This is wrong right?

[DukeOfSussex]

If your teenage daughter had her first week at the University of Sussex this week this is what found in her welcome bag.

A Pot Noodle, A tablet of washing detergent, a sim card and an individual sized portion of instant coffee.

AND

A picture of a woman designed to look like she has spunk dripping down her face to sell toothbrushes. "whether you spit or swallow during your twice daily oral regime..."

She'll also find a drinks night event by the Student union being advertised all over campus. It has a picture of a dead eyed half naked woman laying in an empty bath...which advertises what? Fuck knows.

She will also find a copy of the student newspaper in her bag. On the front cover at the very top of the page is an article entitled "Transphobia and toilets". This is discussing the recent words of University of Sussex philosophy professor Kathleen Stock who dared to very (politely) question some aspects of trans theory.

Your daughter, if disabled, will also be concerned to see that some of the disabled toilets have been declared "for all genders". Which is lovely and inclusive but not ideal if you're disabled and need a wee and need to wait for an able bodied non binary male wearing lipstick to go for a shit first.

She will find that the "This Sussex Girl Can" all women only classes are open to all "women, trans gender people and non binary individuals" so just mixed classes basically .

So far so expected of university in general but what upsets me is that people wanted Kathleen Stock's job for having an opinion. She caused students to feel "unsafe" with her very words, but in a world where women are literally unsafe and sexual assault is endemic in universities, Sussex student union didn't think twice before objectifying its female students. If your employer gave you a goody bag with this card in it you could rightfully be making a formal complaint to your HR department. Why is it appropriate for university?

We can't discuss why it's always a woman advertising drinks, or toothbrushes without discussing women and the group of people who actually deal with the real repercussions of being women. It's a bloody joke.Why don't people care about actual sexism, real life objectification of women.

I've never heard that before.

These expressions take no agency into account on the part of the woman. She WILL be performing XYZ sex act on this date. Whether she wants to or not.

The phrases seem sexist and unpleasant but there is a v rapey undertone also.

Of course we see on here on relationships board that many women are in relationships where the word No is not really allowed when it comes to sex.

"Steak and a blowjob day is an important holiday. It's to thank men for the petrol station roses and crotchless knickers that you never asked for but they knew, really, you wanted."

This.

Hello. I bought you some old shit last week that you didn't want or need because the card shops and supermarkets have pushed this as a "must do". Therefore, you need to cook for me and then suck my cock tonight. No, I don't care that your mum has just died. Get on with it.

All of these supposed jokes (that some men actually make their partners do) are about putting women in their place.

Their place is serving men both domestically and sexually.

@brushboxUK maybe you should so something involving women making sandwiches as well as sucking cock next time? Men should brush their teeth after eating sandwiches.

It’s back to the olden days when one of the arguments in favour of letting women into university was that they enhance the men’s experience. There’s a quote somewhere where art students say how tutors only looked at female applicants photos, not their actual portfolios of art work, to give them a place.

Sussex on the case:

mobile.twitter.com/SussexUni/status/1042732982652600320

Which, naturally has absolutely nothing to do with them, simply a matter for the Student Union.

This is spreading around Twitter very quickly now. Brushbox will have to say something else quickly I think.

I also cannot believe that as well as the shit like this ad, they also market to children (ie. Mothers) - there are images of kids on their Instagram page as well as another image with a winky emoji caption about 'the tongue being the strongest muscle in the body'.

Now I know fuck all about marketing but I would have thought that it would be marketing 101 that if you are going to market to kids/parents, and have images of kids as part of your marketing, you can't simultaneously use sex to sell your products?

Also, as an aside, the fact that they have just used a woman's mouth and nothing else, not even the rest of her face, in that picture is just so grim. Talk about banging home the message that women are nothing more than a set of holes to spunk into.

Wow, I really am getting old! I was wondering why the nose was cut out, it never occurred to me that it was a kool and hip pub/party game (just when you think the sexual objectification of young women could get no worse, they encourage YW to actively participate in this 'joke'... on them), because it sure as hell won't be uni dudes doing selfies with this coaster.

I would call that, weapons grade misogyny, really I would!
Makes that nonpology look even more pathetic.

And piss off with your non-apology ‘we are sorry that you are offended’ puts the onus for being offended

Yes, thanks Katara. I was going to go on with similar to that, but deleted it. Thought I already sounded like an 'angry old biddie waving an umbrella around'. Now I just want to rap Chris, Neil and Matt across the knuckles with the brolly and tell them they are bad, bad, bad little men.

