Object to Suit Supply which offers pornography along with its suits

[franch]

See Suit Supply - these images are displayed as posters in Suit Supply stores in the UK (including Westfield and Regent Street).

For more info and to object, visit this site.

[fewcloudy]

Oh well, I can only say I honestly didn't think that way, when I saw the photos a moment ago (but you are correct, I haven't given all 123 posts my full attention). I started to look at the clothes quite quickly and I like the coat that the guy is wearing in the last shot (with a scarf).

In fact, which do you like the best if you click on coats; the 1st, the 2nd or the 9th? Seriously!

Surely as a straight man my reaction is bound to be different? FYI, I'm happily married (20 years) with a great sex life, lifelong enthusiastic user of pornography in all of it's wonderful mediums, father of 2 teenage daughters that just want to push the boundaries, well travelled (lived in Holland for years) and liberal.

This campaign no more makes me consider women as only sexual objects, as playing Grand Theft Auto or whatever on a computer makes me want to go out and attack someone or rob a bank. Sorry.

[ISNT]

If you can't see why it's a problem to have pictures of people having sex, where the man appears to be choking the woman, up in shopping centres, then we still have a long way to go.

If it was a picture of a man masturbating while a fully dressed woman cheerfully pushed a stiletto heel into his face, would this also be acceptable to you for shopping centre display?

[ISNT]

As a straight man your response to pictures which are ambiguous about whether they are depicting sexual assaults may well be different to women who have spent their entire lives enduring low grade and more serious sexual assault, yes.

When some bloke sticks his hand up your daughters skirt on the bus for no apparent reason, maybe you will change your view about whether the prevalence of this type of image, where the women don't look interested, or as if they are enjoying themselves, or even as if they are definitely consenting, and where the women are present for men to look at and do things to, and see then whether this is all a bit of harmless fun.

[anastaisia]

what about your daughters? If they were younger and you took them shopping; how do you imagine the conversations going if they were constantly exposed to images like that.

I don't so much care what people look at on their own. These pictures on the internet or in a magazine that people could choose to view or avoid wouldn't bother me. But to have them on streets and in shopping centres, where people walk with their children, where teens who may have varied life experiences and adult guidence hang around - that bothers me. I don't mind talking to my children about advertising and social attitudes; but I'd still rather she didn't have to see such sexualised advertising everywhere we go at such a young age.

[Sakura]

Trust me, he's ugly. YOu don'T want your daughters to date him, and you don'T want them to be with the other guy either

[Beachcomber]

Fewcloudy this one campaign is unlikely to make anybody think of women as only sexual objects - just as it is unlikely to make anybody think of men as only sexual predators.

What is pissing most of us off here, is this campaign within the wider context of a society that normalizes the objectification (indeed pornification) of women.

The same can be said for violent video games (which are often full of sexist and racist stereotypes) - violence is being presented as fun and cool. Violence is being glamorized and normalised. One video game is unlikely to create a violence accepting society on its own of course - it is all about context.

Research has been done which showed that groups of people who are exposed to pornography become desensitised to it. They don't react the same way to the first porn images they are shown as they do to subsequent ones.

What we are talking about here is how exposure to certain themes and images leads to normalisation, desensitisation and internalisation of the concepts within the images (as well as the actual images themselves). It is how propaganda works on populations.

One ad campaign will not turn anybody into a misogynist but a constant barrage of adverts, films, pop videos, magazines, porn, literature, television and cultural norms will.

If you are a user of pornography it is hardly surprising that you are failing to understand why thinking women object to this ad campaign.

(Hint - it is not because we are all jealous of the stunning women in the pictures. Nor is it because we are lolling around on sofas in grubby tracksuits wishing a bloke in a flash suit would come and lift up our skirts in a bored, distracted and contemptuous manner whilst we look beautifully submissive and ecstatic to be so.)

[Sakura]

You have a decidedly Dutch intonnation fewcloudy
I also lived in Holland for a while, studying the cut-flower industry

[Sakura]

[msrisotto]

A lot of men don't 'get' it when women have a problem being seen primarily as sex objects. My DP doesn't see the issues with things that I see (I educate him ), even he was shocked at this ad campaign though. Anyway, point is that just because a bloke doesn't see what the big deal is, doesn't make him at all qualified to say it isn't so and it doesn't erase the issue.

[Beachcomber]

Good blog post by a man who is sick of being marketed to as though he is a dickhead with no head.

www.lesspermanent.com/?p=1166

Nice to see that some men are annoyed by how insulting this crap is to them too.

