Sun writers argue for and against gender stereotype advert ban as watchdog cracks down
Ads showing women cleaning up after the family and men bungling home tasks could be a thing of the past
ADVERTS that encourage gender stereotypes – such as women cleaning up after the family and men bungling home tasks – are to be banned by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA).
The watchdog says these ads limit the aspirations of both women and men.
One ad that may have contributed to the decision was for Aptamil baby milk formula which showed girls growing up to be ballerinas and boys becoming engineers.
Here, writers DULCIE PEARCE and SAMANTHA BRICK argue for and against the ban.
YES: says Dulcie Pearce
“MUMMY, if I eat a Yorkie, will I die?” asked no little girl ever.
As consumers, we are not idiots. We know advertising slogans like Yorkie’s “not for girls” are simply meant to be catchy.
No, there is not one single advert that makes a girl think she has to get hysterical about washing carpets or a boy think his life will revolve around staining wood.
But how about 12 minutes of those ads in every hour of TV over a lifetime’s viewing?
Then the message becomes loud and clear.
For 60 years TV ads have told us how to dress, eat, drink, smell, drink some more and behave. They show women as homebodies and men as breadwinners.
So it is no real surprise women still get paid less than men. Because after a hard day’s work, we come home and switch on the telly to see other women almost having orgasms over an air freshener.
It is no surprise either that only one per cent of UK men take Shared Parental Leave when they see other blokes on television being lazy lumps who can’t change a nappy, with women always holding the baby.
Quickly the absurd becomes the norm and we accept the role we have been given. Because it is often easier to conform to what is expected of us.
If you don’t, you will have a fight on your hands. Trust me.
Ella Smillie, the lead author of the report by the ASA, said: “Such portrayals can limit how people see themselves, how others see them and limit the life decisions they take.”
We have long been in the hands of advertisers telling us how we should live our lives, giving a nod to every person who thinks “women love cleaning”.
Because that is what advertisers have fed into our brains, day in, day out, for years.
Isn’t it time they showed a little more imagination?
In 50 years’ time, a future generation will cringe and laugh at the adverts we run now, just as we do at the horrifically sexist ones from the 1960s. That’s progress . . . and we should be all for it.
MOST READ IN OPINION
NO: says Samantha Brick
THANK God our nanny state can’t yet poke its pesky nose inside ordinary households around the country.
Because even our Prime Minister would fall foul of the proposed ad ban promoting who does what at home.
Who didn’t high-five their telly when Theresa May stated in a recent interview — with her husband next to her — there are “boy jobs and girl jobs” when it comes to household chores? She’s bang on.
This ASA ban smacks of yet another lily-livered organisation kowtowing to the PC snowflake brigade.
Ads showing traditional family life aren’t being sexist. They are speaking to the very same consumers whose DNA has dictated since time began that they are physically, emotionally and mentally better suited to do gender-specific jobs around the home.
I suspect humanity wouldn’t have evolved from the caveman era if women were out hunting wild animals and men were stuck at home cooking and bringing up the family.
Suggesting everyone should do the same jobs at home, and promoting those values, goes against our genetic attributes. Women nurture, men protect.
Countless studies have shown just how brilliant women are at multi-tasking.
What woman can honestly say she wants to hump the panels for her garden fence from the DIY store to the yard and dig trenches for the posts to put it up?
Physically, her strength is against her.
There’s absolutely zip the femi-Nazis can do about that. It goes without saying that builders merchants are better off targeting her beloved because he’s the poor sod who will spend hours putting the thing up.
And what on Earth is sexist about a woman looking after her home? Why do we downplay a homemaker’s role?
Isn’t raising the next generation the most important role in society?
Every smart bloke knows the reason he is happy is down to the woman ensuring the smooth running of his des res.
Which is why it’s barmy not to target us Domestic Goddesses when it comes to the household spends.