Fuck your nonpology dudes. You have less than zero respect for women. And you knew exactly what you were doing. We see you.

Sussex University trying to distance themselves.

Does no one advise these people on how to address outrage over rank sexism?

Has everyone on the planet entitrely lost the ability to say sorry?

So what Sussex are saying is that they'll put any old crap in their welcome packs without checking what it is.

There are online news stories about this now on the Metro news website and the Argus news site.

It does sound like that but it would be frankly ridiculous because the box could then have literally anything in it. like leaflets for mooncups that used the word woman. And Sussex would not have that I can tell you.

(Someone sends them samples with "anthrax" written on them next to a skull and crossbones)

"Oh, the rep said that it was lemsip's new packaging, I'm sure it will be fine"

It does sound like that but it would be frankly ridiculous because the box could then have literally anything in it. like leaflets for mooncups that used the word woman. And Sussex would not have that I can tell you.

OMG can you imagine?

Metro Link:

metro.co.uk/2018/09/20/sussex-university-branded-sexist-for-spit-or-swallow-dental-care-beer-mats-7962931/

From the article:

Brushbox told Metro.co.uk: ‘We’re are really sorry if anyone has been offended by the promotional image used in the Dig-In boxes. We now realise it was inappropriate and misguided of us to use this type of image as a way to raise awareness of dental health issues.

‘We completely understand that the image could be deemed as derogatory to women and for that we are truly sorry – this was never our intention, and we take full responsibility for any upset it has caused.

‘BrushBox is a company which prides itself on its family and ethical ethos and we are very disappointed that something which was meant to encourage good health habits amongst students has caused any offence.’

So they tested the initial not-pology here and realized that it wasn't going to wash.

^The image was meant to be tongue in cheek and spark awareness for what is a serious issue, namely the fact that huge portions of the population suffer with really poor oral health (80% adults have at least 1 filing, 48% are unhappy with their teeth, 29% suffer from regular dental pain). We appreciate that this is not made immediately clear in the small amount of space available on the insert however this message is made very clear elsewhere in our literature.
This is something we feel passionately about and the fact is that conventional methods of highlighting these fact to people, to date, have not worked. Whilst our image was intended to raise eyebrows, at no point in time was it ever our intention to cause outright offence. In particular, there was never any suggestion or intention (consciously or unconsciously) to be derogatory towards women in any way shape or form, this is something we would never do and we are sorry if this has in any way made you feel this way.^

Apology to people who actually saw it^ vs Apology to random newspaper. Slightly different.

"Ethical and family ethos" - effing hell. I'd like to see what happens when you don't have a family ethos.

The idea of my now 12 year old DD going off to university in six years time and encountering this just makes me feel so enraged and sick that I want to tear my eyes out.

University of Sussex, Brushbox and Dig-In owe women of all ages but particularly young women just finding their way in the world a grovelling apology....

That card is disgusting, I’d make a complaint and plaster it publicly all over social media. I also appreciate your concerns about disabled loos - the more able bodied people are told to use them, the less they’ll be available for disabled people to use.

@BrushboxUK can FUCK OFF women hold the purse strings in most families and they’d do well to remember that!!

I can’t wait for this thread to be the top hit on google.

Has anybody asked Martyn Williams or his wife on twitter, what their current thoughts are on financially backing the misogynistic shit show that is brush box?

Nothing says "family ethos" like blowjob jokes.

That card is disgusting, I’d make a complaint and plaster it publicly all over social media. I also appreciate your concerns about disabled loos - the more able bodied people are told to use them, the less they’ll be available for disabled people to use.

It's been plastered trust me! @spikycactus

BrushBox is a company which prides itself on its family and ethical ethos

Oh dear.

twitter.com/hanhanprice/status/1042742419547193345

If you have strong opinions about this, get in touch for a feature #journorequest

@hannahprice

It's not for me but if anyone wants to write her, the info is there. ^

Wow, the copywriting department have been busy since yesterday.

I'm taking my red pen and putting a tick beside 'inappropriate and misguided' but I'm afraid 'could be deemed as derogatory' and 'we are very disappointed' get a big strikethrough. Believe me, Brushbox dudebros, you're not nearly as disappointed in our failure to appreciate your oral health promotion message as we are in your rank misogyny.

5/10. Could do better.