Advertising harassment
To follow up our distaste of Arby's new set of ads from last week, NOLA radfem commented that she too was fed up with gross sexual innuendo commercials (though she posted her analysis way before ours - we're just following up on our own oversight, in other words). Holiday Inn Express has a whole new set of strange, awkward commercials depicting men harassing women at "the new hot bar in town" - known as the continental breakfast bar. Not only do we find this deeply offensive - it's fucking stupid. We've shown this distasteful crap before - and we'll keep right on doing it - but we aren't going to pretend we know how to solve the pervasiveness of our culture's acceptance of sexual harassment and assault. Read NOLA radfem's post - she throughly and effectively echoes all of our thoughts.Labels: public space, safety, street harassment, women
posted @ 14:00
2 comments
2 Comments:
Thanks for the link.
I thought of the "Holla Back" crowd ALL DAY Monday and Tuesday. I worked my butt off canvassing for the presidential campaign in Mississippi (drove 200 miles from Louisiana to do it) and spent the whole time I was walking down the sidewalk being sexually harassed by men in cars!
SO frustrating and upsetting. What does it do to political activism when a woman dreads walking down the street to BE an activist? Hmmm. Maybe that's the idea....
We hear you, nola radfem. We’ve had this problem since we started the Boston Hollaback action - and way before that too, just trying to walk down the street as females our whole lives. It was one reason dont be silent dc's decision to quit blogging made a lot of sense to us. We’ve encountered similar quandaries ourselves, many times, wondering whether work for a better world should be painful? And while we’re definitely not naïve that struggle is hard – how hard is too hard? Especially when further harm doesn’t always produce a tangible outcome?
We agree with what you’re saying…what’s the balance of theory and practice? We want to stay on fire for the things we want to change without burning out. But how do we get it done? Most effectively with the least fallout on our selves?
Love the political activism – best of luck down there. May the candidate who best represents and best supports us be elected. And here’s to creating a world where political work doesn’t have to be a toss up between the personal and the political. A world where canvassing and respect for women are one.
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