Sexist college events part III: Result!

Last week I wrote a post about the UCC Tramps ball after receiving an email from a UCC student branding the event sexist.

Opening the feminist.ie email yesterday, I was delighted to find the below email from the UCC equality officer (whom I sent a link to the blog post):

“Please see below the reply from the Entertainments Manager and Officer.

“I am writing to reply to the issues raised with regards to the UCC Students Union Tramps Ball 2011. Having reviewed the text and tenure of the advertising for this event the Students Union has decided to cease all association with Tramps Ball in the Savoy 17-02-11.

We are in the process of having the Facebook page promoting the event closed down. We have asked the Deputy President of the SU to have all references to the Tramps Ball in the Savoy removed from the www.collegeroad.ie website.

We are removing the event from the Raise and Give Week entertainments  itinerary. We expect to have all of these measures completed by close of business today ( Feb 15th).

We deeply regret any offence or upset caused and will do all in our power that there will not be a recurrence of this.”

It’s brilliant to see that the issue has been raised and dealt with. A decision Trinity could definitely learn from.

Tagged: naked for charity, Sexism, sexist college events, Sexualised society, Trinity College, University College Cork

Really?

Sexist ad of the year, brought to you by AA Patrol. From today’s MetroHerald.

Tagged: Gender stereotyping, Sexism, Sexist ads

A light at the end of the tunnel

Fellow feminists, fear not. There is still hope for all of us to become ‘actual girls’!

Oh Lord, the relief! (And besides, it looks really nice to be able to wear shoes)

From ltcconline.net

Brought to you by http://www.ltcconline.net, which states:

‘This web server is designed to provide the faculty of Lake Tahoe Community College with web space to post instructional materials for classes and programs.’

Tagged: Beauty, Feminism, Stereotyping

Not on Feminist.ie’s Christmas list this year

Illustration from amazon.co.uk

This is how Amazon describes this delightful new cook book:  ’How To Feed A Man is a thoroughly modern and super stylish take on the traditional cook book concept. A nod to post feminist sensibilities, How To Feed A Man is a celebration of family life that is both engaging yet different’.

(And I ask the following without knowing whether to laugh or cry about it:) Could they get ANY more innuendo squeezed onto that book cover?

Tagged: Cook book, Innuendo. Sexism

Accountants rank female colleagues by looks in email

Illustration from Flickr

PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of Ireland’s largest accountancy firms, have launched an internal investigation after male staff circulated emails where they rated the looks of women who had recently joined the company.

The email included pictures of 13 women, accompanied by names and the departments they work in. The subject line of the email was ‘this would be my shortlist for the top 10′.

According to the Irish Independent, a highly derogatory female description was used in one of the emails. The email started off as an internal office email, but has since been forwarded to numerous Irish businesses including finance companies, accountants, law firms, technology firms, state bodies and construction firms.

Many people would see this as a bit of innocent fun (I’m sure some would even say the women in question should be flattered), but it’s not. There is no reason for random people to be presented with pictures, name and workplace of women they’ve never even met and read other random people’s rating of their appearance. These women are not celebrities who have made a conscious effort to be in the public eye, they are business people who have made a great effort to get a good education and land a job in a respected company.

It’s highly inappropriate and unprofessional to reduce co-workers from skilled professionals to whether they are physically attractive or not. And there is no way this isn’t going to have some impact on the way these women are perceived in the company. Though most people would be capable of seeing beyond the comments circulated, the comments and ranking of these women will definitely be among the first thing that pops into their colleagues’ heads upon meeting them.

Despite probably being deemed harmless by many, this incident is an unfortunate product of the frantic focus on looks and beauty, and give fuel to the perception that the most important trait in a woman is being attractive.

Tagged: Beauty, News, Sexism, Work

One more naked calendar for charity and I’ll scream

Twelve women from Sutherland have stripped naked for a calendar to raise money for a eight-year-old boy fighting cancer, according to the Irish Independent. The group of women included a staff nurse, a crofter, a lifeguard and a stay-at-home mother who were all ‘left left with a huge sense of achievement’ after having their nude photos taken. ‘We are so grateful for the support we’ve received from the local community. Brora’s a small village, but we all know each other and for these women to strip off in such a way just proves that we’re more than just neighbours, we’re family’ said the boy’s mother.

In the last month alone, women have stripped naked for charity calendars for Help for Heroes, Malaria, Ovarian Cancer Research, Prostate Cancer Research and Dogs for the Disabled, breast cancer, gynaecological cancers, Air Ambulances, a hospital children’s ward, renewable energy, a helpline providing support to isolated older people….. and the bizarre list goes on and on.

One of the many nude calendars raising money for breast cancer, Ladies of Long Boarding 2011 calendar, features some of the best female downhill speed skateboarders in the world. But are they actually skating in the calendar, showing off their cool skills? No of course not! They’re naked!

Why do so many women think that the only thing they can do to raise money for charity is to undress?

Newsflash: Barbie is a feminist role model

Ah yes, just what we’ve always associated with Barbie; the freedom to chose to be whatever you want to be.

I’m sure Barbie has inspired thousands of women out there become pilots and soccer players.

Hilarious! (I can’t decide who’s more feminist; Kevin Myers or Barbie…..)

Fears over longer maternity leave could lead to increased discrimination of female job applicants

The European parliament will vote on a proposal to extend paid maternity leave to 20 weeks today.

