I have a small gripe with the current Oven Pride adverts. The slogan that there going with is "So easy a man could do it". It is quite obviously a joke about how men are stereotypically bad at house work and leave it to women. However if this was turned on it's head and it was, say a car advert saying "So easy to park a woman could do it". Even if it was said in jest I highly doubt it would be seen as a joke and would probably receive a host of complaints. Something that is now seen as a joke when women say it about men would very likely be seen as sexist if the other way around.
We will only really know if this would really be how people would react though if someone bravely (or stupidly) tries this technique in advertising.
I was reading cosmopolitan magazine tonight and there is a similar article on this topic. The female author suggests that their would be an outcry if a woman was the butt of the joke and it is now men who are being 'pitied, ridiculed or treated like objects.'
ReplyDeleteShe notes that for years women had to put up with slogans like, 'it a man's world' but wants women to 'remember it's equality we've been fighting for - not the chance to get out own back.'
I don't think that men would gererally take something along these lines personally in the way that women at times do. Old fashioned sexism has past in my eyes and a great effort has been made to promote equality.
ReplyDeleteAdverts like this, although there not offensive, don't help the movement of equal opinions and opportunities as they have to go both ways. And as you said Karen it does seem a bit like looking for payback.