I came across (no pun intended) this Ann Summers campaign on a friend’s twitter. Where to start?
Well, firstly, there’s the “empowerment” of women through their sexuality. I’m not anti-sex and I think one of the most important things feminism is achieving is changing attitudes towards women’s sexuality and women having sex. But I hate the way the “lads’ mags” and the sex toy shops try to convince women that being overtly sexual for attention is empowering. What happened to empowering women through education, politics, work, social change and achievement? If lapdancing is so empowering, how come it’s the women dancing naked for money and the men fully clothed watching with full wallets? So no, I’m not convinced Ann Summers are interested in the empowerment of women any further than empowering them to buy from their products. Such as the blowjob strap, oh yes, a strap he can wrap round your head and hold to control the way you suck his cock. This apparently empowers women because it means he won’t mess up your hair with his hands.
Next, take a picture of your orgasm face and post it on Facebook. I don’t know how that would be possible, as most people’s orgasm face is spontaneous when they’re actually, you know, having an orgasm. So really, take a picture of your faking it face and post that on Facebook, where it will remain forever on the internet for anyone to use as they see fit – forward it around the world, take it into account when deciding whether or not to give you a job, send it to your dad, whatever. And if your fake orgasm face is the best one – and I don’t know what criteria they’ll be judging that on – you could win £200 worth of Ann Summers goodies! That’s definitely empowering, isn’t it? (Does WordPress have a sarcasm font?) I assume that by “best O face” they mean “most like a porn star.” It’s so sad that so many women seem to have been taken in wholesale by the “empowering” messages that their worth in life depends on how sexual they are, which celebrities they’ve slept with or how few clothes they wear – or how like a porn start they can pretend to be for a chance to win Ann Summers vouchers.
Society still seems to value women mostly as sexual objects. As long as we’re not too sexual. Then we’re sluts and slags who have no right to complain if we’re raped – we brought it on ourselves by being too sexual, after all. I abhor the politics of Louise Mensch, and I’m disgusted by her support of the Murdochs and the Murdoch press (and I think her books are crap too), and I think she should be criticised for those things, but the bulk of the criticism directed towards her via social media has been sexual in content. She’s a brainless whore, but they’d give her one anyway. She’s a heartless soulless tart, but she’s fuckable. We are demeaned, we are not taken seriously, we are trivialised in all walks of life, and these “empowering” campaigns from Ann Summers and the like contribute to that.
Oh, and then there’s the I Scream icecream van. Not that I care, because a) Ann Summers’ idea of “all around the UK” is 5 cities in England, with no visits at all to 3 of the 4 countries that make up the UK, and b) I don’t have kids, but I understand some people are concerned that this marketing campaign includes an icecream van giving out free icecream with edible lube toppings. Pausing to get that horrible image out of my mind, and hoping icecream isn’t now ruined for me forever, I can see why some people are concerned that a sex toys marketing campaign is using something which will obviously be attractive to children. Still, it’s good they’re being empowered early.
My favourite thing, though, is that twitter has picked up the campaign and numerous women/bloggers are tweeting about it, using #annsummers and #misogynytour amongst other hashtags. And because the I Scream Ann Summers page has a twitter bit on it which harvests #annsummers tweets and puts them onto the page, the page is now filled with numerous tweets criticising the whole campaign. Women taking advantage of a misogynistic advertising campaign’s social media feed to criticise that advertising campaign? Now that’s empowering.
Other blog articles about this issue
London Feminist I Scream Until I’m Sick of Misogyny
Mitherings from Morningside 
Excellent piece, Kirsten. You are at your best (writing wise) when you are angry but controlled, whereas I just go incoherent…
I can’t imagine you as incoherent. You’re one of the most coherent people I know.