[Sakura]

"Suit Supply, are your suits well made and not stitched together by diseased toddlers from central asia? If so, that?s probably a great reason to buy one ? but don?t try to appeal to me with brand imaging that implies it?s going to turn me into some sort of nonchalant, grinning, serial fingering, perverted, upskirt enthusiast as if that?s something I should be aspiring to, please."

He's brilliant

[fewcloudy]

Hi, a range of comments and views, some well thought out, some plain daft (sorry ISNT),which I don't agree with as you would expect.

I've walked through The Walletjes in Amsterdam with my wife and children, going to a restaurant early Sat eve. Sex shops and window girls, supermarkets and restaurants all were there, no problem. Plenty of other families there too, so please don't be too shocked. My girls were interested in all they saw (age 10 and 12 then) and good conversations ensued. I'm much happier that my girls have a great awareness of all these things and will hopefully behave more like Dutch women later in their life (where there is a fraction of the number of abortions, far lower % of STD's, an older age of 1st sex experience despite a very low age of consent, etc etc). Too many sexually repressed folks to do much about things over here I'm afraid. Visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_incidence_of_teenage_pregnancy Compare and contrast UK and Netherlands. Doubt there's too many over there getting their knickers in a twist just because sex sells clothes. You do know Suit Supply are Dutch don't you?

My enjoyment of porn doesn't mean I can't have an opinion. I live with a woman who loves porn, although in your company would probably say she didn't. The women I work with (I'm a nurse) have a great attitude to sex/porn and will be laughing about this.

I didn't see any photo of choking or raping; maybe we see what we want to see when we look at these images...

The ridiculous quote of the day...

"When some bloke sticks his hand up your daughters skirt on the bus for no apparent reason, maybe you will change your view about whether the prevalence of this type of image, where the women don't look interested, or as if they are enjoying themselves, or even as if they are definitely consenting, and where the women are present for men to look at and do things to, and see then whether this is all a bit of harmless fun."

deserves the ridiculous answer of the day....

No, that wouldn't change my opinion one little bit. We don't know why the bloke did that. Maybe his mum didn't bring him up very well and teach him how to respect women...

[fewcloudy]

No, nothing could ever be the fault of women...we all know that.

[Janos]

If a man behaves badly, it's always a womans fault Leningrad - did you not know that?

Personally, I'm delighted that a man has taken time out of his no doubt hectic schedule to tell a bunch of women on the internet that they are WRONG.

Thanks be to these valiant knights-errant.

[Beachcomber]

What always makes me snort is the way the men who come on, to tell us that we women are wrong in how we feel about women's issues, always often start off with a neat little appraisal of how well (or not) they have judged us of being able to use our brains.

"a range of comments and views, some well thought out, some plain daft"

It is just so entitled.

It is even snortier when they go on to spectacularly miss the point or throw their weight about in the manner of the oblivious of privilege.

Then, of course, it gets tedious.

[Beachcomber]

And often high-handed and patronising.

[ISNT]

I am confused as to why I have earned comment of the day.

None of those pictures show women who are actively consenting or appear to be enjoying what is being done to them. That contains a message about male and female sexuality to the viewer. Why do you think it is desirable to show children pictures of people in sexual congress, where the women are not depicted to be enjoying themselves, and some of which are ambiguous as to whether the women are consenting. If a man sticks his hand up a girls skirt on a bus, he is only behaving in the same way as one of the men in these posters, and if the posters are on public display, then that behaviour must be fine, surely.

Although it's probably a lesson that has already been learnt in a family where a man takes his pre-teen daughters to look at prostitutes on display, and explains to them that they are there for men to look at, decide which one they want to fuck most, and then go and fuck them in exchange for some cash.

You have a very strange family set-up, my friend.

[Janos]

Yeah, Beachcomber.

By the way, did anyone miss the inference that Dutch women = fabulous, liberated, free thinking babes while British women = uptight, frigid, repressed prudes?

Thought I ought to point that out as women are often too busy putting on make ups and thinking about shopping to pick up on such subtleties.

[sethstarkaddersmum]

and don't forget they do this when they haven't actually read more than a couple of posts and have jumped to completely the wrong conclusion about what people have said.
But they still think they have something to say that is worth listening to. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

[ISNT]

I think a better question might be, why do some people think that it is necessary and desirable to expose children to concepts such as adult sexuality, prostitution, bondage? And why these concepts are always presented from the point of view of stereotypical male sexuality (men dominant, women passive, prostitutes are female customers are male, females are not supposed to enjoy sex, sex is for men)?