Was in Covent Garden yesterday & was a bit confused by the presence of a giant fishtank. Full of women. Whose heads you couldn't see, just their bodies. It drew a massive crowd. Mostly of men. Most of whom were taking photos &/or filming & a large number of whom were passing comment on the bodies of the women involved.
The Nivea Dare To Dip experience was (as far as I can make out) for women only. Already sexist there. You couldn't see the women's faces (apart from when when they hung over the top on command for publicity shots) so they were depersonalised in a way that makes perving over them seem more acceptable to a lot of people. After they came out of the pool they were sent (wrapped in not-overly-generous towels) to sit in a little seating area that was at ground level, just separated from the gawping masses by a little picket fence.
It really really did NOT feel this was about empowering women. At all. It will have generated lots of attention for the brand, as was their intent, but the women involved were being seriously leched over. When I walked past it on my own on my way to meet my friend a group of men were discussing who in the crowd they'd like to see in the pool (mixed views on me as they could see my "nice long legs" as I went past but they couldn't tell what my bust looked like because I was wearing a raincoat over a fleece) & another bloke was on the phone telling his mate to get over there to join the perving fun.
The whole atmosphere of the thing made me feel really pretty sick. The friend I was with when we went back past it on our way to the Opera House felt the same way. Both of us tweeted Nivea UK with our views but neither of us have had any reply despite the account being busy spewing out stuff related to the event.
Was I just being crazy-oversensitive, or do you think I was right to tell Nivea I'll not be buying their products again because they promote the objectification of women?
Feminism: Sex and gender discussions
Nivea's "Dare To Dip" - more "Dare To Strip (and then be ogled...)"?
ZebraOwl · 12/05/2013 01:02
Yes Greythorne, and to be an unpaid model for a company - how is that empowering?
And tiring isn't, how companies are trying to sell to men using women's bodies, and to women using women's bodies. WTAF?
This is the only female cosmetics(deodorant) advert that I've ever liked:
Compare to the Nivea and Dove stuff.
This one is not trying to "empower" women, (but still want to make money on their "empowering" message?) it states that women already are strong and strong women sweat a lot
so we need a strong deodorant.
it doesn't tend to swell my xmas card list, greythorne...I have lost at least two this week 
Somebody wise once posted on this board that feminism defends the right of everybody to make his/her own choice, but not everyone's choice is a feminist choice, or something like that. And I agree. We make choices and decide to do things for very complex reasons, and mostly we cannot really judge people's choices because we can't read their minds. But our actions and choices do affect those around us, sometimes significantly, but probably more frequently cumulatively. That's why some of us get upset with this marketing ploy, but I hope none of us is condemning those who took part.
Or something like that. Have had two 
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