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.

@brushboxUK

Look: we are all fine with oral health. The issue is the visuals/text you’re using. They’re awful. Utterly tone deaf.

*the screenshot above about smiles and consent - grim. You can do great campaigns on consent (the cup of tea one was just the right balance between light hearted and serious messaging.)
Think for a minute about the subtext you’ve created: a woman smiling at you is up for it. Can you see why that’s a problem? In a climate where a rape victims top and clothing is presented in court as evidence they were asking for it. She smiled at me m’lud - she clearly wanted it.

• the spunk one. Also grim. Would you have made that with a male mouth? If not, why not?

  We aren’t a bunch of fuddy duddies. I had a very good time at uni, involving plenty of partying, a quantity of booze that could have killed a platoon of rhinos and plenty of shagging. What was different back then was that it was so much more respectful - young men were concerned with BOTH parties having fun, and there wasn’t this portrayal of sex as something done TO women.

Your marketing is really poor. Someone upthread said that if they received this is a workplace welcome pack they’d be able to say it was harassment.

You’re portraying women and girls as passive spunk receptacles that are there to be fucked and smile prettily. That is a toxic message to send to both sexes.

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

Conventional methods aren't working, so we had no choice but to go with a horrible, misogynistic, derogatory approach instead.

The ASA cover leaflets if anyone wants to complain.

Don't think they cover website spiel unfortunately, only accuracy claims online so that "only making friends when drunk" bit will get away with it (unless they put it on a leaflet!).

www.asa.org.uk/about-asa-and-cap/the-work-we-do/what-we-cover.html

Someone upthread said that if they received this is a workplace welcome pack they’d be able to say it was harassment.

Yes. If this turned up in my pigeonhole at work, I’d be raising merry hell about it with HR, and whoever sent it to me would be facing a disciplinary at best. If that’s the case for someone who is employed in a university, why would it be acceptable for a student at the same university to be given this?

You know what is an "oral risk" twice a day condomless oral sex which @brushboxuk seems to advocate to teen girls.

No one swallows toothpaste.

"Spit or swallow" is in absolute reference to to spitting or swallowing ejaculate.

This is the message you're giving to 18 year old brand new adults starting life on their own, away fromnthe family home.

This is what you're promoting. That women are nothing more than a spunk receptacle.

Shame on you.

the fact is that conventional methods of highlighting these fact to people, to date, have not worked

There’s nothing edgy or progressive or novel or new about telling women to smile, and suck dick.

Prawnofthepatriarchy
There are many students who don't drink for many reasons, religious and otherwise. This is shocking. But not surprising. There is such a lad, binge drinking culture at universities.

There’s nothing edgy or progressive or novel or new about telling women to smile, and suck dick.

This.

That’s have been said to me since 1985 so I don’t know why the nation’s teeth aren’t in a better state.

That’s have been said to me since 1985 so I don’t know why the nation’s teeth aren’t in a better state.

Proper lol

@BrushboxUK

You know that spit or swallow is a sexual innuendo. Please don't try to back peddle by voicing concerns for dental health...You don't feel passionate about anything other than getting people to spend money on your product.

I doubt @BrushboxUK will be returning to answer any of these questions. Which is a shame.

Really disgusting. That picture and the words

They don’t give 2 flying fucks about how a woman would feel when they got that in thei4 pack
Gross and also Weasley words from that company

I doubt @BrushboxUK will be back on this thread to answer any further questions.

They have made their 'sorry if you are offended by misogyny, obviously we didn't mean to upset anyone, but look how passionate we are about oral health' token statement, so their job is done as far as they are concerned.

Grim.

I bet that at some point there was an Apprentice-style brainstorming meeting where some bright spark linked oral health to oral sex.

Except they wouldn't run that campaign in the workplace or in schools.

Seems to be that female first year students are as disposable to them as their dental floss.

what the fuck is this terrifying shit?

Is this an american company?

Bloody hell NothingOnTelly that is terrifying.

Nah. I think they'll be fucking delighted that people are talking about their brand, and that boring old feminist mums don't like them especially.

And yet I hope they know they've done something shitty here. I think their little exercise will make the more nervous and timid girls starting universities feel just that extra moment of dread at the Cool Kids they now have to pretend to be. While boys giggle away.

And I went to a university beloved of rugger types. Never heard of anything like this.

We had a few other girls end up in our sorority who started off rushing another one. One told us she had to give bjs to a masked guy as part of a pledge and decided it wasn't worth an STD risk. Another told us she had to stand on a chair naked while people took a sharpie and circled the "bad" parts of her body. She either needed to lose weight there, or get plastic surgery.
"Funniest initiation" apparently.

We are talking about their brand, but their brand is toothbrushes.

They can try and sex it up but bamboo toothbrushes and recyclable plastic toothbrushes will never be bought by drunk frat boys. This is another Birsdeye situation. Who buy this stuff? We do, and we don't want it, so talking about it isn't helping them.

Yes, that's American shit, whether the company is or not (I noticed the term 'dorm' in something else quotes upthread).

I'm not sure whether 'initiations' are much of a thing in the U.K., with no real equivalent to US fraternities/sororities AFAIK

However, coincidentally yesterday DD was - disapprovingly- telling me about the 'drinking clubs' at her uni. Some apparent have more-or-less harmless silly initiations (e.g crawl from the college to somewhere in town) but the one she was (obviously) appalled by was 'sleep with a fresher'.

Looking at their company structure from the Brushbox website it is incredibly old fashioned and sexist. The only women they have working for them are in PR, Marketing or "Social", what a surprise. All the rest are (white) blokes.

Yeah I can imagine them all high fiving each other and congratulating themselves on the genius of linking 'oral' health to 'oral' sex.

I agree though that they are probably pleased that those ugly old MN feminists, who have never actually enjoyed sex, think its a horrible advert.

Initiation is a thing in sports societies in UK unis, from my kids' experience. Two girls were hospitalised after the lacrosse society initiation night my daughter went to.