We know that gender equality is far from normalized and effectively imposed in our society, and this from all areas. We see it many times in our pages talking about labor discrimination of mothers, but even the scope of advertising aimed at children does not escape a sexist look.
Personally, I am annoyed by those ads for cleaning products in which men rarely appear as active subjects, but also when toys are advertised stereotyped for boys or girls, taking gender behaviors for granted. And from what I see, I'm not the only one who bothers me.
Because, according to the annual report of the Andalusian observatory that ensures the promotion of equality in advertising messages, games and toys are the products that brought together in 2007 the largest number of complaints about sexist advertising. The number of complaints also increased by 13% over the previous year.
Many toys in advertising (especially on television) transmit, through their use, roles or stereotypes of sexist content. Dolls with girls, cars with boys. Cleaning with girls, building games with boys, etc., etc.
The sad ranking is led by the Spanish division of Mattel, which includes products reported as Miracle Baby Doll or Barbie in the 12 dancing princesses. Polly or Nenuco do not get rid of stereotypes. In addition, in the announcements, in a transversal way, mothers are generally seen as supervisors and responsible for family education, while the figure of the father usually goes unnoticed.
It is not a trivial matter: the advertising bombardment that children receive (all, but they are more vulnerable) gradually instills those sexist images that are seen as natural.
We can all participate in these complaints of ads that seem discriminatory. The Andalusian Observatory of Non-Sexist Advertising presents on its website a form that we can fill out and send online to send our complaints.
Many will not fall in a sack: after receiving the complaints, the Andalusian Women's Institute, on which the observatory depends, contacted 127 companies, of which 25 percent committed to modify or withdraw the campaigns. That this begins to change is, therefore, in the hands of all.
