walked around town…. what would she think?
She is 10 and is able to read. She could walk past this and see “Must have for Women, Fancy little knickers”.
What kind of image and thoughts does that put in my daughter’s mind? What kind of message does that send to the developing mind of children and young people. Will my daughter think she has to be thin or she wont fit into these “Fancy little knickers”? Will she believe that she must wear skimpy underwear because they are a “Must have”, The display shows the male fully clothes in his “Must Have: Outfits to impress” and then shows a woman in her underwear…and this is her “Must have”. What kind of image is that to portray…a blatant imbalance of power. Thanks for that little chestnut. Wish me luck trying to undo that blatant misogynistic image in her mind.
What if a young person see’s the reports of a women being held accountable for her own rape due to the kickers she was wearing, which just happened to be “Fancy little knickers” and then see the M&S advertisement. What message is beings sent.
Well let me make my feelings clear on this…… I was sexualised from a young age. I was objectified, sexually exploited, and called word such as “Child prostitute”. I have worked too hard and come to far as a woman and supported to many exploited girls for things such as “Must have: for women. Fancy little knickers” to be displayed where my daughter and any other women has to see such …… disempowering imagery.
In fact, all this talk of my daughter, I am out here as a single mum raising boys into men. I have spent hours telling them that a women’s body is her own and that it is not there for their sexual gratification. I tell them to empower their partners. And companies like M&S are telling them that the must have for their girl friends are “Fancy little knickers” …. A little bit of sick just come up in my mouth as I typed that…serious.
Yes, I am a feminist.
No, I don’t get offended by everything.
I do, however, feel a fire burn within me when ANYONE thinks its ok to objectify and sexualise women. I work with children that are sexually exploited and sexualised in ways that will twist people’s minds.
So, shit like this does not help …ya get me.
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