Women's Views on News |
| Posted: 04 Sep 2014 08:35 AM PDT
American Apparel once again has an ad banned by The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for an inappropriate portrayal of women. On 2 September 2014 Women’s Views on News reported in our Media Spotlight feature on American Apparel’s latest shocking ad campaign for their ‘School Days‘ range. The 'School Days' range, which is aimed at under-18 year-olds and includes the inappropriately named 'Lolita skirt' and 'Lolita top', was the subject of a lookbook featuring young women posing by school lockers. If this wasn't already disurbing enough, a further image was reportedly posted to the company's UK Instagram account, depicting a young model in a very short tartan, school-style skirt bent over a car with the top of her legs and her underwear on show. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled the advert to be sexist and voyeuristic and has banned the UK advertising campaign. In a statement, the ASA said: “We considered the images were gratuitous and objectified women, and were therefore sexist and likely to cause serious and widespread offence.” “Furthermore, we considered the images imitated voyeuristic ‘up-skirt’ shots which had been taken without the subject’s consent or knowledge which, in the context of an ad for a skirt marketed to young women, we considered had the potential to normalise a predatory sexual behaviour.” This is the sixth time in two and a half years that the watchdog has ruled American Apparel’s advertising campaigns inappropriate in their portrayal of women. Despite its previous record of having regularly broken the rules for having used exploitative images of young women, American Apparel attempted to defend their ‘School Days’ ad by saying that the models were all over 18 years of age and were: 'Happy, relaxed and confident in expression and pose and were not portrayed in a manner which was vulnerable, negative or exploitative.' Incredibly, they have claimed their ad was not offensive or irresponsible because their approach was: “not graphic, explicit or pornographic, but was designed to show a range of different images of people who were natural, not posed and real.” The images appear to have been removed from American Apparel’s website. And the adage, ‘no publicity is bad publicity’ may well be seen as correct in this case for the brand. But nonetheless, you have to seriously question the morals of the person or people who considered images depicting young women in this way as appropriate. The ASA has told American Apparel (UK) to ensure their future advertising is prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society, and that it contains nothing likely to cause serious or widespread offence.
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| Take action on female poverty in the UK Posted: 04 Sep 2014 04:18 AM PDT
The Fawcett Society recently published comprehensive new research on how women - especially those on low pay - are faring in the economic recovery. While unemployment has fallen sharply, the picture for women is decidedly mixed, with a sharp rise in temporary, insecure working and growth fuelled by jobs in low-wage, feminised sectors of the economy. These structural trends have contributed to a widening of the gender pay gap – a gap which increased again last year for the first time in five years and now stands at 19.1 per cent for all employees. Key findings from Fawcett’s analysis of labour market trends include: Female under-employment has nearly doubled (to 789,000) from pre-crisis levels; And 371,000 women have moved into self-employment since 2008, where the gender pay gap in earnings is close to 40 per cent. What can be done? Fawcett will be writing to MPs across the parties calling on them to take action to ensure that women – and especially those on low pay – are not left behind as the economy recovers. Fawcett is calling for: An uprating of the minimum wage in line with inflation – as even the planned increase in October only takes the National Minimum Wage to 2005 levels in real terms; The implementation of Section 78 of the Equality Act to require large companies to carry out and publish gender pay audits; The scrapping of – or at least reducing to a nominal level – upfront tribunal fees to ensure that women are not priced out of justice; and For an increase in the availability and quality of childcare, particularly through supply-side measures. What you can do: Grazia magazine is petitioning the Minister of Culture Media and Sport for Section 78 of the Equality Act 2010 to be enacted. This would mean businesses with 250 employees or more would have to publish anonymised details annually about the hourly pay of men and women they employ. This transparency would help end the gender pay divide. Please sign the petition. Over 8,000 people have signed as we post this. Email your MP. Make sure they have a link to the report. Make sure they have a copy of the graphic illustrating this post, it's so nice and clear if they are busy. Email or write to your MP and ask them what they are going to do about these issues: Protecting and increasing the incomes of those on low pay as basic costs are rising much faster than wages; Increasing the availability of quality, well-paid and senior part-time roles; Tackling the widening gender pay gap; Protecting the employment rights of the lowest paid workers; Ending the use of zero-hours contracts; Increasing the availability and quality of childcare; and Changing attitudes to ensure both men and women are responsible for caring. And send their answers on to Fawcett. Thanks.  |
| Women’s football match re-enacted Posted: 04 Sep 2014 01:55 AM PDT
A Heritage Lottery Fund-backed project has recreated a football game that first took place in 1917 between female worker’s from munitions factories. On a typically drizzly bank holiday Monday in Coventry history was re-played on a football pitch, as part of the city’s commemoration of the First World War. Members of the current Coventry Ladies football team donned meticulously replicated period costume and recreated a match that took place in 1917 between the ladies teams of the Rudge Whitworth and Humber factories. This was all part of the larger No Game for Girls project, which will also produce a documentary and exhibition about women’s football in Coventry during the First World War. As men left for the front, Coventry’s industrial manufacturing base was adapted to produce vital munitions as part of the war effort and women were mobilised to take up munition and shell-making jobs in the factories. They soon began to form ‘friendly’ football teams. The ‘munitionettes’ as they were known sometimes played against other departments of the same factory, so you would have seen the 2nd floor workers vs. the 3rd floor workers or the Shell Shop vs. the Machine Shop. But inter-factory matches were soon organised too, and money was raised for Coventry’s wounded soldiers. Some of the research for the project has been undertaken by local historian Lionel Bird. He found that in Coventry teams were formed at the Rudge-Whitworth, Humber, White & Poppe, Coventry Ordnance, Coventry Chain and Daimler factories. Although there were remarks that the women’s game was ‘farcical’ and ‘No game for girls..!’ the football craze continued after the war had ended, with games being organised to raise money for injured soldiers who had returned from the Front. And some of the women who had played for factory teams went on to form Coventry City Ladies FC in 1921; that year a match was played at Coventry’s Highfield Road which drew a crowd of 27,000! But later that year the popularity and success of women’s football was successfully scuppered when women’s teams were denied access to all Football League grounds. ‘Health problems’ were cited as the reason… In this year’s bank holiday game each player represented one of the real women who had played in the original match, with the names of those ‘munitionettes’ sewn onto their carefully replicated costumes. Although the weather left a lot to be desired, the turn out was good and the game entertaining. The Coventry Festival band played from the stands and the game was ceremonially ‘kicked off’ by Coventry’s Council leader, Ann Lucas. The project will continue with the filming of a documentary and the creation of a touring exhibition, which I for one cannot wait to see. You can send us your family’s stories of these matches, or keep up with the research and project updates at the No Game For Girls facebook page or @eyefullcic.  |
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