Monday, April 3, 2017

That Daily Mail Sexist Cover, Smurfette 'Missing' in Israel town, and the Importance of Speaking Up

On Monday 27 March, when British newspaper Daily Mail offered an online preview of its front page for Tuesday, there was an uproar of anger. That cover featured a picture of UK Prime Minister Theresa May meeting with Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, with the caption 'Never mind Brexit, who won Legs-it!'. Even UK opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn condemned this particularly outrageous act of sexism against his opponent.

And thanks for speaking up, everybody. The fact that a newspaper can still think of doing something like this in 2017 may be quite appalling, but if we don't clearly let them know that it's unacceptable, nothing will change.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that Smurfette is missing on billboards for the latest Smurf movie, in a town in Israel. This is particularly weird, given that Smurfette is the real star of the whole movie. Apparently, the decision was due to religious sensitivities.

Religious sensitivities or not, this attitude should never be acceptable. There can never be gender equality in a world where women, or in this case a female cartoon character, cannot even be shown in the same light as men. As in the Daily Mail case, I think it's time we spoke up.

We need to speak up, or nothing will change. If we speak up, things might not change overnight, but it won't be wasted in the longer run.

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