Outrage has sparked after Marks & Spencer’s sexist window display in Nottingham. What bugs me is that reports are saying feminists are outraged, yet I believe this reaches more than the fury of just a feminist.
I wouldn’t consider myself a feminist but I did feel a sting of annoyance at the way the underwear is being marketed in the window display of such a respectable shop.
Quite frankly, I have no issue to the marketing of lingerie, we see a lot more nudity walking past Ann Summers on the high street.
And I do believe people get a kick out of finding new things to be angry about.
But problems arise when marketing makes women appear derogatory and inferior and I think that the M&S window display has set marketing back in time.
The juxtaposition of men and women in the same window display gives the impression that female progression over recent years has counted for nothing.
The window display can be interpreted that men impress by being fully dressed in a suit, however, a woman is to be sexualised.
M&S should not have used the ‘must-have’ marketing strategy that so many companies use. The main issue is that it is not just underwear which is a ‘must-have’, but it is ‘fancy little knickers’.
What’s worse is the timing of all this considering the recent rape trial in Northern Ireland where a man was found not guilty of rape shortly after evidence suggested that the teenage girl’s choice of underwear proposed she had consented to sex.
M&S clearly did not give much thought to the distasteful wording promoting women’s lingerie, and I hope that underwear is, in fact, a must-have for both men and women all year round.
Would there have been such a national outrage if it was a man being sexualised in the same manner? Tell us your thoughts in the comments or on our socials!
By Katie Sharman