Browsing Tag

gender

How Axe Is Changing Attitudes About Gender

I still remember how excited Unilever’s team was when they announced that Axe was going to send some lucky guys to space. My peers shared their enthusiasm when we watched a teaser video together at Queen’s University in 2013, but that was the last time I really thought about the brand.

Axe just released a new ad that challenges common stereotypes about young men, which I love. This video makes me rethink what Axe stands for and I admire how it has the power to change consumers’ views about gender. In a way, this ad is long overdue. It’s 2017! Of course it’s ok for guys to wear pink (and not just on Wednesdays). So what if a boy doesn’t like sports?

I wish Axe didn’t have to include a question about depression because it should be obvious by now that guys have mental health issues too. The best article I read on Bell Let’s Talk Day was written by a local male marketer and that was one of many stories.

May 22, 2017 by Sarah Prince

Movie Review: Suffragette

Carey Mulligan stars in Suffragette, which tells the story of working class women in London, England in 1912 who are tired of working for sexist bosses for low pay. They want their voices to be heard in the public sphere and they want to create a better future for their daughters.

After Maud (Carey Mulligan) joins the movement by sharing a testimony about her life to a group of men, they ignore the evidence, dismiss Maud’s poor working conditions and refuse to change policies. In fact, they throw Maud and other women in jail for responding negatively to the news. When Maud and her friends become political prisoners, it marks the beginning of their fight and the end of Maud’s marriage.

October 21, 2015 by Sarah Prince

Rewind and Re-watch: Legally Blonde

To kick off a new category and series of HOTS blog posts, I’ve revisited one of my favourite chick flicks: Legally Blonde.

I first saw Legally Blonde at a theatre at The Eaton Centre, which isn’t there anymore. It was 2001. Little did I know at the time that the film about a blonde sorority girl disproving others’ perception of her by going to Harvard Law School would spawn sequels and propel Reese Witherspoon’s career much further than Election could accomplish alone.

As I re-watched it for the umpteenth time on DVD, I was more attuned to the product placement. Not just the Red Bull that Elle’s sorority sister drinks while exercising or the stack of Cosmopolitan magazines on Elle’s dresser, but especially the OPI nail polish bottles scattered across her colourful room. Even when Elle has the revelation at a nail salon to enroll in law school to win Warner back, the back cover ad on the magazine she’s reading is for OPI. I also thought about the contrast between Elle’s nerdy classmates on black PCs and her brand new orange Apple iBook.

September 23, 2012 by Sarah Prince

Ashley Madison Doesn’t Belong in Meme Generators

The latest campaign for the website designed for cheaters proves why “kindness” is not in their mission statement.

This may not be a sizzling hot story anymore, but it left its mark in print and online and I for one am even more appalled by Ashley Madison as a result.

Adultery with someone of any gender or size is not a case of ‘everything bad is good for you’ (a book that’s on my to-read list, thanks to curiosity and a friend’s recommendation), not even in moderation.

Promoting infidelity makes Ashley Madison a deplorable company of questionable morals and I know I am not alone in saying so. That there are enough unfaithful people to support Ashley Madison’s business model is a real shame in itself. Their latest advertisement, which promotes their already disgraceful business, while creating a hurdle for fat acceptance, is even more deplorable. The print ad implies that men should ditch their overweight or obese wives for a scantily clad thin seductress instead.

Ashley Madison’s advertisement raises several issues about pornography, sex, stereotypes and beauty, which you can consider while reading message boards (yes, those still exist) where people express their outrage.

November 24, 2011 by Sarah

Inspiration: Sheryl Sandberg

“If you survey men and women in college today in this country, the men are more ambitious than the women. And until women are as ambitious as men, they’re not going to achieve as much as men.”

– Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook

Source: Mashable

November 13, 2011 by Sarah

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