to be angry that Ann Summers has a real woman in underwear in their shop window?

[1eve]

Walking down Market Street in Manchester on Friday I saw a couple of guys taking pictures with their phones at a shop window. When I turned to see what they were photographing I found that there was a woman posing in sexy underwear in a window display. The shop was Ann Summers, although it had changed its name to ManSummers as a publicity thing to get guys to come into the shop and buy valentine gifts for their girlfriends. Now women buying vibrators and dressing up if they want is not a problem for me, although Ann Summers has always leant towards getting women to please men in my view, but sexual desire is never pc anyway so its a tricky subject. But this felt like it crossed a line.
If I'd been walking through town (it was the middle of the day) with my 2 boys, age 4 and 6, that is not what I want them to see. That a woman's role is to be placed on show like a piece of meat while men leer at her? (a group of guys were standing in front of the window laughing and staring, making comments). Is it just me or is this bloody degrading?

As long as there are males on the planet then scantily clad women will be on show. To sell products, to try and pick up a man in a bar whatever.
Men and women have made themselves more attractive to attract a mate since time began, it will not change regardless what is on show or what isn't.

Much better to teach your sons to respect women than teach your daughters to cover up because men can't help themselves.

OP You are so not being unreasonable. Women are not pieces of meat for sale to men. I am a Manc too and am glad I didn't see that. In fact I will boycott ann Summers from now on (easy as I never went there anyway!)

What happened to feminism? Most of the women here think that if a woman chooses to be objectified then it's a valid choice - well suicide is a choice but it's a fucked up one.

I am going back to the seventies and I think a few of you 'sisters' need to come too. Consciousness raising groups anyone ( dons her dungarees and Millie tant ethnic hat).

YABU. I have no more of a problem with this than I do with models on a catwalk. Same thing.

fanny ;

Girl Power happened to feminism . ie the Power to get your tits out in a Lads Mag. But it's OK because it's ironic

I think my argument would be that putting a woman in a shop window encourages people to point, comment and stare. The model will be badly paid for it, which puts it in some form of context. She has a choice, we are all agreed.

Outside of that context, those groups of men might well replicate that behaviour. At a beach. Or even at a bus stop in the rain. What choice have these women made to bd judged on their sexual desirability?

This is all about removing choices, and therefore freedoms. Pretty basic stuff, really.

i would not be happy about a live model in underwear in a window display.
nothing to do with sexism, or feminism, but all about appropriate modes of dress. I dont expect a teacher to turn up to work in a bikini or teensy tiny skirt and boob tube combo, nor do i expect a doctor to do so. I do not expect to see ann summers shop assistants modelling the merchandies, even if some clothes shops expect their shop asssistants to do so. (mark one i think?)
op, i dont think yabu

Good point Brummie. It's that these attitudes creep into the everyday lives of all women, be it in their relationships, careers etc. My choice as a woman not be objectified is compromised by stuff like this.

JLC - you're so right. Bloody girl power sounded the death knell for feminism.

Thankyou Jock. It's a theory I have been honing for the last few years. Girls achieving well at school for the first time?? - well never mind, lets make sure that's insignificant compared to how attractive they are and how many boys they are prepared to give blow jobs to .....

I guess the question for people who don't think it's a big deal is - where do you draw the line?

What if it were two women in the display fondling eachother? (That's probably the plan for next year.)

A lot of people have the attitude that girls and women can wear whatever they want to attract men and that it's nobody's business.

But girls and women in the past wouldn't have dreamed of wearing, saying or doing things that have become gradually more acceptable as society lowered its boundaries of acceptable behaviour.

In the past, we as parents wouldn't have let our daughters wear what you see out on a weekend night now. But since it's in the magazines in the shops, etc. we too are led to consider it "normal."

That's a form of freedom, but it has led to a form of repression too, in that females are unduly pressured to be attractive and sexually available.

All I know is that I wouldn't want my husband to buy me a nice set of sexy underwear for Valentine's because he saw ANOTHER WOMAN looking hot in it!

Ann Summers is bleagh anyway. Itchy skitchy

chandelina - let's not mince words here. Lets have a man and woman going at it, doggy-style in the window. Sex is a normal part of everyday life

JLC - we joke but the stuff that has become normal would have been unthinkable 10 or 20 years ago!

I agree.

It's all about 'shock and awe'. As we get desensitised to different tactics, so advertisers look to the next level to get attention again.

If you really want to make a difference, don't buy the product. Nobody can sell a product without the customers to buy it.

As far as window displays go, they're nothing different to what you can see in the street anyway, people fondling each other - cringeworthy indeed but you see it on the street much as you might wish you didn't.

Anything goes nowadays... some of it we might be grateful for, some of it, definitely not.

Last year in the busy time before Christmas there was a woman doing this in the window of La Senza, the idea of using a live model rather than a mannequin is not new.

Would that be different, because that's just an underwear shop not a "sex shop"?

agree with JTB , My choice as a woman not to be objectified is compromised by stuff like this.

I am angry with Ann Summers because I feel their campaign is very unhelpful in terms of having women viewed as equal and intelligent. I personally am very distressed at the way young girls model themselves on popstars, celebritites, models etc who dress provocatively, sing about sex and seem popular because of their looks and bodies. I think this is very unhealthy and a terrible double standard when men (although there are famous gorgeous men with good bodies) can achieve fame and success whilst not looking 'hot'. this happens occasionally with women, but it is rare.

This woman in underwear in a window is part of the same problem, girls pick up on what society deems is important about being female, eg being desired sexually by men.

Anyone who's interested, I am on twitter @evka and there is a #antimansummers starting up, will put a couple of pics on so we/our partners can have a lech! (joke, but have put a picture on)

I don't support that either, although I consider it to be more wholesome than a woman in lingerie.

I hate this attitude that - it's the way it is, there's nothing we can do about it. And - well it's only going to get worse so you'd better deal with it.

How do you think it happened that ads that would never have had a chance to be aired on TV or run in a magazine became completely acceptable?

How did young boys decide it was unappealing to see hair around a woman's vagina?

How did it happen that young girls of 11 or 12 are pressured to give blowjobs to their "friends"?

Could it possibly have to do with disengaged parents and an overly permissive collective societal attitude that has let marketers wildly manipulate our basest human instincts?

Chandellina... This: Could it possibly have to do with disengaged parents and an overly permissive collective societal attitude that has let marketers wildly manipulate our basest human instincts?

I absolutely agree with that. :(

Shrieking - Interesting - my honest reaction to those photos is. to feel sorry for those blokes. They've given up some of their dignity.

And those six-packs - really really difficult to achieve. I don't want my sons to feel bad for not having a body like that