The controversy surrounding the proposal is a prime example of why introduction of shared parental leave and paternity leave is so crucial to gender equality.

The main arguments against the proposal is the burden of cost to businesses already struggling in the current economic climate, and that the proposal is ‘ludicrous interference in bosses’ freedom to employ women’.

UK MEP Godfrey Bloom contribution to the debate was the following:

About five and half years ago I caused a furore by suggesting that any small businessman with his brain in the right place would be mad to employ a woman of child-bearing age.

Since that time it’s got worse and got worse (…).

We have an extraordinary situation where we have young women, desperately keen to get into work, desperately keen to work for companies, especially small companies which are the driving force of the UK economy, and we have employers who are too terrified to take them on.

In the same manner, Irish Small and Medium Enterprises chief executive Mark Fielding said to the Irish Times today that most of the organisations’ members do not pay maternity leave, and that doing so ‘would have the effect of making employers discriminate against employing young women’. Godfrey Bloom said the same thing about the UK: ‘We’re making it (…) almost impossible for small businesses to employ young women, which is something they want to do’.

As much as one can understand the challenges for small businesses to have employees taking leave, these challenges should not under any circumstances translate into direct discrimination of women.

Most children have two parents. This is not reflected in leave entitlements. As a result, women are only welcome job applicants if they can be classified as too old to have children.

Men are discriminated against in leave entitlements, and women are discriminated against in work recruitment processes. And with that, Ireland acquires the neat sum of minus six million points in the race of moving away from those restricting gender roles.

Lithuanian Company Plans to Open Holiday Resort -Staffed by Blonde Women Only

Lithuanian company Olialia (pronounced Oh-la-la) produce everything from computer software to food products, and operate in 75 different business sectors. The company’s net annual profit this year is expected to be around $10 m.

Olialia is now planning to open a resort in the Maldives – staffed entirely by blonde women. The rule of blonde staff members even apply to the crew on the flights bringing tourist to the island.

The planned resort will include hotels, entertainment, spa centres and, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, an ‘education centre’ entitled ‘Pretty Woman’, where female guests will be taught how to ‘always be perfect and look great’.

Although the blonde-only-rule breaks numerous rules on discrimination and enforces as many stereotypes, Managing Director Giedre Pukiene claims that this is far from the intention. She is hoping that the company will help break the stereotype that blonde women are less intelligent.

The company’s marketing strategy might however make that ambition difficult to fulfill, as, according to the BBC:

All the company’s products are advertised using images of sexy blonde women in improbably intellectual situations.

An ad for Olialia’s own-brand cola, for example, shows glamorous high-heeled blonde scientists concocting rather unlikely-looking laboratory experiments to make the drink.

Another ad shows a board meeting of blondes, who are applying make-up while discussing corporate strategy.

Illustration from bbc.co.uk

Illustration from smh.com.au

Oh Look, It’s Another Sexist Approach to Road Safety Campaigns

Road safety is a very serious issue which needs attention, no doubt about that. But could we please come up with some normal suggestion on how to approach these issues any time soon?

Previously I’ve mentioned the Donegal based group appealing to mothers and girlfriends to make anonymous calls to the Authorities to prevent their loved ones from speeeding in the post ‘No Need to Talk to Young Male Drivers about Road Safety – Let Their Mammies Sort it Out!‘.

Today, the Irish Independent’s Joe Barry has come up with an equally absurd way to address road safety.

To increase road safety, Barry thinks it would be a good idea for young men to:

be given an alternative venue such as a disused quarry in every parish where they could race each other to their hearts’ content without endangering the rest of us. If they race on the public roads they should be banned from driving for at least 10 years.

Ok, so race tracks isn’t the first to to spring to mind for me personally, but sure, it’s not the worst idea. The reasoning behind this suggestion however, is where it all gets a bit out of hand:

The boy racers and other young men who scorch around our roads in the early hours of the morning are just proving their manhood and their place among the tribe.

Proving their place among the tribe? Then he goes on with his explanation for this reasoning, and it gets even worse:

Most young men are genetically programmed to take risk and seek out danger. This is something we, the males of our species, have inherited as a means of ensuring that we would be prepared to go out and fight and die if necessary to defend the tribe.

Young men make great soldiers because they know no fear and traditionally vie with each other to show how daring and brave they are.

and

Unfortunately, in peace time, there is no outlet for this natural exuberance and aggression and, unless it is provided, trouble will and does occur. Contact sports such as football, hurling and rugby are all excellent means of providing such an outlet but not all boys are able or wish to partake.

In summary then, all men store natural, uncontrollable aggression that needs an outlet. It’s great if this outlet could be a war. If not, rugby is pretty good. However, men who are not soldiers, and for some reason does not want to play rugby will simply be too aggressive. Thus they can not establish their place in society, as a place in society can only be expressed through displaying aggression.

Men who doesn’t play rugby or fight in a war have no will then get their car out and drive too fast. (This can however be counteracted by a race court in every parish.)

You have to wonder where Barry has gotten all these ideas from. If it’s from personal experience I hope I’ll never find myself in the same room as him or any of the aggressive, uncontrolled men he has ever encountered. If he however (which I’m personally leaning towards), has taken these theories out of thin air I hope he will reread his article and come to the conclusion that (he needs to get out more, and) he might need to give the male part of the population just a tiny bit more credit.