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.

Ghastly.

Everything everywhere is so bloody sexualised.

scarbados "When someone gets outraged about a situation that's normal and universal, I'll be as snarky as I want. Does the OP give a flying one about this is what all disabled people have to cope with every day or is it meant to be different for students at university? It's acceptable for the rest of us, right?"

Eh? The OP said this: "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."

So is very unhappy that facilities for disabled users are being redesignated for everyone else.

For the record, I agree with you and OP on this.

Can we tweet that at Penny Mordaunt, babyteeth?

I’m just gobsmacked (no pun intended) if that’s their marketing. It’s beyond hideous.

So sad. I feel so sorry for girls growing up now

Bowl ok I will try but I’m not a 100% competent Twitter user!

Emailed brush box to complain about that advert it’s disgusting. Shame on them.

And Sam gyimah isn't he universities minister. And Victoria Atkins tho I don't know if she is on twitter. Naz Shah? Does Labour have a universities lead?

Who pays for this anyway?

I'm assuming the advertisers pay for the opportunity because if any part of a student's 9000 pounds went towards buying shit boxes so they can be marketed at it would certainly cause uproar.

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.

So you admit you meant to reference blow jobs?

Did you make any versions using a masculine mouth, @BrushboxUK? Why did you choose a female one?

(I'm sure your creatives are familiar with design critique. What are their reasons for this design instead of a male version?)

Do you consult women as part of the design process? Interested to know why you thought equating brushing your teeth with oral sex was in any way necessary or appropriate and anything other than flat out misogynistic.

Because that in itself has to be seen as predictably offensive to many members of religious groups going to university and very many women who do not want to be reduced to sexual caricatures.

From the Brushbox website I can see that the poster here ^ is most likely female, which is why cleaning up some twat's mess is her job.

I am sorry though as that answer is nonsense and the best way to teach young people about gum disease is not through the medium of wearable beermats of a woman dripping with spunk/toothpaste.

Now that it has been highlighted to you that this has caused offence and is misogynistic, what steps will you be taking?

Can you reassure us that students will not be confronted with promotional materials like this again?

So you admit you meant to reference blow jobs?

I don't think there is any way they could deny it. Short of literally saying "Welcome to university Suck a dick".

By the way, I was a 20 year old virgin and I still have no fillings nearly 20 years later, so it’s possible to be both passionate about dental hygiene and not expect to be giving oral sex twice a day.

How misogynistic are you to think that's not offensive

@BrushboxUK

Is there an equivalent advert aimed at men? Featuring a highly pornified image of a man's mouth? If not why not?

Brushbox, how the hell can anyone have signed off on that ad and NOT thought it was derogatory to women. FFS. You need to sack your marketing agency or people, they are misogynists and deeply uncreative. If they can't come up with a unconventional method of highlighting poor hygiene with objectifying women. Like a previous poster said, its the equivalent of some guy shouting "suck my cock" at some innocent women walking by. Sexual violence against women on the increase and you come up with this shit.

Agree Duke. It is clear from the phrase ‘raise eyebrows’, that they are admitting it; I’m just annoyed at the circumlocution and ‘didn’t mean to cause offence’ faux-apology.

That's disgusting.

@BrushboxUK

I work in a university. Do you understand how much sexual harassment and assault of young women there is on campuses today? Do you understand the pressure and trauma that pornified sexual imagery exerts on young women today? How anxious they are at starting university? And, that having achieved the academic credentials to attend a good university, they are, on their first day, confronted with imagery which suggests that a woman’s place is to service men’s dicks? Many female students haven’t even had sex for the first time yet. And what a lovely welcome to the U.K. for overseas students, far away from their families.

To be clear, I’m not only angry with you, but at Sussex University and its pathetic Students’ Union.

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

So why did you choose an image of a woman's mouth with Toothpaste dripping out of it, which you admit is supposed to be representing spunk?

If you don't think that is derogatory, then that is total misogyny in itself. So it's no wonder you thought this was a brilliant advert for your product.

All @BrushboxUK have sparked awareness of is that parents (a lot of whom are PAYING the 9K a year) need to be much more aware of the messages being given out by universities.

I have looked into a monthly box for DD who is at uni, I think they’re a great idea, I wanted a monthly period box for her. After looking into it and discovering some aimed at ‘people who menstrate’ I decided just to make up my own monthly box.

I thought the ‘people who menstrate’ boxes were the worst example of ‘so woke it’s misogyny’ I would ever see. Then I saw this thread.

This all needs saving for next years clearing threads along with Goldsmiths Gulug.