to be shocked and disappointed by this sexism?

[awfullyproper]

This is the sticker page from dd's activity pack from the lounge at Gatwick. The male chracters: captain, Steward, photographer and spy.
The female characters: stewardess, movie star and model.
Not only that, but the male characters are 4 times wider than the females. The stewardess looks like an exaggerated Barbie.
AIBU, or is this just so wrong!

[EnthusiasmDisturbed]

Great response

And great mnhq acted so quickly

[ZebraOwl]

Yay! So glad it's being changed.

Find it really interesting how many children have the doctors = men & nurses = women conviction despite their RL experiences. When I did Rainbows in my last term at uni (exactly what you want when preparing for finals you are much too ill to sit... actually, it was sanity-saving blissful escapism) we talked about Jobs one week. And the Rainbows were adamant that they couldn't be doctors when they grew up, because boys were doctors & girls were nurses.

We do LOTS with our Brownies about gender equality & the fact that Girls Can Do Anything. They got wildly excited about the Science Investigator badge - with some extra excitement over the fact that the scientists I'd picked for them to learn about were all women. Our Unit were also enthusiastic participants in Girlguiding's "Girls Matter" campaign in the run-up to the election last year: not sure our MP was quite prepared for the question about original sin (Catholic Brownies are VERY Catholic sometimes...) & gender equality, but she handled it very well...

[WilLiAmHerschel]

Why are there a bunch of deleted posts?

[thebiscuitindustry]

Great response, well done for taking it up with them.

[MrsHathaway]

William - GF-ery iirc.

[temporarilyjerry]

Zebra A few years ago, I taught in an area where the school nurse was a man. Great opportunity to challenge gender stereotypes, I thought. Nurse came to talk to the children as part of work on 'People who help us'. A few weeks later, I asked, "What is the difference between a doctor and a nurse?" and got the answer, "A doctor is a man and a nurse is a woman."

[Helmetbymidnight]

Well done op.

[awfullyproper]

Now a proper email message, pretty satisfied with that. (Have removed the names)

Dear *,

Thank you for your email.

As mentioned in our responses to you via Twitter and Facebook, I have been in conversation with our Product Manager since receiving your correspondence. I wanted to delay responding to you until I could do so fully, and I apologise if it has felt at all as though we were not taking this seriously.

Our activity packs are designed and produced by a third party, and until receiving your feedback we had not received any comments of this nature. This is by no means an excuse however and, in light of you bringing this to our attention, we will begin a redesign of the activity pack to ensure that gender, and opportunity, is better represented throughout.

Due to the lead time required in getting these designed, produced and then distributed, this will not be an instant fix but I hope that, if you happen to visit us again in the future, your daughter, and all children, will see a more varied set of airport-based female role models to aspire to within her pack.

Thank you once again for raising this with us, and please do not hesitate to get in touch with me directly if you have any further feedback or queries regarding the pack or No1 in general.

Best regards,



Guest Relations Manager

No1 Traveller Ltd.

[thebiscuitindustry]

Result! That's great

[wasonthelist]

OP Thanks on behalf of my daughter (and from me too).

[pigsDOfly]

Great response.

Can't say fairer than that. Hopefully, now this has been brought to their attention they'll be on top of it in the future.

Well done OP.

[Lanchester]

It looks like both the men and the women are being sexually communicative in the picture. The picture does look really old fashioned though.

[LilacSpunkMonkey]

It's not a meme. It's a photo of an activity pack at the airport.

And you can't just drop your research link into a thread like that.

[Jabronil]

Oh this is so so horrible, it has left me shaking and crying. Who cares about their half hearted promieses and apologies, they're still sexist monsters poisoning our precious children's minds.

We should kick up a big fuss on Twitter and Facebook, then flood them with complaints, if we get enough people in on the complaining we might even be able to sue for emotional damage + get a few people sacked too for daring to portray women in such a way.

If that doesn't work we should go to the airport and start a breastfeeding protest to show that women are mothers as well as working people.

Fed up of all these naughty sexist people. They should accept that women can have successful careers but we just choose not to. Or be sent to prison for re eduction and put on the sexist offender register so they can never work again.

[Helmetbymidnight]

Hilarious, Jab!

With wit like that, I bet people used to say you should be a comedian. About 40 years ago, right?

[Jabronil]

No I never get told I should be a comedian, because society think's it's only men that can be funny and women should politely laugh.

[Helmetbymidnight]

Oh dearie me, are the nasty feminists making you feel so frightened and inadequate that you felt you had to join mumsnet and teach them all what for?

That IS very funny.

[awfullyproper]

Who said anything about getting anyone sacked?
Who said anyone HAS to go out and work? It's just about time women stopped being judged on their looks and the ideal being portrayed as thin.