Hunger: The New Solution for Street Harassment

Wouldn’t it be great if, instead of the typical “Hey baby” cat-call, you heard something like this from men on the street: “You know what I’d like to see? A society in which the objectification of women makes way for gender-neutral interactions, free from assumptions and expectations. You go, girl!”

Well, Snickers Australia has discovered a way to make this feminist dream a reality: Keep men hungry.

In a new advertisement, (which you can watch below), the company manages to insult both women and men by showing construction workers cat-calling women on the street in very atypical ways. Instead of sexualized comments, the men are shouting out inspiring messages, such as, “You want to hear a filthy word? Gender bias!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gjsoSY18kg

But here’s the kicker: The end of the ad shows Snickers’ tagline, “You’re not you when you’re hungry.” The point being that if these workers were “themselves,” they’d be misogynistic.

Not only does this ad stereotype men who work in blue-collar fields as dirty cat-callers, but it also makes the thoroughly offensive assertion that men could only respect women in some bizarre, hunger-crazed parallel universe.

We’ll be sticking to our feminist M&M’s, thank you very much.

UPDATE: Stop Street Harassment has launched a petition urging Snickers to take down its sexist ad. Click here to sign!

Photo courtesy of Flickr user PolaroidMemories licensed under Creative Commons 2.o.

 

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Lindsey O'Brien is currently studying journalism at Ohio University and interning at Ms. Follow her on Twitter.