Help me to address this misguided poster campaign

[CuttedUpPear]

In short, I admin a FB page for a company I work for.
One of the friends of the company is running a campaign against some apparently thoughtless redevelopment in Newport.

They have asked to post the photo below on our page. If the link isn't working for you, it basically ridicules Newport Head of Planning by editing their publicity to read that she has her 'legs open for business'.

www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=449615741816395&set=o.349931335121273&type=1&theater

I am drafting a message to the person who wants to put this up on the internet. I need to explain our sympathy to their cause while pointing out the error of their ways in denigrating a woman like this.

Your literate help would be appreciated - I want to get the message across well.

Nasty, does she know about this yet?

I don't know if she knows. I'm trying to nip it in the bud.

Here's the byline
"the woman parodied in this image is Sheila Davies, Newport Council's Executive Head of Planning who oversaw the bulldozing of a 1,500 sqft mural - all 200,000 pieces of it - for a London developer's shopping scheme. To my knowledge, this is the largest piece of art destroyed anywhere in the world since the Taliban blew up those Buddhist sculptures."

My reply so far reads:

I see you are posting news about Newport redevelopment onto the +++ page.
While we applaud your work to draw awareness to this matter, I'm afraid we cannot condone the recent poster campaign which highlights Sheila Davies' actions in the planning department.

To draw comparisons between a woman's perceived sexuality and the thoughtless destruction of treasured buildings is (I'm a bit lost here)

It is not a parody but a condemnation of female sexuality. Only men could have written this, please correct me if I'm wrong. but you are alienating 50% of the population with your weak humour.

Please help me to word this!

If a man had made this decision, there would be no mention of sexuality. This poster is a nasty, juvenile response - if they want to be taken seriously, in an adult debate, they need to be professional and stick to the topic.

Bravo for taking a stand against this.

"To draw comparisons between a woman's perceived sexuality and the thoughtless destruction of treasured buildings is..." unneccessary/unprofessional/juvenile/chauvenistic/discriminatory?

I wouldn't get into the whole feministic thing. I would simply say that it is inappropriate and that as a company you cannot seem to be biased/supportive of either side. That the thoughts expressed could be viewed as slanderous and so the neutrality of your company/page could be compromised and questioned meaning you cannot display it.

Yes, looks like a laudable campaign, but using misogynist words and imagery is unacceptable and undermines the message completely.

The first paragraph of your reply looks good. For the second, perhaps something like this . . .

We support your aim of highlighting the irreparable damage caused by decisions of Newport City Council planning department and Sheila Davies role in this as Head of Planning. However, using a sexually degrading, sexist statement against her because of her gender identity is unacceptable.

It would likewise be unacceptable to use racist statements to criticise the decision of a Black council official or homophobic statements against a Lesbian or gay official.

Also, use of sexist material draws attention away from the purpose of the campaign and is likely to alienate many who would otherwise support it.

I think I would drop the last paragraph though. After all, I've seen sexist content generated by women (perhaps internalised sexism or just lack of awareness,) and last thing you want is for them to come back and say, "Well yes actually, the idea came from a woman in our campaign," because that would just derail the point you want to make!

I'd suggest raising that they wouldn't think of doing something similar about a Black, Gay, Disabled, etc., Council Officer will be more likely to get a re-think.

Good luck whatever you do,

Also it is inappropriate to personalise what would have been a political decision taken either by her Cabinet Member/portfolio holder, or the Council's full Cabinet, or the full Council (ie the elected members) - and I will bet you that they are predominantly male anyway.

Well done, OP, for taking a stand against this wildly inappropriate misogynist nonsense.

Thanks chaps this is a great help.

Yeah, funny the campaign's not having a pop at Cllr Bob Bright (Leader) and Cllr John Richards (development).

TillyTotter our group is quite political and we are at liberty to be a non- neutral as we like.

I'd rather engage in a political argument about this than sidestep it with etiquette.

What KRITIQ wrote is great.

And exactly right as well - I'm sure the same group would never use "it's a black day for Newport" or "don't let Newport be crippled by this" to name but two other massively inappropriate things they could have done.

I've had a reply from them:

Hey, if you knew me then you would never accuse me of being sexist. If you think this image is sexist then you are missing the point completely. The headline is headed with the word 'Newport'. It is Newport that has had its legs opened for business, not Sheila Davies. She is the Madame who has prostituted Newport. If she was a man - or if the original poster's image had been of a man - we would have run exactly the same parody. Hope this clears up my position on this subject.

What a load of crap.

I mean, just on how many levels....?

I'm fuming now.

Is Newport a woman then?

If she was a man then you would not use that line. It is highly inappropriate please look at it again.

Whether it refers to the woman or the town - it is still using a sexist stereotype/image to get a point across. This guy misses the point entirely.

men really hate being accused of being sexist, don't they?

It simply doesn't work how this supposedly non-sexist person is claiming it is intended to. Newport doesn't have legs, I know it's a metaphor, but when the brain is offered the word 'Newport' and a picture of a woman, it is not going to create a convoluted backstory of the woman as a madame, prostituting the town of Newport, it will make the much simpler connection of the woman getting fucked.

And the convenient argument that they would have done the same it was a man in the picture, well, we'll never know will we?

What a pathetic reply! Because 'legs open' applies to men and women right?

So they are using an analogy of a sex worker and her pimp/madame to further their campaign? Instead of sounding better they have made themselves sound worse. Sex workers are amongst the most vulnerable in society,many there not by choice.

I have replied, quoting many of you points!

Fight the good fight CuttedUpPear! Unfortunately given their main argument was, 'I'm not sexist, so it can't be sexist!' they may well be impervious to logic. I hope they see sense though.