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Sign our petition against Suit Supply’s “shameless” pornographic images

22 comments

Having persuaded the Westfield shopping centre in West London to get Dutch clothing company Suit Supply to remove pornographic images of women from its store, cure we have now launched a petition urging the company to get rid of them all.

We are asking everyone who supported WVoN in that campaign to sign our petition urging Suit Supply to remove the images from all its other stores and also from its website.

The CEO of Suit Supply justified its campaign called “Shameless” by saying it was “shot by the renowned photographer Carli Hermès.

“In our opinion the photographs of the campaign are a well-balanced mix of style, sales humour and sex, online the essence of fashion!

“We fully disagree that our campaign would be obscene and denigrating towards women. On the contrary, the women depicted in the photographs are obviously in the lead”.

Contrary to what Suit Supply says, these pictures are not the ‘essence’ of fashion nor are they artistic.

The pictures portray women as nothing more than sex objects, readily available for sex with men.

All the research ever done shows that portraying women in this way leads to increased incidents of rape and sexual assault. On that count alone we need this campaign to be stopped.

We would therefore ask you to sign our petition asking Suit Supply to immediately remove these images from all its stores as well as from its website.

  1. Miriam Miller says:

    “In our opinion the photographs of the campaign are a well-balanced mix of style, humour and sex, the essence of fashion!”

    That just says to me that you have no idea what style, humour or sex *are*.

    • Yes, absolutely. Suit Supply really are “shameless” and will say anything to justify selling suits. We need masses of signatures for our petition – can you tell everyone you know. Many thanks.

    • Teresa Baynard says:

      I think you lot here are doing more harm to womens rights than any poor taste advertising campaign. If it offends you, look the other way for crying out loud. There are more important things.

      • Sorry, but I don’t agree. If we don’t challenge these “poor taste advertising campaigns”, we’re saying that it’s okay to portray women in this way. We know from research that portraying women as little more than passive sex objects leads to increased rape and sexual assault as men think it’s okay to continue to have sex with a woman even if she’s saying no or if she’s too drunk to say anything. If we all looked the other way, we’d still be living in an era when women had no rights at all. I doubt that is what you want anymore than I do.

      • Teresa, women’s rights are about this poor taste advertising campaign – the right to not be portrayed as a sexual object. This is where it starts – it ends with some poor woman being thrown dead in a gutter after being used and abused by a psychopath.

      • Hi Teresa. I agree with the replies from Alison and matarij. I also disagree with the logic behind your point. If you disagree with what we’re saying, and if ‘other things’ are so much more important, why don’t you look the other way (for crying out loud)?

        You don’t, I assume, because we’ve raised an issue which, although you disagree with us, you have a viewpoint on – a strong enough viewpoint to comment here, at least. I’m glad that you do, and I’m glad that you share it.

        Because that’s exactly what we have, a viewpoint, and we’re entitled to express it. I don’t want to look the other way if something offends me, I want to talk to people about it, raise the issue, think about it and discuss it. I find this is the best way for me to learn and evolve. And I think the relationship between the depiction of women in popular culture and the systematic violence against women is something worth thinking about and worth discussing.

        If that offends you, you probably need to start reading your news on Fox or CNN!

    • Women tirelessly fought in the suffragette movement to broaden our horizons and we have women today genuinely believing these photographs are acceptable?
      …what has the world come to?!

      This “campaign” is explicitly dehumanizing and dangerous to women and inappropriate for a family shopping centre. It violates women’s dignity and equality.

      Sigh. It’s a shame that “fashion” has to be sexualised to sell.

  2. Signed. I find the rape imagery used in some of the pictures very triggery. Offensive to women and men.

    • Quite honestly, I can’t believe the campaign. Every time I look at the website I’m astounded by just how explicit the images are. Amazing that they were on huge posters in their store in Westfield shopping centre until one of our co-editors spotted them.

  3. This is absolutely horrendous!

    And this is supposed to be humorous? At whose expense?

  4. Suit Supply’s ad campaign stinks – of misogyny and desperation.

  5. Im shocked that this is called a ” Fashion” photo, would be more suitable in a private bedside book…i have nothing against sexual photos but not to advertise anything in public… its just tackey and who ever thought of this needs to clean their brain out for work on mondays…

  6. I would also like to say that if they are trying to show in this pic that the fashion is fantastic, the model look s more interested in her cup of coffee than his body, what he is doing to her, or his suit!!! if the add was for good coffee it would makle more sense but its still pathetic

  7. Why do organizations have to market their goods with photos of scantily or nude females beats me in the first place! What horrifies me is the fact that they are now resorting to PEVERSE & OBSCENE images of women to market what must be a 3rd rate if not 10th rate, shonky suit! It’s totally appalling!

  8. Hugely supportive of the campaign but disapoointed that our e-cuttings service didn’t alert us to is earlier so that White RIbbon Campaign could have shown the support of the men and women here for your work to remove this mysogynistic material which does so much to incite sexual assault .

    • Thanks so much for that supportive comment Chris. Any chance you could circulate our petition to your network? We obviously need as many signatures as possible to show Suit Supply that their campaign is completely “shameless”.

  9. mansourekarami says:

    i totally disagree with most of you! in my opinion the pictures are depicting a fact. I am sure each and every woman would do the same for handsome young men in their well tailored suits. even if they do not show their attraction they would probably think about it in their mind! all I wanna say is That the pictures are just facts. believe it or not!
    Im a 21 year old girl and I should admit that I like them and they should not be removed!

    • Obviously you’re entitled to your opinion but I’m finding it hard to believe that these pictures are ‘depicting a fact’

      .Empty headed bimbos that strip off and curtsy to the every whim of a man in a suit is not really a reality that I know (thankfully)

      And the point is why is there a woman modelling (and in such a derogatory way) for a photos advertising male suits? Because sex sells and they know it and so they exploiting this, despite the potentially harmful implications.

      Perpetuating the myth that all women everywhere would act like this simply because a man is ‘handsome and wearing a suit’ is one dimensional and offensive.

      Please don’t speak for all of us.

  10. Catherine says:

    Not because I disagree, but I would like a hyperlink to “All the research ever done” that demonstrates the links between this type of imagery and rape/violence against women. I think it would strengthen the case made here infinitely and I would like to be able to point people who don’t agree with the campaign at some credible data. Are there any good studies available online?

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