Really? Is it just me who doesn't get the Daniel Craig drag thing?

[Adair]

James Bond. Hardly most enlightened character.

Dressing up as 'a woman' which as we all know involves long hair, lipstick, high heels and a dress .

So an ad for International Womens Day that doesn't actually feature any women (well, the voiceover - but no-one is mentioning that).

I thought his silence was good. Voice-over excellent. Drag bit, odd.

I quite liked the Kick Sexism Out of Football clip they made after the Grey / Keys debacle (I do like a cheesy montage) but maybe that wouldn't have got the audience. I don't know why they thought they needed a male star to get PR attention for International Women's Day - it's not like the world is short of eyecatching women who could draw attention and make a statement.

(But seriously Daniel, if you're reading, I have a Sony handycam, storyboards and everything)

The voiceover is excellent but I'm utterly bemused by the visuals.

I suspect they're trying to get across that women are badly treated by society. Therefore, Craig comes in 'as a woman' and looks sad because he has been so degraded and dehumanised by external factors.

However as we see no context, we just see a 'woman' existing, all we are given is the idea that being a woman is intrinsically a bad, degrading experience.

Very, very sad. And drag is just offensive in this context, especially the way he has been done up with long hair, tights and a frock like some weird 90s receptionist stereotype.

@SGM "The voiceover with him silent is a brilliant reversal of the normal male voiceover/passive woman. lt should have just stayed that way."
Yes agree - this is one of the first things we did at A-level analysing adverts - how women are seen and men are heard. Nothing's changed in 10 15 20 years.

I too thought the weirdy drag effect thing was a spoonful of sugar to get the voiceover message out.

Every other feminist type link I've posted on facebook and elsewhere is only likely to be watched/read by people who are already thinking along those lines.

It's not confusing. People, society, do actually believe that the entire sum of a women= no dick (a non-male), long hair, high heels, lipstick and a dress. That's it. A woman for those who don't actually know what it's like to be a woman

The voiceover with him silent is a brilliant reversal of the normal male voiceover/passive woman. lt should have just stayed that way."

THat part was brilliant, I have to say

The voiceover is very powerful, although I am not convinced by Daniel Craig's role.

However I do think that this film has made 2011's International Women's Day the most high profile I can remember.

Do you think that having a female film star appearing would simply have allowed men to dismiss International Women's Day as being just for women (and who needs to listen to them?), whereas having a high profile actor, famous for his most macho role, might be saying that these awful statistics are relevant to us all (not just women).

yes, I thought it was good to have Daniel Craig there with the Judi Dench voiceover
Not so good to have him come on in drag, implying there is some sort of connection between the lives of drag queens and women. They both like lipstick! Oh, except quite a few women don't like/wear/fetishize lipstick so where does that leave us...

I'm not in the UK so I can't gague anything about how high-profile it has been there. Suffice it to say, nobody in Japan has mentioned International women's day.
I wonder if this is a PR stunt by the Trans because although there are a miniscule amount of them the trans lobby is phenomenally powerful

NOt International women's day obv, but the idea behind this gauche promotion. it seems to me that 99.9% of the media is run by men and trans women.

lor, sakura, 'the trans'? are they a bit like 'the gays' then? ironic on a thread complaining about women being reduced to a blonde wig and lippie... 'the wimmin' - 'the trans' - 'the Other'.

fwiw, i'm in canada and have been most heartened by the day - not a bloke in a dress in sight that i've noticed, and dd1 (11) spent the day doing leadership workshops at school, followed by a celebration of women presentation given by a painter/ decorator, a nuclear scientist, and a soldier (all female, obv).

i might go and youtube now though, see what all the chat is about.

TondelayoSchwarzkopf I also liked the video, but I'm appalled at the comments left by (I'm guessing) men saying who they'd 'smash'.

There also seem to be a few comments against women's rights on the 'Equals' video, some seem to be coming from women!

sorry Sakura, I really don't believe that transwomen have a powerful voice in the media.

I liked it. I took the message as DC paying lip service to 'understanding and empathising' with women but then as he listens to JD he seems to realise that his actions are futile and he really starts listening to the stark facts.

I took it as him being a bit flippant then realising that it is no laughing matter IYSWIM.

It was a brilliant Bond Spoof , ( as it were)......
Judi Dench said it all, and I thought it was excellent food for thought.
Plus, I hope it made Daniel (GORGEOUS) Craig think about how women are treated.
I guess the reason they picked him ws , he is so masculine and a guy like that , as James Bond etc makes all the guys who like to think they are all male sit don and think about the way some women are treated. i.e. very badly.
The Drag bit wasnt weird, it was about making a man put himself in our shoes . . . . .
No ?