IS BRITISH MEDIA SEXIST?

Sexism in British Media

Asda (British Supermarket) has recently been cleared of hundreds of sexist complaints brought against them for an advert at Christmas. The advert demonstrated a woman preparing Christmas dinner and was backed with the slogan “behind every Christmas there’s a mum”.

 Most of the complaints deemed the advert as ‘sexist’ and “outdated gender stereotypes”. Some complaints were that the add was also distressing for children who didn’t have a mother.   (Ref)

British people here feel that miss-representation of women on the television could be as simple as saying something that implies something only about women, whereas in Italy, the problem is a lot more graphic! If this Asda advert was in Italy, I doubt Italians would even consider this as a form of sexism, but that’s only in my opinion.

I came across another example of a woman of three daughters who slammed Top Gear (a television program about cars). The reason: In the top gear trailer the women are only tasked with making the men and their outfits look good! This outraged the mother as she believed women are being mis-represented on British Television!  (Ref)

This idea of sexism in Britain is interesting, especially after watching Italian media and reading about Lorella Zanardo’s “il corpo delle donne” campaign.

Comparing the two types of media, I believe many questions should be raised. “Where is the line and how do we draw that line?” In other words, at what point does something become sexist or not become sexist? Is it a matter of Culture?