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Object’s victory in Europe

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object, advertising standards, sexismEuropean Advertising Standards Alliance to consider new guidelines to stop sexist advertising.

Research shows that exposure to images that sexually objectify or stereotype women can damage women and girls’ self-esteem and mental health, limit and shape their aspirations, and foster sexist attitudes and behaviours among men and boys.

Such images are currently commonplace in advertising.

The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) committee has repeatedly called on governments to take action against the stereotyping of women, arguing that such representations contribute to women’s disadvantaged position in a number of areas including in the labour market and in access to decision-making positions, and affect women’s choices in their studies and professions.

The European Parliament has also voted in favour of several gender equality resolutions, including the adoption of a report which calls on both advertisers to stop using sexist stereotypes and member states to monitor how gender is portrayed in advertising.

Yet despite this and countless studies that demonstrate the discriminatory nature and harmful effects of such advertising, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) still considers sexism an issue of ‘taste and decency’, rather than one of discrimination.

Complaints against sexist portrayals of women and girls in adverts are upheld only if an ASA Council decides that they are likely to cause ‘serious or widespread offence’, and a great deal of sexist advertising is judged inoffensive.

For example, if demeaning portrayals of women are placed in men’s magazines, they are likely to be deemed ‘humorous’ and unlikely to cause offence to the target audience.

And the content is only judged according to ‘prevailing social standards’ – so if discrimination against women is commonplace, sexist advertising won’t stand out as tasteless or indecent.

OBJECT has campaigned for responsible advertising since its creation, highlighting the industry’s massive influence in shaping society’s ideas of what is normal, acceptable and desirable.

Last week OBJECT joined with feminist organisations Chiennes de Garde (France) and DonneinQuota (Italy) to demand higher standards from the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) in Brussels.

EASA is the European network of advertising self-regulation bodies, of which the UK’s ASA is a member.

Its purpose is to promote ‘best practices’ in advertising.

In a meeting held at the European Parliament, and with strong support from MEPs Mary Honeyball (UK), Sylvie Guillaume (France) and Silvia Costa (Italy), we presented our positions to EASA and representatives of its member bodies.

We explained why sexual objectification and sexual stereotyping of women and girls constitutes discrimination, and emphasised that objective criteria exist to assess whether the content of an advert is discriminatory.

We pointed out the inconsistencies in advertisements being judged as sexist and banned in one European country but not others.

We called for tighter guidelines to regulate advertising, in line with European Parliament resolutions on ending discrimination and in consultation with women’s rights organisations throughout Europe.

We argued that standard-setting would be positive for the advertising agencies themselves; people who work in the industry have told us of the pressure from corporate clients to develop sexually objectifying advertising campaigns, and they would no longer be forced to participate in this.

As a result of our meeting, EASA has promised to consider new guidelines and to pursue dialogue with us.

We look forward to further collaboration and concrete steps towards change.

OBJECT will be continuing the work to end media sexism with a number of institutions at national and European levels.

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